my only goal is to uh get the city of Espanola to start obeying the law but if we can't get voluntary compliance with the law then we have to do what we have to do so I guess I'll just send you a few ipper requests and I mean I would prefer you not because we have the specific emao that it's supposed to go to but yeah I mean I prefer that people just obey the law you know and I know that that's tough for a lot of people but um you know if we're going to live in a civilized society of Law and Order we're going to have to have everybody obeying the laws so bet everyone is here okay great well we'll go Ahad and put that to the test thank you so much ma'am thank you back in December Steven tried to do some open records requests with the city of Espanola in New Mexico he abided by all of the New Mexico state laws on how to submit an official request specifically he sent it as an email to the city clerk but the city of Espanola decided that they wanted to use their own system that didn't abide by the laws of the state of New Mexico and made it more difficult for citizens to get the records they're looking for what they wanted to do was insist that everyone used their online portal to make records requests but their website was down and the portal didn't work at all after having his requests denied multiple times for failing to submit them the way the city wanted them submitted he went into the city in person to ask them what's going on the records Clerk refused to speak with him but they sent a woman out by the name of esparanza who has mastered the art of smiling and using a pleasant tone of voice while flat out lying to people and smugly talking down to them how can I help you guys you don't work in the city clerk's office I do you work at the city I thought you're the executive secretary I you help with this whole area I would actually need to speak with somebody inside the city clerk's office that does request there there's not anyone available at this moment why is that because it's not we don't have anyone right now available but I can get your information what is it you need and we can get the process started so I I I I requested some public records okay um and they don't want to fulfill my public records because they want me to click on a link to go to a portal oh yes that that portal don't work it hasn't worked according to the Attorney General's office in the state of New Mexico it does State for the purpose of the section written request includes an electronic communication includes email or fashionable provided that the request complies within the requirement of subsection C of the section I filled all that out in elect 2ic and they don't I just I'm just here for answers to see I don't want to so we're trying to do the right process this is the right process but you guys went ahead and sent EP fulfilled EP request with other people that sent them email the same way that I do okay so of course I don't deal with that myself on yeah so I just want to be able to help help you and not keep you waiting so let me see what I can do Debbie's not here at the moment that's why otherwise I would try to arrange something she's just not here right now she's gone for the week actually is is is Eric here um Eric has been in and out so let me double check where he's at do you want to see if if I could talk to ER you can sit with him okay and what was your name again my name is Sten okay looks like Eric stepped out with Elijah Maris they're on the field somewhere handling something so I can take a message I can have reach back out to you um whatever you think I just I'm just here today and I leave tomorrow oh so I just need to get record to see why my EPA requests are being denied well they're not being denied we're just trying to figure out how to use this link correctly and just try to kind of paper trail everything so it's not paper it's a paper trail through the email that's still a paper trail that's still re know but we're we're trying to use this form like we're just trying something new and different to help our system as well so if you just be a little patient with that um we're currently working on it literally as we speak in a meeting regarding IAS and stuff so it's it's not something they're definitely not denying for whatever on email on the email it does state that it's denying because I didn't use a portal yes as it states as it states on the attorney I'm not trying to twist it I'm just trying to say what it's actually written it does say deny per the ology but it's because we're trying to it doesn't it doesn't say what you're what you're explaining doesn't say what's on the email okay it's again I'm trying to explain it was denied because we want that form filled out we understand the link wasn't working we're trying to work on that if you could please be patient with us guys you can't make this stuff up she just articulated that they denied his request because he did not use a form that even she admits doesn't even exist that that doesn't stop my record to CL as a state statue as state I'm not arguing with you either a state statute not here or but message he's not here his truck's here he's probably in his unit then and leaves the truck there's I I want to help you you're not helping you're not helping but but but you're you don't you don't um you don't work in there in thatment um wait a minute so esparanza is violating New Mexico state law Steven is calling her out on it but when she sees a cop walk by she asks the cop to stay there with her this looks like straight up Mafia stuff I'm going to break the law and if you don't like it here's my muscle so again none of them are here the best thing I could do is take a message that's but wait you don't you don't work in that department though but I assist them I assist everyone with you assist the the attorney general and I mean not the attorney assist the city manager and I try to help everyone because we're very short stuff so but see the the questions that I want answers to you're not give them to me I know that's it's not the meantime would you like me to take a message I'm here you want to hang out until her gets back I'm only here Pi okay so what would you like me to do I want my my my questions answered you see why they're not being there's not someone at this very moment who can do that so we have to work together there neither one of them are here I'm so sorry in the me time I would like to try to help you as much as possible if they're not here I can take a message I I can do all of that you know so who who's