Wilton Treasurer DJ Garcia and Deputy Treasurer Deb Mortvedt spend most Monday nights in the Wilton Town Hall, sitting together in what they jokingly call “the cool kids table” while attending the weekly meeting of the Select Board. Later that week, they revisit their favorite topics during their podcast, “After the Checks are Signed.”
The idea came to them – where else? – at a Select Board meeting.
Mortvedt said the two were chatting outside the Town Hall courtroom while the Select Board was in a non-public session, and Mortvedt floated the idea that they should take their chatting on-air.
Garcia said he’d been asking Mortvedt to step in as his deputy treasurer at the time. “I won’t say it was a negotiating chip, but…” Garcia joked.
The idea has been the same since its inception, Garcia said. Though the Select Board meetings are recorded and posted on the town’s website, and are still happening in-person at the Town Hall, very few people in town are turning up in person or tuning in after the fact. The podcast goes over discussions and decisions made at Select Board meetings, but pares down several hours worth of discussion into bullet points.
“It was an opportunity to disseminate what happens at these meetings, and invite people to come sit at ‘the cool kids table’ with us,” Garcia said.
Garcia said he brought the knowledge and equipment to the table. A former DJ – he’s aware of the irony of being “DJ DJ” – he’s considered starting a podcast several times. A “quasi-political” recap of town business wasn’t the direction he thought he’d take it, he said, but that’s the idea that took root.
But while both are town officials, they made it clear that the podcast is a side gig, and doesn’t represent the town, but their own views. Sometimes they bring their own perspectives into the discussion.
“While this subject isn’t the be all and end all for me, there is enough to that we’re able to engage on it,” Garcia said.
The original plan was to produce two podcasts a month, after fulfilling their treasurer duties processing the town’s payroll, which is where the name “After the Checks are Signed” originates. The two started the podcast on Jan. 27, recording it in the Town Hall meeting room. Come March, COVID-19 put their production to a halt. But after several months off, the duo decided they needed to get back to the microphones, jumping back into the podcast in July, although their most recent episodes have been recorded from Mortvedt’s home, instead of the Town Hall.
The episodes are pretty natural in their production, Mortvedt said. The two sit down, and have a conversation. They discuss topics beforehand and make a bullet point list for reference, but don’t script anything, and there is no editing afterward. They simply rely on their friendly chemistry and talk about town topics for about half an hour, and then upload the result.
“It’s pretty informal here,” Mortvedt said.
Their long hiatus has resulted in only a small number of episodes – only 10 – but Garcia said they have logged over 400 downloads, a number he’s proud of for a hyper-local audience and a hyper-specific topic. Episodes such as their recap of the March town elections got the most attention.
Episodes of After the Checks are Signed are available on Podbean.com.