YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP [with 2 updates]

Did someone say something
about the need for a stop sign?

At the November 2022 Informal Common Council meeting, 4th ward alder Malachi Walker (and possibly 5th ward alder Vicky Daskaloudi) brought 2 traffic issues to HPD Police Chief Ed Moore's attention.  Walker felt that the traffic headed east on Paddock Place at the intersection with Joslen Place (by the tennis courts) needed a stop sign, and that the end of 4th Street at State needed a NO TURN ON RED sign.  Ed Moore said that he would notify Police Commissioner Shane Bower of these two issues since Mr. Bower was not at the meeting, neither in person nor on Zoom.  According to our City Code, the Police Commissioner is the only official at City Hall who has the authority to order traffic control devices to be installed or modified.

One month later, at the December 12, 2022 Informal Common Council meeting, Ed Moore ended his HPD report with an update about the sign requests from the previous month's meeting:  "Malachi had a request for 4th and State for a NO TURN ON RED sign, and a stop sign over at Paddock Place.  All those are going to be taken up by the Commissioner and DPW."  Commissioner Bower was not present at the meeting.  Robert Perry gave his DPW report later in the meeting via Zoom, but did not mention the signs.

At the January 9th, 2023 Informal Common Council meeting, it was an embarrassing public display of government dysfunction in relation to the requested signs.  Malachi first asked DPW Superintendent Robert Perry, who was on Zoom, when he thought the sign on 4th "could be put up."  Perry responded:  "I don't know anything about it."  Walker then asked Perry, "So you weren't informed about this?"  "Well," Perry replied, " you sent me a text about this a few weeks ago.  But let's be perfectly honest, I don't make that decision... You don't have to make that case to me.  If the Police Commissioner wants a traffic control device modified, it's 100 percent his decision.  We just install it.  We are in the pick it up and put it down department."  And that appeared to be the end of the discussion.  Ed Moore was in the chambers, but he had nothing to add or clarify.  Shane Bower, the oft-mentioned Police Commissioner, was not at the meeting, not in person nor on Zoom.

Didn't there used to be a 
NO TURN ON RED sign here?

DPW Commissioner Peter Bujanow, who rarely has a thing to say at meetings and was attending, as usual, via Zoom, spoke up soon after, saying that since there had once been a NO TURN ON RED sign at 4th and State, the sign needed to be "reinstalled."  He then said this:  "I will send you an email, Chief Moore.  And Rob, I will copy you and we'll send it to the Police Commissioner asking for that [sign] to be reinstalled.  If you could evaluate that and then respond accordingly when you get a moment."

At the February Informal Common Council meeting this past Monday, without the Police Commissioner present yet again, there was no mention of the signs during Ed Moore's HPD report.  But after the report, Vicky Daskaloudi spoke to Ed about a few issues, one being the signs.  She said that she had spoken with the Police Commissioner on the phone and that he was looking into the NO TURN ON RED sign issue at 4th and State.  Daskaloudi also said that the Commissioner told her that he was unaware of any request for a STOP SIGN on Paddock Place.  This was, of course, 3 months after the issue was brought to the Police Chief's attention at November's meeting.

I've said it elsewhere, but this will be the first time on HUDseen:  It is as if no one at City Hall actually speaks to one another.

There are three commissioners in City Hall.  2 of them regularly show up to Informal meetings, though they are not required to:  Maija Reed of the Youth Department (usually in person), and Peter Bujanow of DPW (via Zoom).  The only time I have ever heard or seen the Police Commissioner, Shane Bower, at an informal meeting, either in person at the chambers or on Zoom, was late last summer when he filled in for Ed Moore to give the HPD report via Zoom.

And, perhaps most concerning, why is it that the alders and the public are informing Ed Moore, Robert Perry and, especially, Shane Bower that there are obvious missing signs all over town?  Signs designed to keep drivers safe and prevent accidents.  Signs that have gone missing and not replaced.  Why are we doing their work for them?  

Also at Monday's meeting, I asked Ed Moore why Shane Bower never attends meetings and if Ed cared whether Shane attended or not.  Ed responded with a non-answer, offering instead that Shane is "at the HPD station every day; he's very busy."

Busy doing what?

Update 3/20:  The NO TURN ON RED sign was installed at 4th and State a day or two before the Informal Council meeting last week.  As far as I could tell, the HPD Commissioner Shane Bower was not in attendance of that meeting, and I heard nothing about the requested STOP sign on Paddock. 

Update 4/11:  A STOP sign was installed on Paddock sometime in the past week or two.