Looking for an explanation from city officials on a $10.96 million budget for next year that shows spending exceeding revenues by $614,704?
Look somewhere else.
Want to know for sure whether the city’s understaffed Police Department really hired a former Santa Fe police official as its new deputy chief?
Good luck with that.
A new city policy issued May 14 bans interviews with media reporters and instead directs all inquiries related to city business to be put in writing to an employee who does not exist.
The purpose of the policy is to “assure that City employees are able to perform their job duties without distraction from ad hoc media inquiries and to ensure that responses to media inquiries are timely, correct and accurate,” a statement faxed to the SUN and other media outlets states. The policy goes on to state that the city will provide responses to all inquiries in writing, usually within 24 hours.
When visiting City Hall, reporters are to sign in with a yet-to-be hired “deputy clerk/information officer.” The city is currently advertising for that position, but none of the applicants have experience in public relations, according to their resumes.
The policy does not clarify who will respond to inquiries before that person is hired.
“Members of the media are not permitted greater access to City staff offices than that provided to citizens with business to conduct with the city,” the policy states.
A sign-in sheet at the entrance of City Hall is frequently unattended, and residents often wander the hallways, inquiring about issues ranging from broken water meters to ditch association meetings in Hernandez with employees in unrelated departments.
New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Director Leonard DeLayo said Española is the only city in New Mexico he knows of with such a policy.
“Basically, it’s unconstitutional,” DeLayo said. “It’s freedom of speech — you can’t block somebody from responding to the press and you can’t bar the press from asking questions.”
Legalities aside, the policy flies in the face of open government, DeLayo said.
“It goes against concept of transparency in government, basically trying to impose censorship, which this country doesn’t like,” he said. “As far as a blanket ban, in preventing you from going to city hall as a citizen, it’s just wrong.”
As for the argument that questions from reporters take away from employees’ time: “that’s the public’s time, they’re public employees,” DeLayo said.
Some councilors, however, supported the policy.
“I think to protect itself from the Rio Grande SUN, yeah, (the city needs the policy),” District 3 Councilor Chayo Garcia said. “You’ll still be getting the information.”
Garcia cited a September 2008 SUN report on former Rio Arriba County Democratic Party Chair Theresa Martinez and Sen. Richard Martinez’s (D-Española) divorce proceedings, saying the story was one-sided because the SUN never called either Martinez for comment. A SUN reporter called both parties multiple times over the course of a week for that story, and neither returned calls.
District 1 Councilor Danielle Duran praised the policy in an e-mail to Acting City Manager Veronica Albin.
“I’m glad you’ve finally put in place a logical media policy,” Duran wrote. “We have every right to ensure that information going out of City Hall is correct.”
Others were not so convinced the policy is a good idea.
“What about freedom of speech?” District 1 Councilor Dennis Tim Salazar asked. “I have to study it more, but I’m not so sure about it.”
Mayor Pro Tem Alice Lucero said the city might need “some sort of policy,” particularly one requiring visitors to sign in.
“But I don’t like this ‘going through one person’ bit with the spokesman,” she said. “You should be able to speak to the appropriate person about the issue. It seems like a control issue to me.
An attempt by the city to lay down a similar policy in mid-2006 — shortly after Mayor Joseph Maestas was elected mayor and Chris Rainwater began his short-lived tenure as city manager — fizzled out within months.
Employees said at the time that policy was accompanied by a gag order barring staff from speaking to reporters, which Maestas reportedly issued verbally during a city-wide staff meeting.
Maestas denied having issued a gag order, despite nearly unanimous reports to the contrary from employees.
Maestas did not return calls for comment. Maestas and his slate of councilors, which included Duran, promised an open government when they were elected to office in 2006.
The new policy comes as the city prepares a $10.96 million budget for fiscal year 2010.
Asked for an appointment to discuss the budget, and to confirm whether Police Chief Julian Gonzales hired former Santa Fe deputy police chief Raye Byford as Española’s deputy chief, Albin responded that questions would be addressed in writing only. Albin later granted an interview Thursday (5/28) morning, two days after the SUN’s publishing deadline for the current issue, and ignored a subsequent request for a Tuesday meeting.
“See, she should sit down and discuss that with you,” Lucero said. “That’s something she and her staff have to do.”