{"id":25300,"date":"2024-10-17T23:24:56","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T05:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tri-city-record-reporter-debra-mayeux-is-awarded-coveted-dixon-award\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:14:15","slug":"tri-city-record-reporter-debra-mayeux-is-awarded-coveted-dixon-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tri-city-record-reporter-debra-mayeux-is-awarded-coveted-dixon-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Tri-City Record reporter Debra Mayeux is awarded coveted Dixon Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Debra
Debra Mayeux receives New Mexico Foundation for Open Government's William S. Dixon First Amendment Award on Tuesday at the Sandia Golf Event Center in Albuquerque. (Jon Austria\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Farmington\u2019s Tri<\/em>\u2013City<\/em> Record<\/em> reporter Debra Mayeux was one of five New Mexicans to win a 2024 William S. Dixon First Amendment Award on Saturday in Albuquerque at the Sandia Golf Event Center.<\/p>\n

The statewide award was given for the first time 20 years ago as a way to honor people who work to keep government accountable, transparent and accessible to their communities, according to the foundation\u2019s executive director, Melanie Majors.<\/p>\n

In her acceptance speech Saturday, Mayeux shared that her tenure in journalism started in 1992, and since then, she has been passionate about pursuing truth.<\/p>\n

\"Debra
Debra Mayeux at the luncheon Tuesday to honor the 2024 recipients of New Mexico Foundation for Open Government's William S. Dixon First Amendment Award. (Jon Austria\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Debra
Debra Mayeux receives congratulations from Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman after receiving the William S. Dixon First Amendment Award. (Jon Austria\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Jon Austria<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

She was introduced as someone who is \u201cnot afraid to go above and beyond in terms of the public\u2019s right to know\u201d and as someone who has used the power of the freedom of information to expose issues in the local systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just have to say I am honored to receive this award,\u201d Mayeux said. \u201cI started in journalism in Farmington in 1992, so I\u2019ve been doing it for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to keep doing the good job of keeping the government transparent and accountable,\u201d Mayeux said.<\/p>\n

Mayeux shared that when Farmington didn\u2019t have a newspaper, local law enforcement and the city \u201cgot very used to not being held accountable.\u201d When the Tri<\/em>\u2013City<\/em> Record<\/em> opened a little over a year ago, Mayeux said she was ready to \u201cgo get them again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor doesn\u2019t talk to me anymore,\u201d Mayeux said to laughter from the crowd, \u201cbut I\u2019m holding him accountable, and that\u2019s the job of a journalist. I\u2019ve told a lot of them, it\u2019s not to be your friend, it\u2019s to hold you accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one case, the e San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office denied her the name of a child who died in Bloomfield after a farming accident and used an excuse not allowable under law to keep the name from her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got involved and sent out a letter,\u201d Majors said.<\/p>\n

Eventually, they released the requested records to Mayeux.<\/p>\n

Amanda Lavin, an attorney at NMFOG, said she worked with Mayeux to get juvenile records. Several agents around the state were using the Children\u2019s Code to bar disclosure of those records.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was one of the journalists who had brought that issue to our attention as it was happening in Farmington,\u201d said Lavin. \u201cIt was something that was kind of just cropping up over the state. It\u2019s always really helpful when people bring the issues to our attention. Otherwise, we don\u2019t know it\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other 2024 Dixon Award recipients were Katherine Korte in the Citizen Category, John Kreienkamp in the Government Category, Nathan Small in the Government Category and Brittany Costello in the Media Category.<\/p>\n

Mayeux found out about the award on Aug. 29 while she was teaching a high school class.<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cI just kept saying, \u2018Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Debra
Debra Mayeux gives a speech after receiving New Mexico Foundation for Open Government's William S. Dixon First Amendment Award on Tuesday.Jon Austria\/Special to the Tri-City Record<\/span>Jon Austria<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Debra
Debra Mayeux receives congratuations after receiving New Mexico Foundation for Open Government's William S. Dixon First Amendment Award on Tuesday in Albuquerque.Jon Austria\/Special to the Tri-City Record<\/span>Jon Austria<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mayeux was nominated by Trent Stephens, senior editor of the Tri<\/em>\u2013City<\/em> Record<\/em>, Durango<\/em> Herald<\/em> and The<\/em> Journal in Cortez<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI applaud Debra\u2019s efforts to go to all lengths necessary \u2026 without her willingness to fight for government transparency, I feel a dangerous precedent would have been set,\u201d Stephens said.<\/p>\n

Stephens continued by sharing his appreciation for Mayeux\u2019s ability to find the details of a story that are hidden beneath the surface, something he said citizens deserve to know about.<\/p>\n

Mayeux was also recognized for her work in investigative journalism by The Associated Press in the early 2000s. She is from Farmington, and says this has made her all the more motivated to serve through pursuing justice and transparency for those who live in the place she calls home.<\/p>\n

\"The
The 2024 winners of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government's William S. Dixon First Amendment Award, from left: Katherine Korte, Nathan Small, Brittany Costello, John Kreienkamp and Debra Mayeux.J on Austria\/Special to the Tri-City Record<\/span>Jon Austria<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freedom of information award is given to those who \u2018champion transparency\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[799,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78880,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25300\/revisions\/78880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25300"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}