| CURRENT WEATHER: Clear, 48° |
|
|
|
||
|
||||
|
May 23, 2003
Legislature's virtual watchdogThe 435-mile trip to the state capital might pay off for people wanting to lobby for a specific cause, but for Nevada's more passive observers, there's a more convenient way to watch what our legislators are doing. We can let our mouse pad and index finger do the walking. During the 2001 session, I found out about a computer software package that makes it possible to watch live, or at least hear, debates among the different legislative committees and the full assembly and senate. The Internet address is www.leg.state.nv.us. Watching streaming video requires a 56K connection; just listening tot he proceedings requires 28K. (Of course, I found other uses for the software, called Real Player. In the office late at night, during my free time, I'd listen to music over the Internet from faraway radio stations in Greece, Brazil, India and Hawaii.) I found that listening into the legislative session - even from 435 miles away - gave me a competitive edge. For example, while a competing newspaper in Pahrump was reporting all was fine and dandy with a bill to move the Nye County line two miles into Clark County back in 2001, I was able to watch residents of the Rogers Estates subdivision complain loudly about being included in annexation plan. The bill, introduced by our State Sen. Mike McGinness at the last minute, passed anyway over the objections of the Clark County Commissioner for that district, Erin Kenny. This session there aren't as many burning issues specific to Pahrump, like the high tech center, a bill setting up a second district court in Pahrump, or the county line bill. Probably one of the more pertinent local bills this time is a "what if" bill, Assembly Bill 402, which could be extremely important if Rural Health Management Corporation were somehow unable to follow through with construction of a hospital in Pahrump. At the start of the current session on Feb. 3, I was alarmed to find out I couldn't log onto Real Player from my computer anymore. Fortunately, an information technology geek - ahem, technician - from Las Vegas who happened to be in the Pahrump Valley Times office got me logged onto the newest software, Windows Media Player 7. While my computer linkup at the Pahrump Valley View wasn't good enough to do anything but listen to the state legislative committee meetings reliably in 2001, thanks apparently to the Times' T1 line I am now able to watch the committee as well, without losing the transmission. So there I was, sitting in the comfort of my office, watching our Assemblyman Rod Sherer make the presentation on the certificate of need bill, followed by Roy Barraclough, director of operations for Rural Health Management Corporation, talking in support of Sherer's bill but urging the committee not to expand it beyond a limited exemption for Pahrump's circumstances. With the committee meetings under the scrutiny of computer hackers like me, politicians and interested persons would no longer be able to sneak something by legislators in Carson City without the public watching. It's a good idea to keep watch on the state legislators from a personal standpoint as well. They seem to like to regulate driving, and this session they have already considered a mandatory seat belt law and another measure that would lower the threshold for a drunk driving charge from a .10 blood-alcohol level to .08. (For the record, I've never been pulled over for driving while intoxicated, but it would be handy to have a Breathalyzer posted at certain bars to check yourself out. At a festival in San Antonio once I was feeling a little tipsy. They had a Breathalyzer in a booth, so I stepped inside and blew a .11. I had to wait a while before I got in my car to drive the 70 miles to my nephew's house in Austin.) For someone who has never sat in the state capitol before, watching our government in action, it was fascinating to watch the procedures. Bills were debated at greater length in the committees, but once on the floor, the clerk of the Assembly read the title of the bills so fast, she would make a Philadelphia lawyer sound like a country hick. The votes came almost as quickly. I can just imagine how angry audience members who attend our Pahrump town board and Nye County Commission meetings would be if the board chairman read off a proposed ordinance for consideration so fast they couldn't understand what was said. When members of the Assembly weren't rushing through votes on a list of bills, they sat around wasting time on a resolution declaring it Kiwanis Day. As part of the declaration, a Reno assemblyman introduced members of the local Kiwanis Club. A Las Vegas assemblyman then spent another good chunk of time introducing members of the visiting Rancho High School band. It seems Las Vegas and Reno are also well represented in presenting testimony for the legislature. Las Vegas is a big enough city to have lobbyists make presentations. Reno-area leaders show up because they're close by. That was clearly in evidence on the gargantuan education bill, Assembly Bill 264, which as originally written, would've added five days to the school year, paid teachers a minimum starting salary of $30,000 per year, allowed districts to require uniforms and set up full-day kindergarten for at-risk students. Virtual attendance is not just a state phenomenon, either. The Nye County Commission will soon consider adopting a videoconferencing system like the one used by the Nye County School District. The plan is for county meetings to be telecast between the Pahrump Community Center, the Nye County Courthouse in Tonopah and possibly other communities such as Beatty and Round Mountain. That's a suitable alternative for people unable to make the 165-mile trip to Tonopah. The Carson City Commission airs its entire meetings on a cable television public access channel. That would be even easier. Then we could simply click the channel changer to watch an agenda item that is of interest to us, then flip back to "NYPD Blue" or "American Idol" if a commissioner or town board member drones on too long about some boring topic. That may reduce the attendance from the usual meeting gadflies who could watch the meetings from home, but it would also cut down on the meeting time as fewer people would probably be there to complain. Contact Mark Waite at mwaite@pvtimes.com. |
