Candy Spence Ezzell, shown here, was one of three GOP House members who webcast committee meetings last year. She and Reps. Dennis Kintigh and Janice Arnold-Jones plan to do it again this year. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Three GOP House members, New Mexico Independent, others working to make Santa Fe more transparent and accessible
State Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones will once again be carrying a webcam and microphone with her during the legislative session that begins today so she can webcast committee meetings.
She’ll be webcasting live from two committees she sits on – the House Taxation and Revenue Committee, which tentatively meets Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1:30 p.m., and the Voters and Elections Committee, which tentatively meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 a.m.
Committee meetings in Santa Fe never start on time. Arnold-Jones plans to tweet the actual start times every day through her new Twitter account – @LadySunshineNM.
The webcasts will be shown live at nmgov.tv. Arnold-Jones invited those watching to e-mail her at jearnoldjones@aol.com or find their lawmaker’s e-mail address at nmlegis.gov to share input.
“At a time when we, as legislators, are tasked with plugging budget holes, citizen input is vital to finding the best solutions,” Arnold-Jones, who’s also a Republican gubernatorial candidate, said in a news release.
Two other Republican House members – Dennis Kintigh and Candy Spence Ezzell – will be webcasting their committee meetings as well. Both followed Arnold-Jones’ lead in webcasting committee meetings during last year’s session.
The webcasting by Ezzell, Kintigh and Arnold-Jones – who was dubbed Lady Sunlight last year by the Santa Fe Reporter for her move to bring webcasting to the Legislature – is just one of many efforts you’ll see in the next month to bring greater transparency to Santa Fe and pass new ethics reform measures.
The New Mexico Independent, with the help of journalists from other news outlets, will be liveblogging from Santa Fe every day. Yep, every day. That lets you take part in the conversation in a forum many lawmakers and others in Santa Fe are also participating in, or at least keeping their eyes on.
The liveblogging starts today with the governor’s state of the state address.
In addition, this is the first full regular session with official audio webcasting from the House floor and video webcasting from the Senate floor. That webcasting will be available on the Legislature’s Web site.
Expect a resolution in the Senate that would expand that chamber’s video webcasting. Expect resistance to passing it, too.
Ethics reform proposals
Beyond that, The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Kate Nash has the goods on what to expect in terms of ethics reform:
“Already, several lawmakers have prefiled ethics bills online while other public officials have outlined what measures they are willing to support.
“So far, they include an ethics commission, a ban on former lawmakers becoming lobbyists within a year of public service, and disclosures by and limits on state contractors who contribute to public officials.”
The ethics commission is likely to be the hottest ethics-reform bill, and a proposal to ban campaign contributions from state contractors and lobbyists should also get a lot of attention.
However, the budget will obviously take center stage in this legislative session, with lawmakers facing a shortfall of several hundred million dollars. Common Cause’s Steve Allen told Nash that 2010 could be a hard year to win approval of new ethics reforms for that reason.
“It’s a tough environment to ask for any bill that involves an appropriation. It’s very important for the state to get its financial books in order. I understand that,” Nash quoted Allen as saying.
“But it’s also important to understand that type of corruption we’ve seen has a negative fiscal impact on our state in terms of businesses wanting to locate here, a fair economic environment and overall economic development,” Allen said.
In spite of the budget crunch, ethics reform is a hot topic. State Auditor Hector Balderas has laid out his ethics reform proposals, as have Attorney General Gary King, Lt. Gov.Diane Denish – the likely Democratic nominee for governor – and Gov. Bill Richardson.
Will the state move forward in terms of ethics and transparency this year? Time will tell. Thanks to Arnold-Jones, Ezzell, Kintigh, the Independent (a site I work for) and others for helping the rest of us keep up with what’s happening and take part in the debate.
At a time when lawmakers are deciding what programs to cut and/or what taxes to raise, that level of transparency and accessibility may be more critical than ever.