Dear Editor:
First, I want to thank publicly the news team at the News-Sun for taking seriously my suggestion to update the newspaper’s “Mark the Date” entries for Hobbs City Commission meetings, advising readers that they can watch live and archived videos of the meetings on the Internet. That Hobbs residents can now watch online their elected officials doing the important work of the people’s business is a big accomplishment. Concerned citizens, transparency advocates and city staff should be commended for initiating this essential service last year. By way of the city’s webcasting service, I have now heard commissioners and city management discuss the results of a recent city survey, which included questions regarding residents’ use of the webcasting service. According to a News-Sun article about the survey results, about 68.5 percent of respondents said they never watch city commission meetings online, whereas 1.5 percent said they always do. Don’t let anyone tell you that these numbers suggest that the city’s streaming service has been a failure. Webcasting Hobbs’ public meetings is a service in its infancy. It’s been in operation less than one year. An erroneous assumption to make about the survey’s respondents, especially the 68.5 percent who said they “never watch city commission meetings online,” is that 100 percent knew prior to the survey that such a service is available and choose not to watch meetings online. (This is to say nothing of the survey results’ actual validity, or statistical significance, since the randomness of the sampling, as well as the sample size, might be cause for concern to a statistician.) As I watched the June 5 commission meeting online, I was overjoyed to hear several commissioners make suggestions on how to get more Hobbs residents to watch the meetings online. Commissioners noted that promotion of the streaming service has been absent from the city’s grassroots marketing during the last year. I heard commissioners suggest notices in the newspaper, posts on the city’s social-media assets like Facebook, and displaying a prominent advertisement about the service on the city’s website, just as it advertises the “Slow Your Roll” campaign and the option of online utility payments. Let’s cheer for these commissioners for offering solutions to improve residents’ participation in city government. I would go so far as to suggest paid advertising. I would like to reinforce the point: if there is lower-than-expected usage of the city’s webcasting, it has more to do with residents’ awareness of the service, rather than the service itself. This is a marketing issue. When one watches online a Hobbs public meeting in real time, the screen displays the number of viewers who are currently watching. Since the start of the service, that number has ranged from single digits to several dozen. To illustrate the effectiveness of streaming meetings online, I would like for commissioners, staff and residents to visualize a filled seat in the commission chambers for each person tuning in online. Seriously, city department heads and only the most devoted residents know all too well what it’s like to sit in a nearly empty chamber during a commission meeting. What if those 15 people watching online were sitting in the room? It really changes one’s perception, doesn’t it. Many may not be aware, but in addition to archives of regular commission meetings, the work sessions and special meetings that have been streamed are also archived at the city’s Livestream account, located at https://livestream.com/accounts/2058816. This web address is worth bookmarking in a preferred browser because not all meetings that have been broadcast through Livestream are archived on the city’s website. I urge Hobbsans who use Facebook to join the group “Hobbs Commission Cameras.” There, members discuss local civic issues, and I use the forum to encourage members to watch the meetings online by providing reminders, links and meeting agendas. At the most basic level, I want Hobbsans to work together to have much greater communication with our commissioners. We should be able to know what is being accomplished first-hand, even remotely through the technology of webcasting. Let’s hope that the city’s restraint in marketing the webcasting of meetings was not intentional. Let’s hope that, going forward, the city will make a good-faith effort to promote transparency by telling residents that they can watch their government at work by watching meetings online. We want City Hall to be as active at promoting transparency as it is at promoting publicity.
Dennis Barcuch, Hobbs
Water restrictions unreasonable for Hobbs residents
To the Editor: Where has all the common sense and logic gone with the City of Hobbs? As of May 16, water use in Hobbs has been restricted for the paying customers who are trying to water their yards, gardens and flowers. If there is a water crisis I will gladly follow the code but this restriction is stuck on us but the city fills all the swimming pools to maximum with thousands of gallons of water. Also we are now going to put in a water park that will use millions of gallons of water and we have splash pads all over the city that run all day long and who is paying for all of this water? I know the kids have to have recreation in the summer but if we really have a water crisis why is some of this waste not being cut back? Another problem is the watering times. It is dark at 4 a.m. and to try to water at that hour is a safety issue for anyone because you are stumbling around in the dark. Sorry we are not blessed with a sprinkler system. Then, the watering hour is 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. which is another issue of stumbling around in the dark to water. Another illogical reasoning is that your sewer rate is higher than your water rate. I don’t know about anyone else but only half the water I consume goes through the sewer line. The water department said that the rate is higher for your sewer than water; Why?
Jan Brooker, Hobbs