{"id":27450,"date":"2011-03-18T21:26:47","date_gmt":"2011-03-19T03:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=27450"},"modified":"2011-03-19T14:48:49","modified_gmt":"2011-03-19T20:48:49","slug":"bill-requiring-guv-to-webcast-cabinet-meetings-lingers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/03\/bill-requiring-guv-to-webcast-cabinet-meetings-lingers\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill requiring guv to webcast cabinet meetings lingers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo by Kevin Steinhardt\/flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

A bill that would require Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a> to webcast meetings of her cabinet has been on the Senate floor calendar for at least a couple of weeks without getting a hearing.<\/p>\n

Whether the legislation is something that will be voted on before the end of the session or is meant as a threat\/joke isn\u2019t entirely clear \u2013 but if senators intend for it to become law, they\u2019re running out of time to send it to the House for consideration.<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 456<\/a>, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Jennings<\/a>, D-Roswell, would essentially require the webcasting of all public meetings in New Mexico \u2013 and it would effectively add the governor\u2019s cabinet meetings to the list of those that are public. Cabinet meetings aren\u2019t currently open to the public.<\/p>\n

Though it applies to other meetings as well, the bill is aimed at the governor, carrying the title \u201cWebcasting of cabinet and other meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many senators have been angry this session at Martinez\u2019s webcasting of their committee meetings. In response they passed a resolution giving themselves authority to shut down her webcasting<\/a> if they choose. The N.M. Foundation for Open Government and others say that resolution is unconstitutional<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jennings\u2019 resolution requiring the governor to webcast cabinet meetings was the first item on today\u2019s Senate floor calendar. Majority Leader Michael Sanchez<\/a> said it would be heard today and called it an important piece of legislation related to transparency.<\/p>\n

But when Sanchez actually called the bill up for debate, Jennings said he had to go to a meeting and asked that the hearing be delayed. Then he stayed in the chamber, rather than heading off to a meeting.<\/p>\n

Whatever that means.<\/p>\n

So whether the bill will get a Senate floor hearing before the session ends at noon Saturday isn\u2019t clear.<\/p>\n

Asked for a response to the bill, Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell had this to say:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor will agree to webcast her cabinet meetings when the Legislature webcasts its caucus meetings.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill that would require Gov. Susana Martinez to webcast meetings of her cabinet has been on the Senate floor calendar for at least a couple of weeks without getting a hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[111,107],"class_list":["post-27450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27450","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=27450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}