School board self-reports open meeting act violation

Superintendent Joyce Gormley made a public apology for an Open Meetings Act violation at the Socorro school board meeting on September 8.

“The board was scheduled to go in to do interviews for candidates that day,” Gormley said. “I sent out an email to candidates and board members letting them know that if they wanted to come review the process, to come at 5 o’clock.”

She said she blind copied board members in the email in an effort to avoid a rolling quorum but inadvertently caused one prior to the posted meeting time. The violation occurred on August 19 before their candidate interview meeting, said Gormley.

“I did self-report the violation to the Department of Justice,” she said. “It’s really important to let the public know we made a mistake, and we have done our best to rectify that mistake.”

Board member Dave Hicks said Gormley should not take responsibility for the board’s actions.

“That’s not going down like this. We’re the board—we are responsible for ourselves. Thank you very much for that, that’s not your responsibility,” said Hicks. “We know that we shouldn’t be in there.”

Board Member Sharon Sessions said thank you to the superintendent for recognizing the mistake.

“I, too, want to thank you, and I think as we move forward and we recognize what has been advertised and what hasn’t been advertised, that we’re all working through this process.” Vice President Tara Jaramillo said.