![\"City](\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/HobbsCityHall1-336x203.jpg\")
Courtesy photo<\/p>
City Hall in Hobbs, N.M.<\/p><\/div>\n
On a 4-3 vote, the commission approved a webcasting option on June 6 that includes purchasing three cameras and other equipment for just under $9,000 and paying an annual fee of $2,388 for use of a streaming service offered by the company\u00a0Livestream<\/a>.<\/p>\n “It gets more people involved in the process, and if it does that, we’re all winners,” Commissioner Jonathan Sena, who voted for the proposal, was quoted by the Hobbs News-Sun<\/a> as saying.<\/p>\n The Commission chose the Livestream option instead of a pricier but more sophisticated option offered by Granicus<\/a> that allows indexing — which means people watching archived video would also see\u00a0a meeting agenda and could click on an\u00a0item that’s of interest\u00a0to\u00a0skip directly to that point in the\u00a0meeting.<\/p>\n The City of Las Cruces<\/a> is among governments in New Mexico that use Granicus and its indexing feature.<\/p>\n Byron Marshall, a Hobbs resident who has been pushing for webcasting for the past 18 months<\/a>, called the city commission’s vote “a step in the right direction.”<\/p>\n “My only concern is that there were not enough options presented in this process — and something that would have been a better solution for long-term was out there and was ignored,” Marshall said. “I sincerely hope this move by Hobbs City Commission was an attempt at true transparency and not just a small token to placate Hobbs citizens who demand transparency at every level of public service.”<\/p>\n Dennis Barcuch of Hobbs, who’s also led the push for webcasting,\u00a0called the implementation of live streaming and archiving of public meetings “a great first step.” Barcuch also wants\u00a0indexing and a chat feature that gives\u00a0people watching meetings online the ability to discuss what’s happening with each other.<\/p>\n “We believe that only when the people of Hobbs can see what others say about a topic can an idea become viral,” Barcuch said. “…\u00a0We aim to bring the voices together so that a strong idea, like a ripe fruit, gets picked on time, before it dies on the vine.”<\/p>\n Barcuch pointed to\u00a0the public pressure Hobbs residents have placed on the commission to begin webcasting — which has included writing letters and commentaries<\/a>, doing research on streaming\u00a0systems used\u00a0in Las Cruces and elsewhere, speaking with commissioners about the proposal, amateur citizen webcasting<\/a> of meetings, and creation of a Facebook group<\/a>. He said he is “tremendously grateful to all of the citizens who supported us to bring the city one stage closer to transparency.”<\/p>\n Hobbs has been\u00a0behind\u00a0the curve when it comes to webcasting. The state\u2019s largest cities \u2014\u00a0Albuquerque<\/a>, Las Cruces<\/a>, Rio Rancho<\/a> and\u00a0Santa Fe<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 all webcast and archive meetings of their governing boards, as do many smaller towns\u00a0including Las Vegas<\/a>,\u00a0Silver City<\/a> and\u00a0Socorro<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hobbs has been broadcasting\u00a0commission meetings on a local radio station. That\u2019s\u00a0helpful for people who can listen live, but not those who are busy with jobs, families or other activities. People\u00a0can buy a CD containing an audio recording of a meeting if they\u00a0have the money and means to pick it up.<\/p>\n Archiving video of meetings online will mean people can watch it any time.<\/p>\n In voting against the webcasting proposal at the June 6\u00a0meeting, Hobbs\u00a0Commissioner Marshall Newman said he favored the pricier option that included indexing.<\/p>\n “Because of the indexing, it’s easier for citizens to review a meeting afterward and just point and click, and that’s what I was looking for,” the News-Sun quoted Newman as saying.<\/p>\n Commissioner Garry Buie, on the other hand, voted against webcasting because of its\u00a0cost. He said he was concerned about falling gross receipts tax revenue, according to the News-Sun. Buie\u00a0said he favors webcasting, “but I don’t think it has to be provided at this point in time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Hobbs City Commission will also archive video of its meetings online for people to watch at their convenience. Some activists will continue pushing for more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[885,706],"class_list":["post-158938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-hobbs","tag-transparency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}