working now is Brenda here uh Brenda is we are in a meeting though can I can you can I talk to Brenda for like two seconds it will not be two seconds I promise I'll give you two seconds I just want to do two seconds and that's it I just want to give it this or can you give her this I just want to give her this documentation I definitely will and that's literally what we're working on how to can you make copies of it and then time stepped it that you received it I will definitely thank you I'll be right back esparanza made sure that Steven couldn't talk to anybody and zero progress was made now 2 and a half months later the city has refused to respond to any of his open records requests at all as of today the portal that they want him to patiently wait for still doesn't work so Steven talked to other members of the community to see if they were having the same problem and they're not other members of the community are able to email their open records request the same place he is and they get full responses this is special treatment for Steven because they don't like him because he cussed out city council last year you city manager you Justin you you John you Denise you Peggy sou so Steven asked me if maybe the Freeman people could help him I told him I really don't even want to publish anything on this but I'll go up there and ask them to obey the law they probably will and we can call it a day but shockingly esparanza came Mountain lied to my face telling me that Steven's ipper requests had been filled and then told me how all of you idiots should just educate yourselves on how Espanola wants you to do things rather than how the law says to do things hello so I'm looking for Debbie Garcia she's not in today oh not at all is she in tomorrow um I don't know she hasn't said yet she's just been a little under the weather dang it okay is there anyone else who handles IAS um so we do have a record specialist that takes care of all IAS Debbie actually hasn't been handling them probably for the last few months you with and why are you record here I'll put this down here so it's not so like inyour face and just a little because we have a lot of bad energy that comes in with this type of stuff and it usually goes against us so um well I am here on behalf of some people who aren't having quests filled thought we had were on all of them yeah I thought we were on top of all of them so what's can I ask what your I'm James by the way I'm James James Esperanza I'm the executive administrator so what questions do you have so it's um what is his name Stephen I'm sure you're familiar with him right have you heard from his attorney Zach cook as well I don't know personally okay um so I guess he was requesting footage I'm sorry um he was requesting text messages from uh city council members and the mayor that were texting back and forth during a public meeting and from what he told me and what his attorney told me while I was driving up here they' still not even responded at all um this maybe is that the only one just Stephen yeah okay let me check one second so my first question I guess it's is it an IA you submitted or you're here on behalf of no he submitted it okay he submitted it so I we of course can't give any information to someone who didn't submit it but if you put it in writing I can get it to my city manager and then we can relay back whatever information we just can't speak on some someone else's at this time my only goal is to uh get the city of Espanola to start obeying the law well if you go online it state it has to go through well that's your that's your guys' rules but your guys rul rules violate the laws does that make sense well okay well if you want to send me an email you can but if it's an actual IA request of course through our IA email so it goes to the one person that is in charge of them um anything else definitely would go through the attorney okay I'm going to go ahead and send you a couple of IAS um within the next couple of days too and I'll inform you that you have 72 hours to forward the ERS that I send to you to whoever the holder of Records is and and that's per statute um like I said we're not trying to litigate but if we can't get voluntary compliance with the law then we have to do what we have to do so I'll go ahead and send you some itas can you send me where it like States all that as well just so I can um sure learn myself regarding about the state or federal part of it yeah it's it's New Mexico state law and it's like 150 something pages and things that people need to follow the law and I get it's in the state like you're saying but if they're working with a specific entity that has a way of doing it then it shouldn't be that simple if they really want it done then you just send it to the right person yeah so instead of trying to cause something out of nothing yeah so um yeah and doesn't need to be anything we can just get the city of Espanola to start obeying the law and then it doesn't have to be a thing so I guess I'll just send you a few ipper requests and I mean I would prefer you not because we have the specific emo that it's supposed to go to but yeah I mean I prefer that people just obey the law you know and I know that that's tough for a lot of people but um you know if we're going to live in a civilized society of Law and Order we're going to have to have everybody obeying the laws so much everyone is here okay great well we'll go ahead and put that to the test thank you so much ma'am thank you to this day the city of espanol is refusing to fill open records requests for Steven specifically contact information for the city is listed below if you have any questions or concerns about why they won't fill Steven's requests and why esparanza is lying to our faces about it Steven does have attorneys that can litigate this for him but it's so petty that we were trying as hard as we can to avoid using the taxpayer dollars to litigate this in court if step is forced to file a lawsuit to get his records it's the taxpayers of Espanola that are going to foot the bill I also linked Steven's YouTube channel below so that you can stay updated on this case an email address has also been listed in the description and the pin comment below where you can send your own open records requests too per New Mexico State Statute the only personal information you need to provide is a name and an email address and it doesn't have to be a legal name just a name I'm sure that esparanza will be happy to help you so I just want to be able to help you and not keep you waiting