The number of requests for public records has increased more than twofold this year, forcing the University Custodian of Public Records to ask for narrowed searches and extended deadlines.
Between 2005 and 2008, the average number of Information and
Public Records Act requests was 65. There have been 137 so far this year.
Jeremy Jojola, investigative reporter for KOB Eyewitness News 4, said he filed a request on Oct. 21 asking for e-mails from Athletics Director Paul Krebs relating to the Sept. 20 altercation between head football coach Mike Locksley and assistant coach J.B. Gerald. The request was not filled until Nov. 25, and Jojola said the Custodian pushed the deadline back twice.
“I don’t know how overwhelmed they are over there, but that’s what they told me,” Jojola said.
Anne Murray, University Custodian of Public Records, declined to comment and deferred questions to the University Communication and Marketing Department.
University spokeswoman Karen Wentworth said an increase in IPRA requests often coincides with controversial events. She said former UNM President Louis Caldera’s departure from the University in 2006 prompted a similar influx of requests, though it wasn’t quite as drastic.
“When he left, there was a big increase in the number of public information records requests, because they wanted to know about the settlement agreement and they wanted to know what his contract said,”
Wentworth said. “Sometimes, it’s driven by events like that that kind of skew the numbers.”
In an e-mail provided by Jojola, Lynn Gentry, assistant to the University Custodian of Public Records, acknowledged that the Custodian was inundated with requests, which is why she asked to extend the deadline from Nov. 9 to Nov. 20 and, later, to Nov. 25.
“Due to the sheer volume of e-mails to be reviewed and the time-consuming effort this undertaking requires, I’m asking for an extension of time to November 20, 2009,” Gentry said in the e-mail.
According to the University Business Policies and Procedures Manual, IPRA requests should take no longer than 15 calendar days to be fulfilled, but if a request is deemed “excessively burdensome or broad,” the office can inform the requester of an extended deadline.
In addition to KOB Eyewitness News 4, news outlets including KRQE News 13, the Albuquerque Journal and the Daily Lobo all reported receiving documents after the 15-day period in recent months.
Jojola said the office asked him to limit the scope of his request shortly after he filed it.
“What they wanted me to do was narrow down my request to the actual incident, and that’s exactly what I was looking for, so I agreed,” he said. “I don’t have beef with them being tardy or anything like that. I do have concerns, though, that it did take more than a month.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
In the end, Jojola’s filled records request came to more than 1,100 e-mails, he said.
