The Silenced Sound System Mystery

This one had a layer of dust on it, but I just had to pull it out…

One evening board meeting some time last year, I was sitting toward the back of the room, positioned so that I would be almost directly underneath what appeared to sound like a speaker above me.  I had pen and paper with me and was determined to take notes of the meeting.

Somewhere along the beginning of the meeting timeline, Mayor Murawski swung his chair right-wise (i.e. to his right, the audience’s left) until his back was the main feature I could see and then within a matter of seconds…

The sound system I was absorbing sound from silently sounded off from the airwaves…kerpoof!   I could barely hear a thing without this technological augmentation!

So was there a direct connection to why the sound system went out and the spin of Murawski in his chair?  Maybe, maybe not. Much of this would depend on whether or not the central nervous system is stored behind where the Mayor sits, where the on-off switch would be located and whether or not he actually caused the sound outage.  I do know not too long after this incident, the first part of another meeting was conducted completely off-microphone.  I unfortunately had to leave in the middle of the meeting due to previous obligations, so I really don’t know what the whole status is of our sound system, but it does bring forth some important questions regarding how we deal with the sounds projected within the walls of our Board Room Chambers.

How can we be sure the sound will not be silenced in the future?

Why, that’s part of the mystery!

Perhaps my past tours of Village, Town and City Hall’s have spoiled me.  Most Village Hall’s I have visited have some sort of amplification system as well as an ability to internally record the meeting in some format.  Some of the larger municipalities have wiring built into the room to provide additional technical support to those providing transparancy support, such as the media and an area clearly designated  for media personnel.  Members of Illinois Congress have their own switches on their individual microphones and if I recollect, one of our neighbors provides their Board Members similar individual on-off switch authority and power.

So here’s where the mystery lays with this suspicious silence from the Village Sound System last year.  Did it really fail that evening and if so, was the failure eventually fixed?  How much did the repairs cost in both labor and materials?  Who did the work?

Also,

1.  Do we record each meeting on video tape using the camera built into the corner and if so, for what application?  Is the camera for live security oversight at meetings or do we use the feed as official record of the meeting and subsequently archived and stored as a part of public record?  Does the camera also pick up sound or is there another source designed to record the sounds of the board meeting?

2.  If audio recordings are being made of the meeting, how are they being processed and stored?  Are they being captured on a cassette tape or perhaps in a DAT format?  What privacy rights, if any, are associated with the materials captured by such recording equipment?  If personal information is contained in such recordings, what procedures are in place to notify such individuals should their be a data breach?  Is the Village ready and able to comply with Illinois’ statutes that govern this notification process under what circumstances?

3.  If the Village has not made any efforts to record any of the meetings in any manner, then what are the theoretical grounds for a decision that allows for important historical events to slip into the past without another potential repeat or re-listen to anything that transpired during such meeting, such as the passage of legislation?

For what its worth, I’d certainly point out that even if we haven’t recorded any Board Meetings in the past, I would think the swearing in of a new Mayor would warrant a few people coming out to help capture the event.

I must make mention of another set of circumstances for this Midlothian Murawski Mystery Series that blends in with this specific set of circumstances:

Hanging on one of the bulleting boards in Village Hall is a set of rules governing the recording of a Village Hall meeting.  I can’t tell you how much trouble you would have to go through to get a copy of this particular document because it is one of the few regulations the Village hastily ensured I had a copy of once I involved the Illinois Attorney General’s Office and filed request for intervention between a dispute as to whether or not the Village had the authority to arrest me on felony charges if I was to video tape a meeting for public record-keeping purposes.  It was jaw-dropping the number of people who were involved with this particular mystery but only a mention is warranted here since I am making mention that unless someone brings recording equipment to the May 13, 2009 swearing-in ceremony, yet another historical moment in the legacy of Midlothian politics will become nothing more than an oral recounting of the event.

This one is going to need some more looking into…