The last thing our ruling Democrats want to do amid mass skepticism of our government leaders is shut off the cameras that have been allowing us to watch key proceedings at the state legislature for the past five months.
The good news is that Democratic leaders have been talking as if the cameras, installed to test a system that streams video from Capitol committees, will continue rolling.
The bad news is, it’s looking like the video system is going to be shut off, at least temporarily, because a final vote by the poobahs in charge has yet to happen. And without the approval of about $70,000 in funds, our live video of the panels will go black.
Back to the good news, which we’re all desperate for these days.
House Speaker Julie McCluskie (D-Dillon), who is vice chair of the committee that must approve the funds, said during a November hearing that she was optimistic that money would be found to keep the cameras on.
“I look forward with optimism that we will expand the service we have started to provide and allow video streaming for all of our committee rooms,” said McCluskie, as reported by Jeffrey Roberts, director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition.
But McCluskie’s Executive Committee of Legislative Council isn’t set to meet in December, according to Natalie Castle, Director of Legislative Council Staff (LCS), meaning that a vote to provide the funding and avoid a shutoff is unlikely to occur.
The next meeting of the Executive Committee of Legislative Council will take place in January, and Castle expects the Committee to “meet several times during the first few months of the legislative session.”
So it appears that a regrettable temporary blackout will be in effect when legislative business starts Jan. 14. (Audio will still be provided, however.)
And it’s still possible the committee could meet before the end of the year and vote on the cameras then, wrote Castle via email to the Colorado Times Recorder.
If the video system, which was accessed 15,000 times during the pilot phase, is shut down, it could be quickly restarted without additional cost, wrote Castle.
It’s not great if a temporary shutdown occurs, but you can understand why our legislators have been slow to approve even the small amounts of tax money amid Colorado’s horrific budget crisis.
Still, as part of our larger fight against the attacks on our public institutions and the people leading them, the executive committee should not allow Colorado to go back to having the nation’s only state legislature that doesn’t livestream videos of committee hearings. The video should start streaming as soon as possible.
CORRECTION: This article initially stated that the Executive Committee of Legislative Council has a scheduled meeting in January. It does not have a specific date set for a meeting.
