UNM hit with another lawsuit
Freelance writer claiming more violations of IPRA
A freelance journalist who has been aggressively investigating the finances of the University of New Mexico athletics department for the past year on Thursday filed a lawsuit claiming violations of the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act.
It is the second IPRA lawsuit filed against UNM since March by Daniel Libit, who is from Albuquerque, now lives in Chicago and in the fall launched the NMFishbowl.com website.
His first lawsuit, which is still pending, focused on compelling the UNM Foundation to be subject to the same open records laws as UNM and other state entities. The Foundation claims that as a private, nonprofit entity it doesn’t have to abide by those laws, though it makes no secret its work is entirely devoted to fundraising efforts for UNM.
Thursday’s complaint, filed in state district court, fights to make documents created by private companies as part of their contract work with UNM — in this case Learfield Communications LLC and its subsidiary Lobo Sports Properties, which
through contract own the athletics department’s licensing rights — public just as it would be if UNM created them.
“We’re not arguing that LSP is a public body by the terms of IPRA, which we are arguing about the UNM Foundation,” Libit told the Journal in an email on Thursday. “But the through line of both suits is that we believe both Lobo Sports Properties and the UNM Foundation maintain records that are public.”
In an article posted on his website, Libit uses the Journal’s May coverage of the Dreamstyle Remodeling naming rights deal for the Pit and University Stadium as a prime example of what his lawsuit is about.
UNM did not publicly disclose that about 10 percent of the announced $10 million naming rights deal would be going to Learfield until the Journal asked at a press conference. UNM would not release to the media a copy of the contract, and Learfield Vice President Kyle Denzel approached the Journal after the press conference and told a reporter, “I’ll save you some time. That’s not something we’d release.”
Larry Chavez, owner of Dreamstyle, decided on his own to release the contract to the Journal.
Libit’s argument is private individuals making deals with UNM or companies working on behalf of UNM, like Learfield, shouldn’t be the ones to have to make such documents public.
Libit asks the court, among other things, to “declare that the records sought by Plaintiff are public records created and maintained by LSP and Learfield on behalf of the University and are subject to disclosure.”
Libit, who has made his presence known at UNM since his website launched in November, has said he has filed “more than 150 IPRA requests” with the university in the past year.
Asked if he would agree with his critics that his aggressive approach might be overly burdensome or even an abuse of the state’s IPRA law, Libit defended his work.
“There’s no doubt I’ve made quite a few requests,” Libit told the Journal. “My intent is not to be a nuisance — my intent is simply to try and get information.
“I’ve paid thousands of dollars for copying fees related to my UNM IPRA requests over the last year and I have no problem, in general, incurring that expense. I realize my work has created an additional burden on UNM’s record-keepers, and I’m sympathetic to them for that. But this is a necessary burden for a public institution. The purpose of IPRA is not just theoretical. It’s so that citizens who are interested can actually inspect these records.”
Libit also said all his work on the website and with the IPRA requests are “entirely self-funded.”