N.M. publisher, state settles suit in book dispute
Complaint: Public Education Department didn’t respond to public records request seeking information on reading initiative
A New Mexico book publisher said she has settled her lawsuit alleging the state Public Education Department didn’t respond to her public records requests dealing with the state’s choice of books for Gov. Susana Martinez’s first-grade reading initiative.
Barbe Awalt, co-owner of LPD Press/Rio Grande Books in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, said Sunday she could not reveal specifics of the court-mediated settlement, including whether the department provided the records she sought.
But, she said, “I punched the whale and it moved.”
At the crux of the suit was the state’s choice of out-ofstate publishers to provide children’s books for the reading initiative that provides first-graders with free books during the summer.
Awalt said since the initiative started in 2012, the state has often chosen New Mexican publishing companies — including hers — to supply those books, but it did not in 2016.
Last July, she filed a lawsuit in state District Court in Albuquerque, claiming the education department owed her $51,500 in penalties for violating the state Inspection of Public Records
Act because it would not respond to her repeated requests for information on how the department chose publishers for the program.
Last December, she upped that ante to about $912,000, figuring in all the extra days that the education department allegedly did not respond.
“I am very happy it’s over,” Awalt said of the lawsuit.
Robert McEntyre, spokesman for the education department, said that so far the agreement with Awalt is one “in principle, still waiting formal and final approval.”
“This was driven largely by the publisher’s unsuccessful bid with the department. Of course, we always strive to fully comply with the Inspection of Public Records Act and will continue to do so.”