National Freedom of Information Day – March 16
I am especially supportive of the Inspection of Public Records Act in New Mexico, because many government agencies do not have a clue how to abide by this law. Yes, it is a law, NMSA 1978, 14-2. It was voted on by the New Mexico Legislature and signed into law by the Governor.
For a regular tax-payer, you don’t have to have a legal reason for information, in fact you need no reason. You just want to know. I started using IPRA because I wanted to know information about why my company was being passed up for lucrative government contracts in favor of out-of-state companies bidding the same or more. It didn’t seem right.
In my legal history, I had my first IPRA lawsuit, with a sizable settlement, by the New Mexico Public Education Department. My second lawsuit has moved on to the Court of Appeals because the judge in this case may be guilty of ignoring the law and doing all kinds of things that are just strange. This case against NMPED has been turned over to Thomas Grover, an attorney in Albuquerque, who has won other IPRA cases. My third case against NMPED, is getting ready to be filed by Thomas Grover too. It is important to have an attorney who knows IPRA and is experienced in defending it because it is a niche subject in the law.
Why care about IPRA? It is your right to know what the government is doing and how they spend your money. Frankly, the penalty against government agencies is too small to prevent them from violating IPRA, but it is a start. It is also important that news agencies be allowed the information and not have to play games with government agencies.
In a perfect world, we would not have to go through this to protect our rights and have government agencies follow the law, but right now they don’t - so you have to. The world is far from perfect. Go to the Attorney General of New Mexico’s website: www.nmag.gov and click on Open Meetings on the right side and then click on Inspection of Public Records Act. The law is there for you to read and print out. Don’t be screwed by your own government!
Barbe Awalt