Attorney general won’t rule on OMA complaint
January 28, 2010
According to a letter written by the Office of New Mexico’s Attorney General that was released today, the office won’t issue a determination on an open government complaint filed against the Valencia County Commission a year ago.
The complaint was filed in January 2009 by Valencia County News-Bulletin reporter Julia Dendinger. She questioned whether or not three commissioners violated the Open Meetings Act (OMA) when they met behind closed doors concerning mediation of the hospital lawsuit.
The act has 10 exceptions that allow a quorum of elected officials to meet behind closed doors. While potential or ongoing litigation is one of the exceptions, Dendinger argued the purpose of the closed session was not the hospital litigation itself.
“Basically, the chairman and two commissioners held a closed session to confer with the county attorneys to see if the commission could meet in closed session,” Dendinger wrote in her complaint.
The attorney general’s office dismissed the complaint on a technicality and at the request of county attorney David Pato, who argued Dendinger never expected a determination but simply wrote the complaint to bring the issue to the attention of the attorney general.
The office agreed and closed the case.
“We will continue to monitor any allegations that arise,” Tania Maestas, an assistant attorney general, wrote to Dendinger two weeks ago.
The attorney general’s office has closed cases before.
For example, an Inspection of Public Records Act complaint in another county was closed because the county complied with the records request while a determination was pending. Another time, an OMA complaint was closed because the person filing the complaint died before a determination was issued.
Earlier this month, the attorney general’s office determined those same three Valencia County commissioners in Dendinger’s complaint violated OMA three times last year, a determination under reconsideration, according to Commissioner Pedro Rael.