Bernalillo County’s “Burdensome” IPRA Issue

Remember the battle over mandatory paid leave in Bernalillo County? We do.

Back on June 21, 2019 the Rio Grande Foundation filed the following request for public records including:

All records of Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins, Debbie O’Malley, and Charlene Pyskotty including, but not limited to emails, text messages, notes and voicemails occurring between March 1, 2019 and June 21, 2019 that include any of the following keywords:

Paid Sick Leave

• PSL
• Sick Leave
• June 25
• May 14
• June 11
• Defer
• Deferral
• OLE’
• OLE
• El Centro

Paid leave passed the Commission on August 19 and we’re still waiting for the County to fulfill our request.

On August 9, 2019 the Rio Grande Foundation filed suit against Bernalillo County for violations of the Inspection of Public Records Act.

On August 21, 2019 we requested an update from the County: “Are any more records available, and if not are my IPRA cases closed?”

On September 11, 2019 the County sent the following email: “The County is currently conducting an additional search which turned up more emails, approximately 11,000, and will provide you a status update on or about September 26, 2019.”

September 26, 2019: “The County requires additional time to complete. The County will provide you a status update on or about October 11, 2019.”

We just received the following:

October 8, 2019: “As your Request continues to be broad and burdensome, the Bernalillo County requires additional time and will provide you a status update on October 23, 2019.”

Will the County ever offer up this information? What are they hiding?