Socorro<\/a>.<\/p>\nHobbs\u00a0recently started broadcasting commission meetings on a local radio station. That’s\u00a0helpful for people who can listen live, but not those who are busy with jobs, families or other activities. You can buy a CD containing an audio recording of a meeting from the city if you have the money and means to pick it up.<\/p>\n
That’s not good enough for many. Dennis Barcuch, a business owner in Hobbs, is also\u00a0encouraging\u00a0the city\u00a0to implement webcasting. He said he believes archived\u00a0video available online any time of day\u00a0would\u00a0increase citizen participation and help commissioners take the pulse of their constituents.<\/p>\n
Seeing what officials say, rather than just hearing, is important, Barcuch said.<\/p>\n
“I want to see that somebody nods their head or looks away. I want to see them pick their nose. I want to see them agree with an issue or disagree with an issue with their subtle nuances,” Barcuch said. “There is nothing to hide, right? That\u2019s the famous government saying: If you have nothing to hide, there\u2019s nothing to fear.”<\/p>\n
‘We want to try to do it right’<\/h3>\n
Commissioners haven’t committed to implementing webcasting but have listened to the pleas from Marshall and Barcuch. At a recent commission meeting, Mayor Sam Cobb expressed some concern but also suggested the city may\u00a0move in the direction of webcasting.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re not professional speakers and so the camera sometimes makes you reticent,” Cobb said. He added that using technology to help the public engage is a good thing.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think any of us disagree with that,” Cobb said.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Marshall Newman, a retired Hobbs police chief, told Barcuch at that meeting that the city was moving in the direction of webcasting. He said he understood that citizens wanted to see their elected officials in action.<\/p>\n
“But at the same time we don\u2019t have the opportunity to look at you on the other side sitting on a bean bag eating Cheetos,” Newman said. His words\u00a0led to laughter and some joking.<\/p>\n
Commissioner\u00a0Garry Buie thanked Marshall and Barcuch for pushing the city to focus on webcasting.<\/p>\n
“You two gentlemen have really stood up and I do appreciate that you\u2019re making us look deeper,” he told Barcuch.<\/p>\n
The commission has instructed City Manager J.J. Murphy to “bring us some proposals” related to webcasting in the next few weeks, Cobb told NMPolitics.net in an interview.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s going to\u00a0get that information together, and he\u2019s been talking to a number of other communities around the state and country,” Cobb said. “We want to\u00a0try to do it right the first time.”<\/p>\n
Marshall claimed the city manager\u00a0told him\u00a0nothing would happen until at least next year. Murphy and some commissioners have responded negatively to the\u00a0push for webcasting, Marshall said.<\/p>\n
Murphy didn’t return a call from NMPolitics.net.<\/p>\n
‘It’s not an expensive proposition’<\/h3>\n
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government supports local governments webcasting to increase access, said Executive Director Susan Boe.<\/p>\n
“We have the technology to do it. It\u2019s not an expensive proposition,” Boe\u00a0said. “So we would encourage Hobbs to move in this direction.”<\/p>\n
Marshall said he’ll keep pushing to increase citizen access in Hobbs through webcasting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m feeling better now. That\u2019s why I\u2019m active in the politics,” he said. “I think about all those people \u2013 the people who are sick, the single mother with three kids, those who have to work.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Hobbs City Commission is behind the curve when it comes to webcasting and archiving video of its meetings online. Two residents are pushing to change that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[885,706],"class_list":["post-62736","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\/62736","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=62736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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