Man records Roselle meetings to spark interest

Dan Baran sat silent in the back row of the Roselle Village Board room, with his laptop steadied on the chair beside him and a tiny video camera pointed at the trustees.

After about an hour during last week's village board and committee meetings, Trustee Terrance Wittman welcomed Baran and asked why he was recording the proceedings.

“I think there's not enough people coming to these meetings,” Baran, 26, told village officials. “So I figured I'd record it and put it online.”

With hopes that his neighbors will become more engaged in village politics — and especially Roselle's finances — Baran has launched operationroselle.com. Visitors can find agendas for each week's village board and committee meetings, see them streamed live, or watch the posted videos afterward.

Baran, who grew up in Roselle, said he was indifferent to local politics until his parents got involved in the March election.

Then, he said, he paid more attention and went to a village board meeting for the first time in August. During that meeting, village officials recommended a plan that they said would cut costs and improve revenues and avoid the possibility Roselle could go bankrupt in less than 10 years.

“They are sitting there talking about how bad it is that we're going broke, but no one in the town has done anything to change it by voting differently,” Baran said. “No serious candidates have run against (Village President) Gayle (Smolinski) in recent years. You just see how little people are aware of what's going on in their town. You hear people complaining, but no one taking the time to spend two hours on a Monday night.”

Baran is a web developer and self-proclaimed “technology nerd,” so uploading the meetings is easy, he said. He added he plans to attend and record meetings “as much as I can.”

During last week's meeting, Wittman said he also wished more residents shared Baran's interest in local issues.

The ultimate goal, Baran said, is to make meetings more convenient to access and increase resident participation. He said recordings give viewers a more accurate idea of what's happening than meeting minutes, since they don't capture tone of voice and expressions.

“I hope people will stand up and pay more attention to their town,” Baran said.