Yes, MILLIONS of dollars!
A lawsuit, Rachell Hochheim vs Rachel Burks, Records Custodian for Alamogordo Public Schools, was filed in District Court. This particular lawsuit and two additional lawsuits involve the Inspection of Public Records Act.” NMSA 14-2-12(D). Rachell Hochheim was employed by Alamogordo Public Schools as a principal at HAFB. Rachel Burks is listed as the Legal Liaison on the APS website. She is also referred to as the Records Custodian. Her position is responsible for responding to each IPRA within the designated time. Ms Burks’s supervisor is Colleen Tagle, whose current title is Deputy Superintendent of Support Services/Title IX Coordinator. Tagle is responsible for ALL of the support services and IPRA responses. There are 27 ignored or refused IPRAs as “excessively burdensome and/or broad” so additional time was needed to respond. No response was ever received.
In the Sharon Scott vs Board of Education of Alamogordo Public School District #1 and Rachel Burks, as Records Custodian for the Alamogordo Public Schools’ lawsuit involved multiple complaints including “fiscal improprieties, mistreatment of personnel and policy/Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”) violations” and “improper acts, such as ‘mismanagement and waste of funds.’” In addition, there was a lack of responses to IPRA requests. Ms Scott was a Human Resources professional and therefore knows what is required, laws, and regulations for compliance. Colleen Tagle was initially employed in the Human Resources department at APS and dealt with the documents and data and knows they are available.
And yet again, in the lawsuit Flickinger Center for the Performing Arts and Lorrie Black vs Board of Education of Alamogordo Public School District, Dr Kenneth Moore as Superintendent and Rachel Burks as Records Custodian, there are more non-responsive IPRA requests. “Under IPRA, ‘The court shall award damages, costs, and reasonable attorneys’ fees to any person whose written request has been denied and is successful in a court action to enforce the provisions of the Inspection of Public Records Act.” NMSA 14-2-12(D). The incomplete or unanswered IPRA requests are listed in paragraphs 21 and 105-107 in the above lawsuit.
It is stated, “The requester may deem the request denied and may pursue the remedies available pursuant to the Inspection of Public Records Act [14-2-4 NMSA 1978] if the custodian does not permit the records to be inspected in a reasonable periods of time.” NM stat 14-2-10 (2021). To date, it has been over a year since the requests were submitted, and 45 of Plaintiff Hochheim’s requests are still outstanding or have received incomplete responses.”
The statutory damages for violation of the Inspection of Public Records Act is $100.00 per day from the date of denial.
What is an IPRA and why is it important enough to have statutory damages if not answered? An IPRA is New Mexico’s version of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Everyone has the right to request information from our government entities to ensure the transparency of its communications, contemplations, financial transactions, and decisions, to name a few. The government is not supposed to operate in secret. There are a few items that cannot be revealed such as personal identification information, date of birth, social security number, or other protected items. Under that scenario, the information will be redacted. The government entity also does not have to create a document with the requested information but every effort should be made to provide the requested material through other means.
When an IPRA request is submitted, the receiving entity has 3 days to respond with the information or state it may take up to 15 days. In extreme situations, the materials may be sent to the requestor in batches. The requestor needs to be informed of how and when the information will be received. Since most operational data is in electronic form, it can be sent electronically without any cost to the requestor. If not, the requestor will be notified the needed materials may be examined at a location. The other option is to have hard copies made. This comes with a charge. Many entities have several software programs specific to a department’s needs therefore making it available in electronic form. IPRAs cannot be ignored or falsely denied without a financial penalty to the entity not responding.
The above-mentioned IPRA requests have not been provided with a full response and in many cases no response was provided. The amount of time elapsed between the request and filing of these lawsuits is over a year in each instance. With the 3 lawsuits, there are approximately 76 incomplete or ignored IPRA requests that are over a year each. For just 1 IPRA that is not answered for a year is a $36,500 fine. There are 76 IPRAs that would bring the total to $2,774,000.00 in statutory damages at the time of filing.
It is difficult to believe that Alamogordo Public Schools and the School Board would be so unconcerned as to allow this. If APS has so much money to waste, why do they want more through Bond Issues? Colleen Tagle is over all records because of the function of her title. If additional help is needed to respond to these IPRAs, Ms Tagle should work her “creative funding” to bring in additional workers.
Questions. Does Tagle determine which IPRAs get a response? Is there a pattern to the subject matter of the requests that do not receive a response? Since Ms Tagle was in charge of Human Resources when she came to work at APS, she should be familiar with what information is available since it apparently is a requirement of that department in order to comply. Ms Tagle should also be familiar with NM PED, CBA, and Human Resources policies and procedures. What is really going on?
Our community deserves government entities that are responsive to the taxpayers, parents, teachers, and employees. This is not happening. This exemplifies an arrogance of control and secrecy and not of elected officials who are responsive to issues presented to them. They have forgotten they work for us. If you take our money, you MUST be accountable! They are not RULERS but apparently they think so. Elected officials have a responsibility to interact WITH the public. They think they are above “the uneducated” and are far too clever for the community. Do they even care?
The School Board is responsible for the overall operation of the schools plus supervising their one employee – the Superintendent.
Elections for the APS School Board will be coming up soon. Do not forget this information when the time comes to vote in November.
If you have any information, stories, or tips, please email Blake.Henry@AlamogordoSentinel.com
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