The Colorado Legislature will test out a method to stream committee hearing videos during the interim between regular sessions this year.

The Executive Committee of the Legislative Council, made up of party leaders in both chambers, voted to approve the pilot program last week.

Image

Committee audio is currently livestreamed on the Legislature’s website. The video pilot program will enable video via fixed cameras in five committee rooms from August until November this year. There are a handful of committees scheduled for that time period, including a meetings of the Black Coloradan Racial Equity Study Commission, Legislative Audit Committee and Joint Budget Committee.

After the pilot concludes, legislative leadership will review public feedback of the experience and a report from Legislative Council Staff’s Information Technology department to determine whether it should completely implement the video capability.

It would cost $20,000 to set up and $50,000 annually to maintain the system, according to Zack Wimberly with LCS. He is still determining if the pilot program would have a cost to set up, he said.

Manish Jani, LCS’s deputy director, told lawmakers on Wednesday that the pilot program may not be as comprehensive as a fully-implemented one, and might not cover every scenario in a committee room that could arise during a regular session, such as a lengthy hearing with a long list of witnesses.

“The outlier scenarios may not be factored into the pilot, but it should give us a solid perspective on what the experience would look like,” he said.