Spaceport violated open government law, AG's office says

[TexasTowelie]

The N.M. Spaceport Authority violated an open government law several times in its responses to NMPolitics.net’s efforts to investigate Spaceport America in 2017, the state attorney general’s office has determined.

But on perhaps the central transparency question in NMPolitics.net’s complaints to the AG’s office — whether the Spaceport Authority broke the law by refusing to reveal how much money some customers are paying to use the spaceport — the AG’s office punted on taking a definitive stand, even as it expressed skepticism that the agency had acted appropriately.

Assistant Attorney General Dylan K. Lange identified four violations of the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) in the determination letter released Thursday:

· Failing to respond to a records request in the time the law requires.
· Citing the wrong exemption to redact information from public records.
· Charging unauthorized fees for copies of public records.
· Refusing to release a list of Twitter accounts the agency had blocked from seeing or responding to its tweets

The AG’s office sent Lange’s letter to the Spaceport Authority’s attorney, Melissa K. Force, and to NMPolitics.net editor and publisher Heath Haussamen, who filed the complaints against the spaceport in September 2017.

Read more: http://nmpolitics.net/index/2018/07/spaceport-violated-open-government-law-ags-office-says/