Why won’t leadership in the Capitol livestream the entire Legislature?

 By Jon Caldara

In a previous life I was on the Regional Transportation District (RTD) board of directors. This elected position paid a whopping $250 a month but it did include a free bus pass. And let me tell you, the ladies dig a man with a bus pass. 

In 1997 RTD (actually, the bond dealers and contractors who run RTD) were trying to con the voters into a massive tax increase to buy a trolley system so bond dealers and contractors would make a killing from the boondoggle. The board was split on this idea, with a slight majority bending a knee to their crony overlords.

Denver’s municipal Channel 8 brought forward an interesting proposal: at no cost to RTD they’d televise our board meetings. Awesome.

Given smaller governments, from town councils to school boards, broadcast their public meetings, this was a no-brainer for RTD, the fourth largest government in the state. Let the people see the people’s business. 

The RTD board rejected the proposal. The very same directors who voted “yes” for the tax increase voted “no” to broadcasting their behavior at public meetings.

They knew full well if voters saw the dysfunction and ineptitude of the board, they’d never vote to give these clowns more of their money.

More than a quarter-century later, the very same dynamic plays out with the clown show that is our state Legislature. 

Colorado is only one of two states that don’t livestream committee meetings.

Colorado is a big freaking state, bigger in land mass than the United Kingdom. If citizens in Durango wish to witness their representatives in action, they must drive 350 miles to do so. This is so far that their soon-to-bemandated electric vehicles will need to charge overnight somewhere along the route.

When the House or Senate meet in full, in the big chambers, well, that’s streamed live on ColoradoChannel.net. And that’s fine, but that’s not where the real deal-making of governing happens. That happens in committee meetings.

Both chambers have 10 committees each that decide the fate of legislation before it goes to either floor for a vote. Beyond that there are 15 year-round committees and another 14 interim committees. What goes on in these 49 committees constitutes the overwhelming majority of decision making at the Capitol. And you must be in-person if you want to see it.

Let me amend that: Every committee room in the Capitol is equipped with video cameras and large TV monitors. If you wish to testify in one of those committees, assuming they allow testimony, you can sign up to do so online.

Post COVID, we all understand how Zoom works, even our legislators. So, the only way to remotely witness government in action is to give testimony online. Only then can you see the whole thing remotely. But you must testify and not all meetings have testimony 

This Zoom participation proves live streaming these meetings is just a matter of flipping a switch to make public what only that handful of people online can see now.

Bart Miller, the chairman of the Colorado Channel Authority, the entity created by state government to broadcast video of the House and Senate (but only the big chambers), says they lobbied in vain to let them flip that switch on for years and years and years.

And get this, it doesn’t take a vote of the full House and Senate, they just need the OK from one of those committees they’re not allowed to broadcast on Zoom. The Executive Committee of the Legislative Council is made of legislative leadership — Senate President James Coleman, Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie and the minority and majority leaders of both houses.

If you’re keeping score at home that’s four Democrats and two Republicans (who have no problem flipping the Zoom switch to “public”).

And here’s the cherry on top: since the late 1960s legislative staff must keep an audio recording of all these committee meetings.

Bart Miller of the Colorado Channel Authority tells me his governmental authority would be happy to disband all together and go away if legislative staff flipped the video switches on along with the audio switch they already run.

When was the last time a governmental authority suggested its own demise to throw some sunlight into some of the government’s darkest rooms?

What are they hiding?