AN ACT

RELATING TO PUBLIC RECORDS; CHANGING DEFINITIONS; PROVIDING ACCESS TO CERTAIN RECORDS AFTER CERTAIN TIME PERIODS; AMENDING AND ENACTING SECTIONS OF THE NMSA 1978.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     Section 1. Section 14-3-2 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1959, Chapter 245, Section 2, as amended) is amended to read:

     "14-3-2. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Public Records Act:

          A. "administrator" means the state records administrator;

          B. "agency" means any state agency, department, bureau, board, commission, institution or other organization of the state government, the territorial government and the Spanish and Mexican governments in New Mexico;

          C. "commission" means the state commission of public records;

          D. "microphotography" means the transfer of images onto film and electronic imaging or other information storage techniques that meet the performance guidelines for legal acceptance of public records produced by information system technologies pursuant to regulations adopted by the commission;

          E. "microphotography system" means all microphotography equipment, services and supplies;

          F. "personal identification information" means the name, social security number, military identification number, home address, telephone number, email address, fingerprint, photograph, identifying biometric data, genetic identification, personal financial account number, state identification number, including driver's license number, alien registration number, government passport number, personal taxpayer identification number, or government benefit account number of a natural person;

          G. "public records" means all books, papers, maps, photographs or other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by any agency in pursuance of law or in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved, or appropriate for preservation, by the agency or its legitimate successor as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations or other activities of the government or because of the informational and historical value of data contained therein. Library or museum material of the state library, state institutions and state museums, extra copies of documents preserved only for convenience of reference and stocks of publications and processed documents are not included;

          H. "records center" means the central records depository that is the principal state facility for the storage, disposal, allocation or use of noncurrent records of agencies or materials obtained from other sources;

          I. "records custodian" means the statutory head of the agency using or maintaining the records or the custodian's designee; and

          J. "records retention and disposition schedules" means rules adopted by the commission pursuant to Section 14-3-6 NMSA 1978 describing records of an agency, establishing a timetable for their life cycle and providing authorization for their disposition."

     Section 2. A new section of the Public Records Act is enacted to read:

     "ACCESS TO CONFIDENTIAL RECORDS.--

          A. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any public record deemed by law to be confidential and required by a records retention and disposition schedule to be maintained longer than twenty-five years shall not, after twenty-five years from the date of creation, be confidential and shall be accessible to the public, except:

                (1) personal identification information deemed confidential by law, which shall remain confidential for one hundred years after the date of creation, unless a shorter duration is otherwise required by law;

                (2) records that are confidential pursuant to Section 2-3-13 NMSA 1978, which shall remain confidential for seventy-five years after the date of creation;

                (3) records that are confidential pursuant to Section 18-6-11.1 NMSA 1978; and

                (4) records whose disclosure is prohibited by court action or federal law.

          B. Nothing in this section shall limit or remove the discretion of a records custodian to withhold a public record pursuant to Section 14-2-1 NMSA 1978."