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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Editorial: Shut Doors Keep Public in Dark

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    What part of "public" don't these public officials understand?
    The state Environment Department was so irritated that an advocacy group had the gall to ask to see a consultant's report on Sandia National Laboratories' mixed waste dump that it sued. And that was after the Attorney General's Office had said the report was a public record.
    The agency's reason for refusing to disclose the document? "Executive privilege."
    To a lot of people that sounds like "cover-up"— and it is fascinating coming from a Democratic administration in Santa Fe that criticizes the tactic when used by the Republican White House.
    Fortunately, New Mexico Attorney General Gary King isn't content to sit this one out. On Wednesday, the AG's Office filed a motion to intervene in the case, on the side of the advocacy group.
    The Environment Department could be absolutely correct that radioactive and other waste buried in Sandia's dump is better left undisturbed than dug up and moved as the advocacy group insists.
    But the public is entitled to know what the consultant found under the dirt and entitled to ask without being slapped down with a lawsuit.
    The pre-emptive legal strike, launched by the Environment Department and defended by Secretary Ron Curry, is one of several in recent months.
    Rio Rancho Public Schools filed a similar lawsuit against the Journal after the newspaper asked for the names of applicants for high school football coach. The city of Gallup took a similar tack in response to a request from KRQE-13 for police records in the bizarre case of Bishop Donald Pelotte.
    It is a tactic designed to discourage people from asking for records, and it is an abuse of the taxpayers who pay for these pre-emptive secrecy campaigns.
    The public should appreciate King's willingness to take a stand, as he has done on other open-government issues including the Rio Rancho City Council's breakfast-club firing of City Manager Jim Palenick. The AG says the firing is null and void because it violated the state's Open Meetings Act— which could cost the city more than $100,000 in back pay.