2. New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act
• State law that allows people to request records from
public bodies.
• Although public bodies can withhold records that are
exempt by law, the person requesting records can
challenge the withholdings by filing suit.
• Individuals requesting records can also file suit if a
request takes too long to fulfill.
• The City of Albuquerque appears to receive more
requests than any other public body in New Mexico –
10K Plus in 2021
3. WHAT ARE PEOPLE
REQUESTING?
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
APD
APD - Traffic
Planning
AFR
AWD
Envioronmental Health
DMD
City Clerk
DTI
Transit
Human Resources
Purchasing
DFAS
Aviation
Mayor/CAO
FCS
Legal
Cultural Services
Parks & Rec
City Council
Risk
Solid Waste
Economic Development
CPOA
Inspector General
Senior Affairs
Internal Audit
Requests by Department 2021
Common themes:
• APD Cases
• Land/Site Assessments
• City Surveillance
• Personnel issues
• Procurement issues
• Department activity in
Neighborhoods
5. HISTORY OF IPRAAT CABQ
• In the City of Albuquerque, the City Clerk is the designated Chief Records Custodian,
responsible for ensuring compliance with IPRA.
• In 2013 and 2014, CABQ received around 1,500 IPRA requests a year.
• A 2014 audit of the IPRA program found:
• A need for a citywide system to track requests
• A need to standardize the response to IPRA across city departments
• A need to train records custodians on IPRA regulations
• In 2015, the City Clerk’s Office procured NextRequest and introduced it to requesters
and records custodians.
• In 2015, CABQ NextRequest received 850 requests but the City was still accepting
requests that were not being entered into NextRequest.
• Immediately following the implementation of NextRequest, CABQ experienced
increases in requests until 2019 or 2020 when requests started leveling off (hopefully).
3278
5705
7398
8622
9474
10201
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
6. • 2018: Through 2018, there had been one IPRA Specialist in
the Clerk’s Office to coordinate multi-department request.
• Changes between 2015-2018 were working well but there
were some limitations.
• NextRequest does allow standardization
• Each department using its own records custodian had
limitations.
• Lack of consistency in approach
• Turnover in the role of records custodian
• Ongoing issues with growing volume of lapel camera
requests at APD (temps help but were not staying long)
7. • 2019
• Centralized processing of IPRA requests in the Clerk’s Office
• In addition to existing Specialist (paralegal) position, created
and moved around several additional positions:
• 3 additional specialist positions in the Clerks Office
• 2 permanent “tech” positions moved from APD.
• 4 additional “tech” positions created to replace temporary
positions.
• 1 additional “tech” position created in late 2019
• Prioritize identification of scanning projects
• Benefits
• Greater consistency
• Greater longevity in employees
• Better data collection which has been used to identify
scanning projects.
8. 2021
• Challenge: Request volume has continued to grow. COVID Backlog remains.
• In 2021 we experienced our first year of over 10,000 requests. We fully expect in
2022 to reach 11,000.
• Current Structure
• IPRAAttorney
• Program Manager
• 4 Specialists (Paralegals)
• 7 IPRA Techs (Handle Redaction and APD Records)
• 2-3 Temps – (Assist with APD Requests)
• Pending requests for two additional tech positions.
