AG to propose changes in open records law
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3/10/2008 -
Attorney General Gary King plans to ask the Legislature next year to update a New Mexico sunshine law providing access to public records.One change proposed by King will require governmental bodies to accept e-mail requests for documents under the Inspection of Public Records Act. Currently, the law is unclear whether e-mails are the same as a written request for public records, according to the Attorney General's Office.
"So what we're going to be working on is a total revamp of that part of the law so that it meets 21st century standards," King said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Last year, King's office issued an advisory opinion on the issue after New Mexico State University decided not to treat e-mail as a valid request for public records.
"I think that agencies, if they want to, can accept e-mail requests because you can print them out and turn them into a written request basically. But we just didn't think that the law required it," King said.
The Attorney General's Office and some other agencies accept e-mailed requests for public records.
"What we would like to do ... is be able to say that if you get an e-mail request for documents that you can also provide the documents by electronic means too," said King. "Frankly, for a lot of requesters, they might really like that. We might make it to a point where you don't have to show up at the door of a government agency to get your documents."
Another proposal by King is to add criminal penalties for some violations of the Inspection of Public Records Act. Currently, a court can award damages, costs and attorneys' fees to individuals for successful lawsuits to enforce the law after a public records request has been wrongly denied.
King said the proposed penalties would mirror those for a violation of the Open Meeting Act — making it a misdemeanor and punishable by a fine of up to $500 for each offense.
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government supports King's proposed revisions to the public records law, according to Leonard DeLayo, the foundation's executive director.
But he said: "We have constantly taken the position that e-mail is in fact a written request" under current law.
The attorney general also will ask the Legislature to require public disclosure of certain donors to university fundraising foundations. King's proposal would require donors who are soliciting contracts or doing business with the university to disclose their contributions. Those disclosures would be public records and could be obtained from the university. However, the nonprofit foundation would not be required to make a disclosure of its donors.
The issue arose last year, and King's office issued a nonbinding legal opinion concluding the nonprofit NMSU Foundation was not obligated under the open records law to release the name of its donors.
Lawmakers, the Las Cruces Sun-News and blogger Heath Haussamen, a former Sun-News reporter, had asked the Attorney General's Office whether the foundation was required to provide a list of its donors.
"Instead of putting the onus on the foundation, ... we're going to try to put some onus on the donor to do a disclosure if they're doing business with the public body that is related," King said.
King said he had hoped lawmakers could consider the sunshine law changes during this year's 30-day session of the Legislature, but Gov. Bill Richardson did not put the proposals on the legislative agenda. The governor narrowed the session's agenda this year to focus legislators on health care proposals.
