AG scolds LVCS for multiple violations of records law
Las Vegas City Schools illegally withheld documents and charged unlawful fees for access to public records, according to a determination letter issued Jan. 27 by the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General.
The OAG’s determination was issued in response to multiple violations of New Mexico’s Inspection of Public Records Act, or IPRA, reported to the OAG by Robertson High School volleyball coach Stacy Fulgenzi.
In the determination letter, Assistant Attorney General John Kreienkamp called Fulgenzi’s allegations of IPRA violations “well-founded.”
“The District violated IPRA in several respects,” Kreienkamp wrote. “The extent of these violations of the law raises enormous concerns as to the District’s conduct and decision-making process.”
Fulgenzi first filed a records request under IPRA on Oct. 28, 2019, days after she was placed on administrative leave for reasons the district has not publicly stated. Fulgenzi told the Optic that, to date, the district has not provided her with a specific reason either.
“I just want the truth to come out. It’s been a very difficult three months for me,” Fulgenzi said. “I’m fighting for everything that I’ve worked for my entire life.”
In October, LVCS Superintendent Larryssa Archuleta told the Optic the decision to place Fulgenzi on leave was a “personnel matter” and declined to comment further.
In response to a request for comment on this story, Archuleta said in an email, “Las Vegas City Schools is a district who adheres to requirements and is committed to doing so.”
Following Fulgenzi’s initial request for records, LVCS stated it would respond by Nov. 12, according to the OAG.
However, on Nov. 12, the district wrote Fulgenzi and said her request was “unduly burdensome” and that the district would respond again by Nov. 27. As that date approached, the district set a new deadline of Dec. 4, but later pushed that deadline to Dec. 11.
In a letter to Fulgenzi on Dec. 12, the district stated it was prepared to provide her with 889 pages of records, and stated she would be charged a total of $143.54 — 10 cents per page for copies, plus $56.64 in additional fees. LVCS said the additional $56.64 was added to cover “the amount of time required to make and organize the copies.” The letter further stated the fee would cover two hours of pay for an executive assistant to prepare the copies.
According to Melanie Majors, director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, agencies are not allowed to charge administration fees because taxpayer money has already paid for the equipment used to produce the copies, as well as the salary of the person tasked with preparing those copies.
“There can be a charge for the actual record, but (the law) is very clear there can be no charge for the research or to make copies,” Majors said.
In the determination letter, Kreienkamp also chided the district for these extra fees and noted that while IPRA allows agencies to charge copying fees of up to $1 per printed page, the costs associated with providing printed copies of records are “wrapped into the per-page fee.”
“To charge her a per-page fee and an additional personnel cost fee was both duplicative and unreasonable. It represented a plain violation (of the law),” Kreienkamp wrote.
Aside from the illegal extra fees, the district failed to provide Fulgenzi with all the records she’d requested, the OAG determined.
LVCS wrote Fulgenzi numerous times throughout December.
One time, the district said it had “inadvertently overlooked” and withheld several pages of records.
LVCS later cited “inadvertent oversight” for its failure to account for another 264 pages of records, and on another occasion, the district wrote to say it was still processing an additional “unknown number” of records.
In the determination letter, Kreienkamp urged the district to re-evaluate its approach to IPRA, and to dedicate itself to complying with the law.
“In view of the numerous other complaints our Office has received from other members of the public alleging that the District has violated IPRA, we are alarmed as to the District’s apparent disregard for its statutory obligations,” Kreienkamp wrote. “To be clear, the District is obligated by law to fulfill public records requests.”
During its Jan. 16 meeting, the LVCS Board of Education discussed its IPRA policy, and Superintendent Archuleta expressed concerns about the time it took staff to prepare and fulfill IPRA requests.
Archuleta told the board that within one year, the district had received 10 IPRA requests. She did not elaborate on which year that was.
“I really think this is a gross abuse of policy,” Archuleta told the board.
The board discussed the possibility of raising the fee for copies to as much as $1 per page, as allowed by law, but asked Archuleta to prepare an amended IPRA policy and present it to the board at another time.
Additionally, the OAG ruled that LVCS had violated IPRA by not providing the public with details on the procedure for requesting documents under IPRA, and by not providing the public with the contact information for the public records custodian.
Fulgenzi said she appreciates the attention the AG’s office has given the matter, and urges others to learn more about their right to inspect public records.
“Several months ago, I wouldn’t even have known what an IPRA was,” Fulgenzi said. “I’m much more informed now. I know what my rights are as far as public records, and I think other people need to know that as well.”
