There’s a primary in district 2, quick, move the benches! It’s a safety issue! Ya gotta be effing kidding me, I couldn’t make this shit up. (And yes, call 911, I dropped the F-bomb) Ok, there’s a judges race too (the only other primary is in Stoughton), so that could pull in a few more absentee voters, but really? The police and fire departments lose all credibility when they make these kinds of claims. But then again, we gave them this “tool” to keep us safe.
From: Gloede, Carl [mailto:CGloede@cityofmadison.com]
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 1:59 PM
To: Alwin, Steve; Lowndes, Daniel; Myren, Travis; Ruckriegel, Ed
Cc: Davenport, John; Witzel-Behl, Maribeth; Veum, Eric
Subject: CCB MLK Lobby SeatingI attended a meeting this morning with the City Clerk’s office and the City Risk Manager to discuss the upcoming elections this spring.
There will be a two week period prior to the elections on February 21, 2012 and April 3, 2012, were citizens will come to the CCB City Clerk’s office to cast absentee ballots. During prior elections, there have been times of significant attendance and lines wrapping through the hallways. The Clerk’s office explained that as a result of the lines of people, the Fire Marshall has had concerns regarding the number of people in the hallways and egress routes for emergency exits and access to the elevators.
Due to the concerns for the safety of the public during these times, I am requesting the removal of seating in the MLK lobby of the CCB during the following weeks.
Monday February 6, 2012 – Friday February 17, 2012.
Monday March 19, 2012 – Friday March 30, 2012.Carl Gloede
Captain of Police: Central District
City of Madison Police Department
211 S. Carroll St.
Madison, WI 53703
The City of Madison should be proud! Our police department is going after the important issues! The community will be safe! (I think I have a budget cut suggestion for 2013.)
I was joking that they probably removed the benches for a bake sale, but this is even more absurd.
I have been in the City/County Bldg during times of heavy absentee voter turn-out: the 2008 Presidential Election. Yes, there were long line. Yes, it did disrupt other business on the first floor a little bit, mostly at lunch hour and right after work.
But the lines were not in the area where the benches are. The lines tend to be along the north wall, and really only impede access to the Assessor’s office and Clerk’s office. My recollection was that almost everyone in line was polite and respectful of the needs of others to use the building. The mood was more jovial than frustrated.And remember, in 2088, there was still a Visitor Information Desk in the lobby. The elevators can be accessed through the central corridor, if the north corridor happens to be slightly busy. Oh, but then people would have to walk right past the benches and their occupants. The City wishes that there was enough interest in local elections and judicial races to warrant concern that the building will be overcrowded! I suspect that even during the busiest moments, the line won’t stretch more than five or six feet from the door of the Clerk’s office. We get longer lines when people are trying to file paperwork for local races, and the media is trying to scoop each other.
They took out the benches in the Madison Municipal Building across the street sometime last year, Judy Miner has been contacting the city regularly about this (and has never gotten a straight answer for why they were taken out in the first place) and still no benches. My guess is once the benches are gone from CCB, they won’t be coming back there, either (We’ll probably hear that it costs too much to reinstall them — we all need to restrain spending, you know!)
Maybe we should buy every homeless person in the city a wheelchair, so they at least have a place to sit when they need it?