If a subcommittee’s recommendation is accepted, the New Mexico House of Representatives could begin webcasting audio from its floor and at least two committee rooms next week, with video to follow sometime after that.
That was the consensus of members of a subcommittee appointed to study the issue of webcasting, which met this morning with staffers from Legislative Council Service to talk about implementing such a program.
The committee didn’t formalize its recommendation because it’s awaiting a few technical points from staff and needs to firm up a time it can report to the Rules and Order of Business Committee, but Majority Leader Ken Martinez, D-Grants and a member of the subcommittee, said he thinks it’s likely that the committee can consider the issue Monday morning. Assuming the committee approves the recommendation of the bipartisan subcommittee, staff said they can probably begin the audio webcasts within days.
I was able to watch today’s meeting because of an audio/video webcast done by Gwyneth Doland of the New Mexico Independent.
Though the focus has been on webcasting audio and video because of Albuquerque Republican Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones’ rogue webcasts, Martinez asked at today’s subcommittee meeting if the infrastructure is in place to begin webcasting audio almost immediately, and learned that it is.
“Let’s start with what we can start with, and find out what the timeframe would be to get to a nice webcast,” Martinez said.
Assuming the rules committee accepts the recommendation, staff will begin the audio webcasting and proceed with determining the cost and other issues surrounding transitioning to audio and video. Though the Senate used a prior capital-outlay appropriation and already owns the equipment to webcast audio and video of its proceedings (equipment its leaders are refusing to use), the House let its portion of that prior appropriation expire, and new money may be needed.
The subcommittee discussed other issues, including whether to archive the webcasts and whether to copyright webcasts and pass rules ensuring they can’t be used for political purposes. It appears that, in the short term, the House is heading toward not archiving, and toward copyrighting and passing rules to prohibit political uses, though no final decisions have been made. Martinez stressed that the webcasts would be about public education and transparency, and he doesn’t believe they should be used for other purposes.