Kokopelli Ranch wins big; Tech must cough up documents

On Tuesday, July 29th, at Socorro's County Courthouse, Judge Kevin Swazea presided over the arguments. Lawyers from the firm of Lewis and Roca represented the owners of Kokopelli Ranch; the Kokopelli Ranch is located adjacent to the proposed EMRTC drop zone. Kokopelli's lawyers argued for the release of all documents related to the proposed drop zone near Socorro. Lawyers hired by NM Tech, from the Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Akin & Robb firm, argued that only "final contracts" are public records subject to release, with any and all other documents exempt.

Judge Swazea patiently listened to both sides before concluding that the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act in fact favors the public's right to know and that Tech's claim that only final contracts are public records contradicts the law. Consequently, Judge Swazea ordered New Mexico Tech and EMRTC to produce all the documents requested by Kokopelli Ranch. In so ruling, Judge Swazea upheld a key tenet of democracy: that the workings of government and state-funded institutions such as universities should be open to public review. It would seem that Judge Swazea and New Mexico's state legislature believe that secrecy is for dictatorships, not democracies.

Citizens applaud ruling

Many citizens have expressed their pleasure with the ruling, including persons who had requested - and been denied - access to the records related to the proposed drop zone. It would seem that any other groups who may have been preparing suits of their own against NM Tech may now find it unnecessary to sue. That is, unless NM Tech and EMRTC decide to appeal the recent ruling, at which point the lawsuits may once again start to roll in.

Monopoly Money?

New Mexico Tech and EMRTC spent a pretty penny trying to defend their seemingly indefensible position in court, arguing that New Mexico Tech and EMRTC are essentially immune from the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, or at least immune to the extent that only final signed contracts should have to be released to the public. Tech's cavalier attitude toward spending money on attorney's fees makes one wonder whether the NM Tech administration views taxpayer and tuition dollars as "monopoly money" without any real value.

The faculty, staff, and students at Tech may wonder why the thousands of dollars - probably tens of thousands of dollars after you factor in the attorney's fees that Tech will no doubt be required to pay to Kokopelli Ranch - couldn't have been spent on something more useful like education. Perhaps Dr. Daniel Lopez, Dr. John Meason, and Dr. Van Romero should remember a key point about New Mexico Tech: it's a state-funded university with a mission to educate students. One wonders whether Dr. Lopez, Dr. Romero, and Dr. Meason would have defended this lawsuit if the money to pay the lawyers' fees came out of their own pockets.

Stay tuned

Socorro News is committed to full disclosure of the workings of government and state-funded institutions, at all levels, including EMRTC and New Mexico Tech. As soon as documents become available, we will make them available to our readers. Stay tuned.

For further reading

The full text of the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act can be found here.