APS; "practicing" waste

One wouldn't think the APS has to "practice" wasting money,
but they do.

Blogger and photojournalist Mark Bralley and I filed with the APS, a couple of requests for public records. We are investigating irregularities surrounding the gubernatorial debate ranging from needlessly empty seats to civil rights violations.

APS Custodian of Public Records Rigo Chavez surrendered about 400 pages of records today.

According to the Compliance Guide, link, published by the Office of the NM Attorney General,

B. COPY FEES
A records custodian may charge reasonable fees for copying public records. ... Unless otherwise allowed by law, any fee charged by a public body may reflect only the actual cost of copying, ..." (emphasis added)

If Chavez is to be believed, the charge he levies, 50 cents per page, represents APS' "actual cost".

Therefore, the stack of paperwork in front of us today, cost taxpayers $200.00. APS could have bought maybe four textbooks for the money he spent making needless copies.

Rather allow ourselves to be ripped off by paying almost ten times the going rate for copies, we ran them through a scanner instead.

We have no further need for the $200.00 worth of copies he made. The APS will now pay to dispose of the paper, raising the cost to taxpayers even further.

We asked Chavez to surrender the records in electronic format; send them to us directly in electronic format, rather than sending them, needlessly, to a copier instead.

He refused.

When asked why, he explained; "It is not our practice."

It is also not his practice to use the return receipt function on emails to acknowledge that he has received them.

It is also not his practice to respond to any request by email, preferring instead to spend more tax dollars and time using snail mail.

There is no rule, no regulation, no policy which requires him to print copies of public records, or refuse to acknowledge email requests, or to use email instead of snail mail. He does so, simply because that is his "practice."

His "practices" serve no good and ethical purpose. In fact, they serve only one purpose; to harass people who file requests for public records from the leadership of the APS, by making the process as cumbersome as it can be made.

He brings a whole new meaning to the term; "public servant."

Speaking of wasting resources, Bralley and I were greeted within moments of our arrival at Chavez' office by the leadership of the APS Praetorian Guard; a Deputy Chief, a Lieutenant, and a Sergeant who demanded;

"Weren't you given a letter telling you to stay out of this building?

I informed him;

"No, as a matter of fact I was not. I have been banned from school board meetings, and this is not a school board meeting."

"Oh", he acknowledged, and they left; looking, I would suppose, for donuts, or perhaps for other dissidents to harass.

More money wasted, as is their "practice".




photo Mark Bralley