By Daniel Libit

Facing mounting media scrutiny — and an adverse public records lawsuit ruling — The University of New Mexico Foundation acknowledged today that it quietly amended a gift agreement last year with university booster Margaret Branch, which cut the price of her naming-rights deal for the Lobo football field by almost half.

The Albuquerque Journal, which was first to report the news, said that it had made multiple requests for the Branch Field payment information over the last two years. But the disclosures came just weeks after NMFishbowl.com made an Inspection of Public Records Act request for these materials on September 12. Continue reading “UNMF Comes Clean on Branch Field Deal” →

By Daniel Libit

The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government and the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information have jointly submitted an Amici Curiae brief in support of our public records lawsuit against the University of New Mexico Foundation. Continue reading “NMFOG, Brechner Center File Brief in Support of our IPRA Suit” →

By Daniel Libit

A draft of a legal services agreement between the University of New Mexico and an outside law firm indicates that the school may be looking for changes to the state’s public record laws.

The Nov. 15  engagement letter from the Modrall Sperling law firm reads: “We have been engaged to advise the university in connection with questions concerning compliance and possible amendemtns (sic) to the Inspection of Public Records Act.” (Emphasis added.) Continue reading “Is UNM Anticipating IPRA Changes?” →

By Daniel Libit

In a deposition earlier this month, former University of New Mexico Athletic Director Paul Krebs acknowledged that he regularly deleted work-related emails he considered to be “routine” —  and that others in his department did the same.  Continue reading “Krebs Admits he Deleted Lots of Emails” →

By Daniel Libit

The blessing of public officials’ incompetence is that it doesn’t yield to their deceit, although this can only serve as small comfort to the public.

I write of the latest revealed blunder of the Paul Krebs era, as reported last Sunday by the Albuquerque Journal: an email the former University of New Mexico athletic director sent to two subordinates, in early May, instructing them to delete emails so that this reporter wouldn’t be able to obtain them through a public records request. The messages revolved around the draft of a press release the school was prepping to announce the reinstatement of its skiing program, after previously stating that the sport would be abolished. Continue reading “Lobos Warrant an IPRA Investigation” →

By Daniel Libit

File this under: Same song, different verse.

In May, the University of New Mexico announced that Dreamstyle Remodeling would be the new naming-rights holder for The Pit and University Stadium. The agreement had the Albuquerque company paying UNM $10 million for the next decade of sponsorship. It piggybacked off the faltered deal UNM had struck, three years before, with WisePies Pizza and Salad. Continue reading “Why We’re Suing Learfield/Lobo Sports Properties” →

By Daniel Libit

The UNM Foundation and University of New Mexico Board of Regents have now formally responded in court to our public records lawsuit, arguing, among other things, that the Foundation’s resistance to transparency is actually a defense of the First Amendment. Continue reading “UNM Fund: 1st Amendment Crusader?” →

By Daniel Libit

According to its official slogan, the University of New Mexico Foundation is, “Where generosity meets excellence.”

Left unstated, however, is that the Foundation is also where generosity meets secrecy.

Actually, that might have once been stated rather explicitly. A 2015 Columbia Journalism Review article reported that the UNM Foundation’s website once advertised the following benefit to donors:

“[g]reater assurance of … confidentiality, since [it] is a separate not-for-profit corporation and not subject to open records laws.”

Curiously, those words no longer appear online, but the ethos of obfuscation continues to abound — for now.

This week, in Bernalillo County Court, I filed the very first open records lawsuit against the Foundation. Continue reading “Why We’re Suing the UNM Foundation” →