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New Mexico Foundation for Open Government CLE 

$200 for FOG Members

$250 for Nonmembers

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PUBLIC ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT:

Opening the Doors to Records, Meetings and Courtrooms in New Mexico

New Mexico Foundation for Open Government

Continuing Legal Education

May 2, 2014

 At the Albuquerque Journal, 7777 Jefferson St. NE

Albuquerque, NM 

8:30 AM: Registration

9 – 10:15 AM: Recent Developments and Selected Hot Topics Under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act. Presented by Greg Williams and Karen Moses

• Current problems obtaining police and incident reports
  • Officer involved shootings
  • Difficulty getting internal investigations—was officer disciplined or not
  • Access to CYFD files
  • Access to electronic files – Metropolitan Court
  • Reasonable charges for electronic files and redacted files

10:15 – 10:30 AM: Break

10:30 – 11:45 AM:  Continued: Recent Cases and Legislative Update Under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.  Presented by Charles “Kip” Purcell and Chuck Peiffer

• HSD Audit and Law Enforcement Exception
  • Status of case, simultaneous lawsuits.
  • AG’s piecemeal release of audit
  • Increased use of law enforcement exception
•  Current issues from the field
  • Update on 2014 session—Webcasting and one-stop portal for new businesses 
  • What’s ahead in the 2015 legislature 
  • Exceptions for City manager applicants
  • Expansion of Sunshine Portal
  • Limiting information in accident reports

 

11:45 – 1:00 Lunch

1:00-2:00 PM:  Electronic records and remedies under IPRA. Presented by Dan Yohalem.

• Email and public records  
  • Public accounts vs. private accounts; Who is the records custodian? 
  • Remedies under IPRA 
    • Pending lawsuits against Governor
    • Update on Faber v. King.

2:00 – 2:45 PM: Open meetings issues. Presented by Greg Williams.

• Open meetings

• How much detail in agenda notices?
• Does a social event or informational site visit constitute a meeting?
•  How much discussion of items not on agenda?
• Personnel matters with reasonable specificity
• Is a litigation committee exempt from compliance with OMA?

• Closed meetings

2:45-3 PM:  Break

3:00—3:45 PM:  First amendment, open courtrooms and other issues in regard to access. Presented by Martin Esquivel and Greg Williams

• How to maintain order without infringing on constituents’ constitutional rights 
• Who has access to public comment period? Time restrictions? What about NMAPA hearings? 
• Do photographers have access to public meetings, legislative committee hearings? 

• Opening up the courtroom

• State V. Turietta
• State v. Hood

3:45-4:45 PM: Open Government, Ethics and Professionalism. Presented by Martin Esquivel and Hal Stratton

• The view from the office of a public official
• Working for the government in the real world: balancing politics with professionalism
• Navigating ethical issues for attorneys advising public bodies

Faculty

Martin Esquivel has extensive litigation and trial experience in 23 years of practice after graduating from the University of New Mexico School of Law. He practices in the areas of civil rights, employment law, school law, media law, medical malpractice, personal injury and corporate law matters. Mr. Esquivel has tried many cases in state court as well as the United States District Court and successfully argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and New Mexico Court of Appeals.  He is widely known for his work in the area of the First Amendment where he has represented numerous newspapers and television stations in matters ranging from defamation to rights of access to public records and government proceedings.  In 2007, he has been listed as one of the Best Lawyers in America in the area of First Amendment law.  He is a solo practitioner and is of counsel to Basham & Basham, P.C.

 

Charles R. Peifer is a partner at Peifer, Hanson & Mullins, P.A. where he practices commercial litigation and media law.  Many years ago, as the Chief Assistant in the Office of the New Mexico Attorney General he supervised the work of the 30 lawyers in the Attorney General's four civil law divisions and represented executive agencies and members of the judiciary in the State Supreme Court. Before joining the Attorney General's Office, he practiced at Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Akin & Robb, P.A. Chuck is an honors graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and a magna cum laude graduate of Cornell Law School.  He served as a member of the Supreme Court of New Mexico's Committee on Uniform Jury Instructions for Civil Cases from 1995-2003 and chaired that Committee from 2004 - 2007.   He has served as an adjunct faculty member for the University of New Mexico’s Law School Evidence and Trial Practice Program. He is a member of the board of directors of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government and a past president of the organization.

Charles “Kip” Purcell is a director at the Rodey Law Firm with extensive experience in media law, legal malpractice, appellate litigation, and general litigation. Before joining the firm, Mr. Purcell was law clerk to the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was also a member of the Harvard Law Review from 1982 to 1984, and was executive editor of that journal from 1983 to 1984. He has achieved the highest Martindale-Hubbell rating, and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America for his expertise in appellate practice law, Bet-the-Company litigation, commercial litigation, legal malpractice law-defendants, litigation-First Amendment and medical malpractice law-defendants. He is a past president of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government.

Karen Moses is the managing editor editor of the Albuquerque Journal, and has been in the news business for more than 35 years. A graduate of the University of New Mexico with a BA in journalism, she began her newspaper career at Pioneer Press covering the northern suburbs of Chicago. She then moved to Gallup, where she was Regional Editor at the Gallup Independent, before joining the Albuquerque Journal 1981. After holding numerous positions in various departments in the newsroom, she became managing editor in 2001. Moses is a member of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Board of Directors and the New Mexico Press Association Board of Directors. She is a past president of NMPA.

Gregory P. Williams has more than 16 years of litigation experience, with a special focus on media law and governmental entity defense. He is a member and former President of the board of directors of the Alumni Association of the University of New Mexico School of Law and a member of the executive committee of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. Before joining Peifer, Hanson & Mullins, P.A., he practiced at Dines & Gross, P.C. He has degrees from Princeton University (B.A. 1991) and the University of New Mexico (J.D. 1995). While at the University of New Mexico, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the New Mexico Law Review.

Daniel Yohalem has been engaged in the practice of public interest law for the past 35 years, first in Washington, D.C. and then in New Mexico. He is currently in private practice, representing plaintiffs in First Amendment, civil rights, open government and other areas. Yohalem, who received his B.A. from Yale (1970) and J.D. from Columbia University Law School (1973), has litigated and supervised complex cases at every level of the Federal and State court systems. He has served as Chief Legal Counsel for the NM Taxation and Revenue Department, Chief of the Civil Division of the NM AG's Office, member of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Board since 1998 (President from 2002-2003), and co-founder and Vice President of the Santa Fe Neighborhood Law Center Board of Directors.

Harold D. “Hal” Stratton, Jr.  practices law with the Albuquerque office of the Denver based western regional law firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP. In addition to a career in the private practice of law, he has served in the New Mexico House of Representatives (1979–86), as the Attorney General of New Mexico (1987–1990) and as the Chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (2002–2006). He received his bachelor’s degree in geology and his juris doctorate degree from the University of Oklahoma where he was a member of the American Indian Law Review. In 2000, Stratton, along with economist and former economics professor, Harry Messenheimer, founded the Rio Grande Foundation (RGF). The RGF was founded as an academic free market think tank to provide economic research for decisionmakers in New Mexico.

 

 

 

Register now for the third annual New Mexico Foundation for Open Government CLE. PUBLIC ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT: Opening the doors to public records, open meetings and courtroom access. For attorneys, paralegals, public officials and citizens. Approved for 6 continuing education credits including 1 ethics credit.

Register Now!