The benches are back! Thanks especially the County Board Supervisors and County Executive Parisi – for doing the right thing. Now, where were the alders? And why were they returned?
We held a little celebration at the City-County Building regarding the return of the benches. Read below for theories on how it happened. Meantime, thanks to Melissa Sargent, Dianne Hesselbein, Scott McDonell and Al Matano who stopped by at noon and 6:00. And to all the AFCME folks who stood up (or sat down) with us!
Somehow, I missed a picture of Linda Keys and I a couple others, some as they were passing through. It was nice to see people completely unaware coming in and sitting on the benches as they pulled paperwork out of their bags or waited for someone else. It was also nice to get kudos from several staff in the building and people who are frequently in the building. Verveer and Cnare did says a few words as they wandered by, Verveer had a nice smile on his face. Other alders walked by – completely unaware? Or annoyed? I know Carousel Bayrd and Brian Solomon wished they could be there. Even the maintenance guy liked the balloons because it brightened up the area. And, we even talked to some people who came in to vote (former county board sup and former Cap Times staffer) who had no issue with us sitting there! 🙂
Now, the million dollar question. Why were they returned. We had heard the mayor’s office was inquiring with staff about what we had planned for the sit in – we suspected that was why they were returned before we could sit-in. Perhaps they just got too embarrassed? By the time Parisi wrote the lovely note below – it seemed already resolved. It doesn’t matter how, what matters is, everyone uses these benches, you don’t have to be homeless to need them – and we were just doing what the mayor told us to do. Sit on the benches, right?
Here’s the note from Parisi’s staff – hopefully he remembers this issue come budget time.
From: Wescott, Joshua
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 1:30 PM
To: Gloede, Carl
Cc: Miley, Sally; Sargent, Melissa; Myren, Travis; Clear, Mark; Thurlow, Karin Peterson
Subject: Request for Review of CCB Bench RemovalGood afternoon Captain Gloede:
In a January 27th email to Dane County Facilities Management the Madison Police Department cited concerns about “significant attendance and lines wrapping through the hallways” in advance of the spring primary and general elections as reasoning for a request to temporarily remove the benches from the front lobby area of the City County Building.
Based on a briefing the County Executive received from the Department of Administration, it appears that to date absentee voting numbers have not resulted in lines the Police Department may have initially been concerned would restrict access. This may be a result of the relatively limited number of primary elections on the ballot next week.
As former Dane County Clerk, the Executive’s experience is that spring elections generally see lower absentee turnout – – as has been the case to date.
The County Executive respectfully asks the Madison Police Department to revisit the need for this request, in light of experiences to date. If the department concurs that a safety hazard doesn’t exist, please advise Facilities Management so the benches can be restored in a timely fashion for the public to use.
Thank you for your consideration.
Joshua Wescott
The response:
Josh,
A review was already conducted and a request to facilities management was sent this morning for the return of the benches.
Carl Gloede
I hope people were embarrassed enough they will think twice before they try to get away with something this absurd again in the future.
Just before the benches were returned, I sent the following letter:
Dear City-County Liaison Committee Members,I assume you folks are somehow responsible for setting policy in the CCB, so I’m addressing this to you.I am extremely disappointed that the seats and benches have been removed from the lobby of the CCB. I use those, as do quite a few other people, most of whom are NOT homeless. When I am downtown, I have been known to pop in to the CCB lobby to check email or something else via the City wi-fi network. I’ve waited for people in that lobby. I’ve killed a few minutes before meetings or even just used the seats to sit and look for something in my backpack.Both when I was on the Council and more recently, I have seen family members and friends – often parents with small children or elderly folks – sitting, waiting for someone to finish some business in a city or county office. Places to sit down are becoming harder and harder to find. We all need to sit down once in awhile. Any public building should have places to sit; that’s just part of being a public building. Besides, the lobby looks very bare and sterile without any furniture. I heard that the excuse was so that there wold be plenty of space for the hoards of voters coming to the clerk’s office. Please. You can’t really say that with a straight face, can you? I remember the presidential elections of 2004 and 2008, when there really were long lines waiting to vote. Yet somehow, the benches never were a problem then. And the Visitor’s Info counter was still in place at that time.If this was a decision you supported, you should be ashamed. I am not yet feeble and unable to to stand, but others may not fall into that category. And as I said, we all want to sit down once in awhile.Please reinstall seating in the public building that we all pay for. It’s the right thing to do.Former Madison Alder, Robbie Webber
Those aren’t benches, Brenda.