A. The commission may receive from private sources financial or other donations to assist in building, enlarging, maintaining or equipping a records center or for the acquisition by purchase of documentary material, in accordance with plans made and agreed upon by the commission and the administrator. The commission may also receive from private sources financial or other donations for support of specific agency functions if the donations are so designated. Funds thus received shall be administered by the commission separately from funds supplied by the state for the execution of the Public Records Act but shall be audited by the state. Such funds shall not be subject to reversion to the general fund if unexpended at the close of the fiscal year. Although all material acquired by expenditure of such donated funds and all such donated material shall become the unqualified and unrestricted property of the state, permanent public acknowledgment of the names of the donors may, in each case, be made in an appropriate manner.

B. The commission may receive either as donations or loans from private sources, other state agencies, counties, municipalities, the federal government and other states or countries documentary materials of any physical form or characteristics that are deemed to be of value to the state and the general public for historical reference or research purposes. Acceptance of both donations and loans shall be at the discretion of the commission upon advice of the administrator. Accepted donations shall become, without qualification or restriction, the property of the state of New Mexico. Loans shall be accepted only after a written agreement covering all terms and conditions of each loan shall have been signed by the lender and the administrator and approved by the commission.

History: 1953 Comp., § 71-6-5, enacted by Laws 1959, ch. 245, § 5; 2011, ch. 132, § 1.

The 2011 amendment, effective June 17, 2011, allowed private financial and other donations for the support of specific agency functions.

State commission of public records may receive private documents if they are deemed to be of value to the state and general public for historical reference and research purposes. The legislature intended the state records center to be the repository for private documents that are primarily valuable for historical reference and research purposes. This is not to say that such private documents are public records. But if such documents are donated or loaned to the commission from any source, the commission is authorized to take custody of them and retain them in the state records center in perpetuity, in the case of donations, or for the period specified in the loan agreement, in the case of loans. 1961 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 61-07.

Receipts of state commission of public records derived from sale of boxes and archival materials in the state records center are not funds that have been appropriated to the commission, and may not be expended by the commission. 1960 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 60-169. (See 2002 enactment of 14-3-8.1 NMSA 1978).