AG rules meeting didn't follow Open Meetings Act

Heather Clark | The Associated Press

5/15/2008 - 5/16/08

ALBUQUERQUE — The state Attorney General's office has determined that the public was not properly notified, as required under the state's Open Meetings Act, about a February meeting held to temporarily list Mount Taylor in the State Register of Cultural Properties.

The attorney general's office wrote in a May 6 letter to the Historic Preservation Division that the Cultural Properties Review Committee must hold another public meeting and provide proper notice to interested parties.

The committee must summarize comments made at the Feb. 22 meeting in which Mount Taylor was given an emergency listing as a state cultural property and retake action on the listing, the letter said.

The attorney general's office said the Cultural Properties Review Committee did not tell property owners or lessees within the boundaries of the area listed as a cultural place about the meeting.

Property owners were furious when they found out about the February meeting and accused the committee of deliberately excluding them.

"When you have that many people left out, then this seems to be very intentional because we didn't know about the meeting," Ronny Pynes, a Grants businessman concerned about how the emergency listing would affect outdoors enthusiasts and nearby property owners, said at the time.

Of the attorney general's decision, Pynes said Wednesday: "It makes it right. If a majority of the people want to see it put into the cultural registry and the project goes through, then so be it, but they'll have their say in it."

Pynes said he and dozens of other Grants area residents will attend the meeting when the Cultural Properties Review Committee revisits the issue.

A spokesman for the state Historic Preservation Division said he was not sure when the issue would be revisited. The committee's next regular meeting is June 6.

Katherine Slick, director of the state Historic Preservation office, said no one on the committee was trying to exclude the public.

"I think that the committee truly thought they were responding to an emergency and following the process as we had seen it outlined and used in the past," she said.

Slick said the emergency was an increase in applications for exploration permits for uranium mining companies in the area. The committee's action would have mandated uranium mining companies to obtain permits that require additional reviews by state agencies and more public notification.