Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but it seems to work pretty well anyway

The most powerful elected official in New Mexico State Government and her minions have run afoul of the law. She, and they, will not be punished for so doing.

The New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act defines the term "public record" thus;

A “public record” is defined to include any document, tape or other material, regardless of form, that is used, created, received, maintained or held by or on behalf of a public body, and is related to public business.

Governor Susana Martinez, by and through her spokesperson Scott Darnell, has a different idea about what public records are, link;

“There is no law that prohibits the use of personal emails, but there are regulations that govern which email messages are public record and which are not,” Darnell said.

Darnell's statement implies that he has some actual knowledge of the state law; if he knows what the law doesn't say, it's reasonable to assume that he knows the law does say.

“Like the majority of legislators and other officials throughout the state, we occasionally communicate on personal emails when those communications are not considered public records.”

“... types of conversations that are in lieu of oral conversations ... would not be recorded and preserved, and that’s why state regulations do not require that these emails be maintained.”

Public business was done in private. Their excuse, that private emails are the equivalent of oral conversations, and that records of public business conducted orally, needn't be recorded or preserved is nonsense.

Martinez must have given some thought to that logic before running it out as their excuse.

It won't hold up in a court of law, but the point is moot, as they won't end up in a court of law to argue it.

Their excuse; their ignorance of the letter of the law, the spirit of the law, and the expressed will of the people, is serving its function; red herring. The discourse is about their lame excuse and not about the fact that the very best case scenario is; they managed to get around the law without breaking it, all in order to keep the public out of the loop on the spending of their power and resources.




photo Mark Bralley