{"id":25811,"date":"2011-02-07T08:34:07","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T15:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=25811"},"modified":"2011-02-08T07:54:13","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T14:54:13","slug":"it%e2%80%99s-time-to-expand-webcasting-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/02\/it%e2%80%99s-time-to-expand-webcasting-again\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s time to expand webcasting again"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The webcam in the back of the Senate chamber. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

The New Mexico Legislature has taken huge steps in recent years to let the sun shine on its work through webcasting, but there\u2019s more to be done. And it\u2019s time that the other branches of government follow suit.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s great that we can watch and\/or listen<\/a> to the House and Senate when they\u2019re in session, and that we can listen to House committees. But Senate committees still aren\u2019t accessible for people who aren\u2019t at the Roundhouse.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Sen. Mark Boitano<\/a>, R-Albuquerque, is keeping up the fight this session with a bill<\/a> that would require audio webcasting of Senate committees. Let\u2019s hope his colleagues finally approve this important legislation.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also an ambitious bill<\/a> from freshman Rep. James E. Smith<\/a>, R-Sandia Park, that would essentially require webcasting of every public meeting subject to the N.M. Open Meetings Act. Some local governments, such as Do\u00f1a Ana County, already do this<\/a>, but most do not.<\/p>\n

The bills are indicative of this reality: All public meetings of policymaking bodies should be webcast.<\/p>\n

We should have video webcasting of all House and Senate committees. And, most important, webcasting of the meetings of policymaking bodies needs to be archived online so it\u2019s accessible later.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s great that the Legislature has given people the ability to access their meetings even if they can\u2019t travel to the Roundhouse, but it\u2019s still only accessible to people who can drop what they\u2019re doing to sit in front of a computer while the Legislature is in session.<\/p>\n

Most legislative work is done while most people are at work and unable to listen in.<\/p>\n

So the Legislature has yet to take the most important step \u2013 making its proceedings available to people when they have the time to pay attention.<\/p>\n

Accessibility needs to be the priority<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s a bogus argument floating around the Roundhouse that archiving is not a good idea because it would create a permanent record of legislative proceedings. That\u2019s because, opponents of archiving claim, New Mexico courts don\u2019t consider legislative intent in addition to the actual wording of legislation, and creating a permanent record could mess with that.<\/p>\n

Like I said, it\u2019s bogus. The first priority should be accessibility. This is a democracy. It\u2019s the 21st Century. We have the technology to make legislative proceedings available to all people at all times, and it\u2019s cheap, so there\u2019s no good reason to not do it.<\/p>\n

There are bad reasons \u2013 like not wanting more people to participate in their government. If issues related to legislative intent need to be addressed, then address them in another manner, but not by keeping government less accessible than it can be.<\/p>\n

One lawmaker told me more webcasting, and archiving, would be nice, but it\u2019s not a priority because few people are watching the webcasting currently. But that\u2019s exactly why it needs to be a priority.<\/p>\n

People need to be able to watch legislative proceedings when they can find time \u2013 such as after they\u2019ve put their kids to bed at night. Telling people they have to skip work to watch a webcast is simply putting up another barrier.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to tear down the barriers. We need to webcast all legislative proceedings and archive the webcasts.<\/p>\n

Other branches should follow suit<\/h3>\n

But it\u2019s not just the Legislature that needs to take steps to increase accessibility. The executive and judicial branches do too. I asked Gov. Susana Martinez\u2019s<\/a> office a few weeks ago if it had plans to webcast news conferences or anything else. I didn\u2019t get a response.<\/p>\n

Martinez should be webcasting her news conferences \u2013 starting immediately. Her administration should also be working toward webcasting of meetings of all boards and commissions.<\/p>\n

And it should all be archived online.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no reason the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals can\u2019t webcast their public proceedings. The number of New Mexicans who have had a chance to watch the Supreme Court at work is even less than the number who have seen the Legislature at work. How about an unprecedented level of accessibility, justices?<\/p>\n

The Public Regulation Commission already streams live audio<\/a> of its meetings. Now it needs to add video and archiving.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what\u2019s possible<\/h3>\n

It seems that government in this state was designed from the start to not be accessible. We hold our legislative sessions in the dead of winter in a town in the mountains. Does anyone think this is by accident?<\/p>\n

Or was it so that the rich and powerful \u2013 which at the time included railroads \u2013 could influence lawmakers without pesky citizens being around to know what was going on?<\/p>\n

Going forward, citizens need to take greater control of their government. But they\u2019ve been denied real access for so long that the first step is giving them the tools. \u00a0If we did that, here\u2019s what would be possible:<\/p>\n

Joe Blow wants to keep up with a bill that would increase penalties for drunk driving. A drunk driver on the highway between Farmington and Bloomfield killed his niece, and his aging mom wants to know that the penalties are toughened.<\/p>\n

He can\u2019t afford to travel to Santa Fe to lobby. Good thing everything is online. He can take an hour during the afternoon to listen to the House floor debate because he worked through the lunch hour, so he\u2019s watching live as the bill passes.<\/p>\n

He quickly shoots off an e-mail to his representative, who just voted for the bill. \u201cThank you thank you thank you! What\u2019s next? Who in the Senate do I need to call or e-mail to push for this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Later that afternoon, he takes another few minutes to watch the governor\u2019s news conference on the bill. She\u2019s pushing the Senate. Great.<\/p>\n

That night, he pulls up archives of the House debate and the governor\u2019s news conference on his laptop at his mother\u2019s house in Aztec. He sticks headphones in her ears and hits play. She doesn\u2019t have or know how to use a computer, so she wasn\u2019t able to listen live.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalfway there,\u201d his mom tells him after listening. \u201cKeep me updated on what happens in the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe smiles, knowing he\u2019ll be able to do just that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We have the technology to do this, and it\u2019s cheap. So let\u2019s do it.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Commentary archives<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New Mexico Legislature has taken huge steps in recent years to let the sun shine on its work through webcasting, but there\u2019s more to be done. And it\u2019s time that the other branches of government follow suit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[111,107],"class_list":["post-25811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25811","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=25811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}