Is "scanning" a hard copy of a public record, really "creating a new record"?

I have made a Public Records Request of the APS under the auspices of the NM IPRA.

I have asked that copies of those public records be emailed to me per the resolution of a previous complaint over their refusal cooperate with my absolutely justified reticence to present myself at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

I have asked that they be emailed to me as opposed to requiring me to show up anywhere near APS' Executive Director of Communications and slanderer Monica Armenta.

APS Director of Communications Rigo Chavez has the records I have requested, in his hands.

They are records of the contracts that have been let in the cost is no object legal defense against the complaints I filed against them in federal court.

Chavez responds; not only does he "not have a scanner", even if he did, he couldn't be required by the law to use it to "create a new record".

So why won't Rigo Chavez extend to the people,
the simple courtesy of having someone scan the records?
It would be faster and cheaper than time he spent explaining that he had no intention to scan and email records.

In the first place, don't blame Rigo Chavez.
He does what he's told or, he "does" somewhere else.

He and everyone else working at 6400 Uptown Blvd,
exist in what independent examiners have repeatedly identified as a culture of fear of retaliation against whistleblowers.

Blame whomever who told Chavez to obfuscate the production, and to draw me into the vicinity of Monica Armenta so she can invent more crap.

Blame whomever led Rigo Chavez to believe the best thing for him to do would be to respond to my request for public records, by writing;

With regard to your request for “contracts for services related to Case 1:12-cv-01137 (MacQuigg v. APS et al)., including by not limited to contracts for legal services,” to be provided to you via e-mail, I do not have electronic copies, so I cannot provide them to you via e-mail. And, under the NM Inspection of Public Records Act does not require public bodies to create documents that do not exist in response to requests: “(NMSA 14-2-8) Procedure for Requesting Records, B. Nothing in the Inspection of Public Records Act shall be construed to require a public body to create a public record.” Further, according to the “New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act Compliance Guide (Seventh Edition – 2012 (Page 32))” put out by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office, “The right to inspect applies to any nonexempt public record that exists at the time of the request. A records custodian or public body is not required to compile information from the public body’s records or otherwise create a new public record in response to a request.”

Just because it's legal,
just because you can get away with it,
doesn't make it right.




photo Mark Bralley