Initial recommendations by the task force studying New Mexico’s public records law include creating a public portal for traffic accident reports and charging out-of-state requesters for police body camera footage.
Members of the Inspection of Public Records Act Task Force sent a five-page letter Thursday to two legislative committees, summarizing 11 changes they believe the state should consider to improve the sunshine law. The letter was published on the New Mexico Department of Justice’s website Friday morning, but all references to it had disappeared by 5:30 p.m.
New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Executive Director Christine Barber said the organization, which had a representative on the panel, did not expect the letter to be made public this week. She said she wasn’t immediately prepared to comment Friday on the recommendations.
The proposed changes are rooted in part in public comments gathered across a spring listening tour that took the task force — convened through legislation that passed earlier this year — from Clovis to Carlsbad.
During the tour, records custodians and employees of state government agencies characterized ever-increasing records requests — particularly those from people in other states — as difficult to keep up with, while journalists and others who frequently seek records urged the task force not to limit public access protections afforded by the law.
Some records custodians, noting their offices are overwhelmed by requests, decried what they described as “abuses” of IPRA and lawsuits accusing government agencies of failing to comply with law. Some said such lawsuits are ploys for financial gain.
A handful of the recommendations made public Friday had been approved unanimously by the task force’s eight members — but several were not.
Attorney and board member Greg Williams, appointed by the nonprofit Foundation for Open Government, opposed two of them: one asking the state Legislature to establish an IPRA ombudsman or similar office to assist both records requesters and custodians, and one suggesting the Legislature create a list of factors courts can consider when awarding financial penalties in a civil case and determining whether a custodian’s denial of a request is “unreasonable.”
Lalita Moskowitz, a staff attorney appointed to the task force by the New Mexico chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, opposed four of the recommendations, including the two Williams opposed.
Moskowitz also opposed “a coordinated review of the Children’s Code, victims’ rights statutes, and IPRA-related confidentiality provisions to strengthen and clarify protections for children and vulnerable victims,” as well as a proposal to charge out-of-state records requesters for the review and redaction of law enforcement body camera footage.
The latter recommendation would require any funds collected to “be dedicated to increasing resources for IPRA compliance and proactive transparency, including staffing, technology, training and redaction capabilities,” according to the letter, which was sent to the interim legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee and the Legislative Finance Committee.
The provision would allow agencies to take into account factors such as victims’ rights, extreme poverty, whether a person is homeless and “legitimate newsgathering” to determine whether a person making a records request has “legitimate interest” in New Mexico records.
It is not clear how the residency or interest of a person making a request would be determined, although some people floated identification requirements during the task force’s tour.
Neither Moskowitz nor Maria Archuleta, a spokesperson for the ACLU of New Mexico, was available for comment Friday.
Other recommendations outlined in the task force’s letter include:
- Implementing standardized, statewide reporting of public records and IPRA program data to a single location; New Mexico Municipal League appointee Rebecca Martinez opposed it.
- Expanding the amount and content of IPRA training following a deeper review of records custodians’ needs and the state Department of Justice’s training budget; Walker Boyd, standing in for New Mexico Association of Counties appointee Michael Eshleman, opposed it.
- Creating and funding a credentialing program in public records law, whether through a state agency or in partnership with a New Mexico university.
- Increasing funding to digitize public records.
- Identifying types of records that could be published proactively without redaction and, separately, pursuing a public-facing portal allowing people to obtain their own traffic accident reports.
- Establishing a grant program to help government agencies purchase records management and redaction software.
- Requiring a requester to respond to a custodian’s good-faith request for payment of fees authorized under IPRA within a specified timeline, or the request may be closed.
The letter is not the final report required by the joint memorial and does not contain the full scope of the task force’s recommendations.
The final report will be sent to the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee and the Legislative Finance Committee by Oct. 15, and the task force is set to hold another meeting Friday.
