Testimony: Simple transparency reforms
Testimony in Support of LD 1425: “An Act to Strengthen Freedom of Access Protections by Allowing Remote Meetings to Be Recorded”
Senator Carney, Representative Moonen, and the distinguished members of the Committee on Judiciary, my name is Nick Murray and I serve as director of policy for Maine Policy Institute. We are a free market think tank, a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that advocates for individual liberty and economic freedom in Maine. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on LD 1425.
This bill is a commonsense public transparency measure; it would impose a basic requirement of public officials so that the people may check the record of actions pursued in their name.
LD 1425 merely requires that public bodies must record and publish their meetings on the same platform used to conduct the meeting, as long as doing so does not incur additional costs on the committee or other public body.
Many of these bodies still conduct their meetings via Zoom, a platform with an easily-used recording feature. Several other types of video conferencing software also offer this. This rule governing public transparency should be enacted posthaste, for the benefit of Maine citizens; there is no excuse for this bill to fail.
Please deem LD 1425 “Ought To Pass” and continue this work to strengthen FOAA and public access. Thank you for your time and consideration.