Officials hail transparency initiatives

Public works meetings, committee hearings will be broadcast online

Friday, July 2, 2010

ANNAPOLIS — It might soon be easier to find a coveted seat at Maryland Board of Public Works meetings or previously crowded committee hearing rooms.

Responding to calls from lawmakers and the public to make government more accessible, officials this week announced plans to stream their meetings live online and perhaps use technology to promote greater participation in the legislative process.

"We consider this a big victory for a state that has already made great advances in allowing for transparency and open access," said Del. Heather R. Mizeur (D-Montgomery), who this year sponsored the Maryland Open Government Act that called for many of the steps announced last week.

Lobbyists will not have to foot the bill, as initially proposed.

Mizeur's bill called for the lobbying registration fee to be increased from $100 to $145 — a separate bill would have increased the fee to $250 — and to eliminate the $800 annual Up-to-the-Minute subscription for real-time information.

Instead, the estimated $100,000 cost to operate the equipment that will broadcast live audio and video in the House of Delegates and live audio only in the Senate will come out of the state's general fund.

Committee rooms in the Miller Senate Office Building, which opened in 2000, are not equipped with video cameras like those installed in the Casper R. Taylor Jr. House Office Building, which was completed in 2006. Briefings in the Joint Hearing Room of the 34-year-old Legislative Services Building will not be recorded initially because the room is not equipped with the technology to do so.

Until now, audio of hearings has been available only in legislative offices.

Open government advocates cheered the measures, calling it a continuation of the decision during this year's session to post committee votes online.

"Opening up the legislative process in a place like Annapolis, which is known for secrecy, is really vital," Common Cause Maryland Executive Director Ryan O'Donnell said. "We live in the 21st century. We should be thinking about ways to strengthen democracy through technology."

The best part of Wednesday's announcement, he said, was waiving the Up-to-the-Minute service fee, which created unequal access among special interest groups and average citizens.

The service was provided by the General Assembly's Office of Information Systems and enabled subscribers to receive current information on chamber proceedings and bill status that nonsubscribers could not see until the following day.

The July 7 Board of Public Works meeting will mark the debut broadcast, which can be accessed on the governor's official website.

Although the Governor's Reception Room, where Board of Public Works meetings typically take place, is not outfitted with a camera, the Department of Information Technology located a device that the state already owned to record the proceedings. Six miniature cameras are mounted in the head of a gadget that sits on a side table and is voice-activated so it focuses on the person who is speaking.

Legislative leaders said Maryland is a leader in making government open and accessible. Some states do not record legislators' votes, let alone post them online or expressly bar the public from committee voting sessions, said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert, Prince George's).

Audio recordings of floor sessions in both chambers are archived and the voluminous state budget can be accessed on the General Assembly's website, as can floor votes, bill drafts and fiscal analyses.

Maryland has come a long way from when Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp (D) joined the House of Delegates in 1975.

"We had to actually have an insurrection to have recorded committee votes — just recorded, much less public," she recalled.

abrody@somdnews.com