Board Violated Open Meetings Act

The New Mexico Attorney General’s office has ruled that the Bernalillo school district violated the law three times in 2010 by discussing, behind closed doors, the details of its search for a new superintendent.

On Thursday, the board adopted a resolution acknowledging the ruling and agreeing to fully comply with all requirements of the New Mexico Open Meetings Act.

A complaint alleging the violation was filed in April 2010 by current board president Olivia Calabaza, who was not president at that time.

Calabaza wrote that the board went into executive session March 18, March 23 and April 6 of 2010 to discuss “superintendent search issues.” The board had decided not to renew the contract of its superintendent at the time and was searching for a replacement.

In a Sept. 20 letter from assistant attorney general Mary H. Smith, she says the Bernalillo Public Schools board is guilty of violating the Open Meetings Act in the dates mentioned by Calabaza. She said the Open Meetings Act “does not authorize in executive session discussion of a job description for a new superintendent, the creation of a search committee, or the criteria the board will apply in conducting the search for a new superintendent.”

Calabaza said she told the board on those dates that she believed they were in violation of the law.

“I did speak up,” she said. “It fell on deaf ears.”

Bernalillo Mayor Jack Torres was president of the board when the violations occur. Torres, who was out of town Friday, said he did not immediately have access to those minutes and could not remember the specifics of what was discussed in executive session on those dates. He said he was aware of Calabaza’s official complaint and that the board had consulted its attorney and was told to re-post the “issues” that were discussed in executive session to the agenda and discuss them publicly, which he said was done at a later meeting.

“I don’t remember exactly what those things were,” he said. “But our attorney thought the prudent thing to do was to post them on the agenda and redo the items.”

Torres is no longer on the board.

Smith’s letter goes on to say the board violated the act in other ways including not adopting an Open Meetings Resolution every year, failing to make a statement after executive session saying the matters discussed were only those mentioned in the motion for closure and failing to accurately reflect in the minutes what discussions happened at the May 19 meeting.