Someone should turn on lights for Curry politics

They’ve laughed in the face of government transparency so many times it’s hardly news anymore.

But we feel obligated to point out the latest secrets Curry County commissioners are sharing with one another anyway.

Some day, we’re sure, one of them will feel such shame for their actions they will stand up and force the others to comply with state law and, more importantly, be responsible to those who pay their salaries.

Commissioners on Tuesday talked about an ordinance related to approving and ratifying loans of the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority. Commissioners tabled the issue so they could email questions and concerns they have to the county attorney.

Just so we’re clear here: They didn’t table the issue so they could gather their thoughts and discuss the implications of their actions at a future meeting. They decided to hold a secret meeting via email.

State sunshine laws, of course, allow the opportunity for public entities to meet privately if they want to discuss personnel matters, lawsuits and even land acquisitions.

The laws don’t allow public officials to have secret meetings so they can discuss whether it’s a good idea to give $25,000 annually to a water authority.

So Curry County commissioners circumvent the law by using email and calling it “attorney-client privilege.”

Most public bodies have these discussions in public so the taxpayers can understand the pros and cons of the options.

Curry County commissioners, as they have done so many times over the past decade, have decided to avoid the public scrutiny.

Commission Chairman Wendell Bostwick said in a text message last week that he prefers the email interaction because constituents “chastise us on our length of meetings.”

He said one reason county meetings routinely last three to four hours is because “commissioners and constituents have not read the prepared information in ... the agenda packet.”

In other words, commissioners are doing us a favor; since they’re not prepared for the meetings, they’ll just engage in private consultation.

For those who don’t know the county’s history of secret keeping, it’s a long one.

County officials once refused to say what they paid employees; tried to keep the public from finding out about serious construction and staffing flaws at the county jail where inmates kept escaping; declined to release an itemized bill for county attorney Steve Doerr’s $140-per-hour services; fought to keep secret the cause of a jail inmate’s death; and, in October, decided to stop a public meeting, huddle up in a corner away from microphones, and talk about language in a motion to hire a financial advisor.

This is the same upstanding group that asked taxpayers repeatedly for money to build a better jail, then got tired of asking and just raised taxes anyway. We’re still waiting on the better jail, but the new county offices should be ready sometime this summer.

Susan Boe, the executive director for New Mexico’s watchdog group Foundation for Open Government, has joined our voice in trying to shame county commissioners into transparency.

She summarized their latest efforts as a “very dangerous practice” because it keeps taxpayers in the dark about why commissioners are spending public money.

But words critical of the commissioners’ secrets don’t seem to have any impact on them.

And so the county’s secret government continues to operate in dark rooms, waiting for one responsible elected official to stand up and turn on the lights.

Unsigned editorials are the opinion of Clovis Media Inc.’s editorial board, which consists of Editor David Stevens and Publisher Rob Langrell.