The Environmental Sustainability Board (ESB) convened on Thursday, June 18, 2026 at 5:30 PM in Council Chambers. Five members were present (Chair David Hampton, Vice-Chair Erik Loechell, Sue Barns, Carly Blair, Shannon Blair); members Joseph Chandler and Jack Grow were absent. The meeting featured a training on the Open Meetings Act (OMA) and Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA), detailed discussion and action on a proposed single-use plastic bag ordinance, and reports from committees and staff.
Open Meetings Act and IPRA Presentation – Deputy County Attorney Katie Thwaits delivered a training on OMA requirements (quorum, notice, agenda, minutes) and IPRA public records obligations. She emphasized avoiding "walking quorums" and recommended one-way communications and separate email accounts for board business. Board members asked questions about email practices and record retention.
Single-Use Plastic Bag Ordinance – The board reviewed a draft ordinance prepared by a work group. Key points of discussion included:
Committee Reports
Staff Report (Sustainability Manager Angelica Gurule):
It's 5 30. Recall the order. Roll call. Member LaShell. Member Esplair, Member Seablair, Member Barnes. And Member Hampton. Member Chandler and Gro are absent. Is there any public comment for items not on the agenda? There's no public, so is everybody okay with the agenda? The agenda is approved unanimously. Does anybody have any corrections to the um May minutes? May minutes approved unanimously. And with that, our first order of business. Um inspection of public records presentation. Ms. Twait Good evening, board. Um, my name is Katie Twaits. I'm the deputy county attorney. Um, I think a few of you have already sat through this probably a couple of times. Uh Chair Hampton can probably give it in his sleep. Um, but um we're here tonight to talk about the Open Meetings Act and a little bit about the Inspection of Public Records Act. Um, so I I do have some slides, and I think and Helica can provide those to you at the conclusion of the meeting. Um, but it it's gonna be pretty legalese. I'm gonna um please feel free to interrupt me uh with questions. It makes it a little bit more interactive. Um, but if not, we can just kind of breeze through this if there are no questions. So um, next slide. So we have the open meetings act, which is sometimes referred to as OMA, and the inspection of public records act, which is sometimes referred to as IPRA. And those are the state's sunshine laws. Um twisted. And um every state has sunshine laws, they vary in um some aspects, but they're common across all of uh all 50 states, and they generally require that all of public business of government be conducted in the public and for public view, uh that the public bodies are um doing and taking action uh openly, and that the deliberations of those public bodies are done and open to the public. So our two, like I stated, are OMA and IPRA, and um OMA Open Meetings Act is a state law that provides the statutory requirements for how to conduct our public meetings. Um state law regarding public records and um allows the public and media to access all non-uh privileged public records, um public access, open government. That's really what OMA and IPRA are about. Every time I say OMA and IPR, I always think of the the Oprah where it was UMA and Oprah. I don't know, it was a David Letterman thing years ago. I aged myself. Um the requirements for open meetings act, there are four requirements. We have to have a quorum, we have to provide notice, and we have to have an agenda, and then after the meeting is conducted, we have to have minutes. Um so for a quorum, that's the majority of appointed members of the board. Um we have to provide notice of our meetings at least 10 days prior to the meeting uh for the agenda, those have to be available at least 72 hours prior to the meeting and have uh enough specificity of the business or discussions that you're going to be uh talking about so that the public will know uh whether they want to attend or not. And then at the conclusion of the meeting, um, we have to create the minutes. They have to be drafted within 10 days of the meeting, and then they have to be presented to the board at the next um publicly noticed meeting for uh approval. Next slide. So what is public meeting and when is the board conducting public business? So public meeting it or an open meeting is a public meeting, and that is defined by state statute. Um in New Mexico's state statutes, um, it's chapter 10, uh section 15, uh subsection one. So all meetings of the quorum of members of any board are declared to be public meetings for the public to attend. So that that's what an open meeting is. So whenever we have a quorum of members and we're gonna we're gonna meet, it has to be in the public.