September 3, 2016
Dear employees of the Open Government Division,
I write to ask your help with an IPRA request I filed for records that would aid my work for New
Mexico In Depth and its media partners. As always, the purpose of this work is to inform the
public about the workings of its government.
I believe the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission has violated the Inspection of Public
Records Act.
Copies of all the relevant documents are attached. The timeline below focuses solely on the
portions of the email conversations relevant to my IPRA request.
TIMELINE
August 3, 2016: I requested information from the ISC’s public information officer, Melissa
Dosher, concerning a presentation given by an ISC employee at a public meeting of the New
Mexico Central Arizona Project Entity. I was seeking the presentation itself and background data
and documentation that underpinned it.
Later that day, I realized it would be more appropriate to request the information under IPRA
and take advantage of the law’s response requirements. I sent the IPRA request to the ISC’s
public records custodian, Sonia Salazar, as well as to the chair of the NMCAPE, Darr Shannon.
I sent the request to Shannon as a courtesy; even though it was a NMCAPE meeting, the
presentation was given by an ISC staff member. Ms. Shannon replied right away that she had no
responsive documents.
That same day, the ISC’s Salazar responded. She included a link to the presentation on the
agency’s website and said the agency was “in the process of gathering additional background
documents.” She said she would contact me on August 8, regarding those documents.
August 5, 2016: I received an emailed letter saying the documents were ready and I could
receive them one of two ways: come to the Santa Fe office, sit at one of the agency’s computers,
and review the files I wished to copy; or pick up a flash drive with all the responsive documents
and pay the flat rate of $13.00.
My IPRA request specifically stated that I would like to receive the documents via email unless
the files were too large to send electronically.
I interpreted the agency’s response to mean that there were many responsive documents and
made an appointment to visit with Salazar.
August 16, 2016: I visited Santa Fe and asked Salazar to copy the documents onto a USB drive I
provided. Upon reviewing the documents, there were only four small files of one or two pages
each.

 August 24, 2016: Upon reviewing those documents and sharing them with two experts in the
field, I was unable to see how the ISC staffer could have reached conclusions presented to the
NMCAPE. I followed up with Salazar, who passed the request on to other staff members.
August 25, 2016: The ISC PIO responded via email to me, explaining where the presentation
numbers came from (additional documents, conversations, etc.)
August 30, 2016: I asked why those documents and notes were not included as responsive
documents to my original IPRA request. The PIO said she would talk with appropriate staff and
get back to me.
Even if the documents are eventually provided to me, I believe the ISC has violated IPRA by not
providing them in response to my August 3 IPRA request. Clearly the records described in the
ISC’s August 25 correspondence — records that still have not been provided, seven days after
the 15-day deadline laid out in IPRA — are responsive to my request.
Further, there’s no reason the four documents ISC did provide couldn’t have been emailed, rather
than provide by way of reviewing the documents on an agency computer or paying $13 for the
files to be copied onto a USB drive.
I would like to note that I appreciate that work Ms. Salazar does for the ISC. I do not believe
fault rests with her for not providing all the responsive documents or for not emailing the initial
four documents. I believe it’s the result of poor agency policy and/or advice from other staffers
within the agency, most or all of whom likely outrank Ms. Salazar.
I am happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you so much for your time – and for
your critical work in this state.
Best wishes,
Laura Paskus
CC: NMID executive director, Trip Jennings