http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqAJtq8bU7I&t=784
Video from the January 8 meeting of the Otero County Commission.
The Otero County Commission is getting statewide attention this week. The commission made the front page of the Albuquerque Journal on Monday. The article focused on a January meeting in which the commissioners whispered during a discussion about the appointment of a county probate judge.
The article notes New Mexico’s Open Meetings Act does not provide for whispers or private notes about official business during public meetings.
But the controversy did not end there. A man identifying himself as a Lutheran pastor told Commission Chair Ronny Rardin that he objected to Rardin saying “in Jesus name” during an invocation at the start of the meeting. Rardin rejected the criticism and told the pastor that "trivial" comments threatened the allowance for public comment at meetings. The pastor told Rardin that issues concerning the separation of church and state are hardly trivial.
The Journal article notes at the next commission meeting in February, public comment was limited to three minutes on urgent matters only, and no one spoke.