{"id":25911,"date":"2024-08-30T20:40:41","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T20:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tri-city-record-reporter-debra-mayeux-wins-dixon-award\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:29:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:29:32","slug":"tri-city-record-reporter-debra-mayeux-wins-dixon-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tri-city-record-reporter-debra-mayeux-wins-dixon-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Tri-City Record reporter Debra Mayeux wins Dixon Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Debra
Debra Mayeux, a 2024 Dixon Award winner. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Debra Mayeux, a reporter at Farmington\u2019s Tri-City Record,<\/em> was one of five New Mexicans to win a 2024 William S. Dixon First Amendment Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe honor recognizes the outstanding accomplishments of \u2026 (those) who champion transparency and defend the people\u2019s right to know the affairs of government,\u201d according to a news release from the group who gives out the awards, the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government.<\/p>\n

The foundation started issuing Dixon Awards about 20 years ago to honor people who work to make government transparent and accessible to the public, said Melanie Majors, the foundation\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n

When the news came out the afternoon of Aug. 29, Mayeux was teaching a high school class.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just kept saying, \u2018Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mayeux said she felt honored to have her work recognized, and that the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government thought she was worthy of such recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know, personally, how hard she has worked. And I know that some of the things she\u2019s tackled hasn\u2019t been easy,\u201d said Majors. \u201cShe would call for clarification because she wanted to make sure she was doing the right thing \u2026 (and) make sure she was interpreting the law correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe definitely is a hardworking, committed journalist.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the early 2000s, Mayeux was recognized by The Associated Press for her work in investigative journalism. For the duration of her reporting career, she has focused on holding government entities and public officials accountable.<\/p>\n

Sometimes they forget they work for us, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer fearless pursuit of government records has been necessary to bring important news and information to our readers,\u201d said John Blais, Tri-City Record<\/em> publisher and CEO of Ballantine Communications Inc.<\/p>\n

There are countless examples of her work using public records to help confirm information public agencies have tried to keep hidden, Majors said, quoting the nomination letter submitted by Trent Stephens, senior editor of the Tri-City Record, The Journal<\/em> in Cortez and The Durango Herald.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHer stories have helped add context to complicated issues and she uses storytelling to add to the public discourse about important community issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

For instance, a school in Farmington tried to cover up a possible school shooting because it involved a staff member\u2019s child. Mayeux pushed back and retrieved those records.<\/p>\n

Around that same time, the school denied her information about a substitute teacher who was arrested on charges of criminal sexual contact with a minor.<\/p>\n

The 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 record 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

Lavin said NMFOG appreciates when Mayeux or other journalists reach out and aren\u2019t afraid to push back when agencies deny records.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe definitely embodies those sort of watchdog qualities because not everyone is going to push back when they get a denial in response to a request for records,\u201d Lavin said.<\/p>\n

Mayeux\u2019s watchdog qualities were echoed in Stephens\u2019 nomination.<\/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

Mayeux said she\u2019s lived in Farmington for most of her life and that fervently pursuing the truth is rooted in great care and concern for her community \u2013 it\u2019s not an attack on public officials, like they sometimes think.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe doesn\u2019t take the comments from the officials at face value. She questions everything and teaches others to question everything. She reminds us that there\u2019s more to every story and that we have the right to learn more,\u201d Stephens said.<\/p>\n

Mayeux and four other Dixon recipients will be formally awarded and recognized at a luncheon on Tuesday, Oct. 15 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Albuquerque at the Sandia Golf Event Center. Individual tickets are $60.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, that luncheon is our (NMFOG) biggest fundraiser of the year. That\u2019s how we earn the money to keep the lights on and keep doing the work we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other 2024 Dixon Award <\/a>recipients are:<\/p>\n

Katherine Korte in the Citizen Category.John Kreienkamp in the Government Category.Nathan Small in the Government Category.Brittany Costello in the Media Category.<\/div>\n

The Tri-City Record<\/em> was founded in May 2023 by Ballantine Communications Inc. Ballantine acquired the Farmington Daily Times<\/em> a year later and merged into the Tri-City Record<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

one of two media recipients of First Amendment Award<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[640,28,138,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-award-and-prize","tag-headlines","tag-new-mexico","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25911","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=25911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79150,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25911\/revisions\/79150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25911"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}