Commission approves telephonic participation

January 21, 2010

Just two weeks after the Office of New Mexico’s Attorney General found the Valencia County Commission violated a state open government law, commissioners have taken action to bring the county into compliance with the law in the future.

The commission unanimously approved a resolution last night allowing commissioners to participate in commission meetings by conference telephone should a commissioner be unable to attend a meeting in person.

During three summer meetings last year, three commissioners participated in meetings by telephone without the commission having explicitly authorized it in a resolution, which is a requirement of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act (OMA).

The new resolution isn’t retroactive and won’t remedy the previous violations but will keep the commission safe from similar violations at least for the next year.

The attorney general office’s determination of those three previous violations remains in question, however, with Commissioner Pedro Rael questioning last week whether or not the attorney general’s review of the facts was incomplete.

“I disagree with the statements of the attorney general, which are under reconsideration right now,” Rael reiterated last night.

Part of the confusion is because the office concludes in the first paragraph of its letter that the commission violated OMA four times but later in the letter clearly indicates there were only three violations, saying the commission “avoided” a violation in the fourth instance.

Posted in: Reform