Sign Language? Help Me To Understand, Please

I need some help, neighbors:

This morning I went with several local candidates and people who were working in campaigns to retrieve campaign signs that had been taken from where they were placed, in some cases on private property where permission to put those signs was given, for the following candidates:

Mark Chmura, Michael Lambert, and Ed O’ Rourke (all village trustee candidates)

Tom Paul and Mark Reynolds (both fire district candidates)

Rob Ayers, Mary Kay Ludemann, Larry Newton, and Mimi Poling (all park district candidates)

The candidates who were able to show up with me and a few others at 8a today at the Public Works building to ask if they could have their signs back were Chmura, Lambert, O’Rourke, and Paul. Others had neighbors like me who offered to go. We went there because we kept being told that “red trucks like the ones the village uses” were seen collecting the signs and by law, when such signs are collected by the municipality, they are to be held aside and candidates can politely ask to get them back. This is supposed to be in cases where a candidate makes mistakes about placing a few signs, but the idea is not that they should lose that sign as a punishment. They just need to come get it back if they want it.

Allan Persons, the Director of Public Works told us that his staff has not been touching signs and he helped us find out that there were signs, collected by Code Enforcement staff on the Police side of the equation.

So, we crossed over to the Police Department where one officer and a manager in code enforcement tried to help us and while it was first said the signs were gone and tossed in the garbage and long gone--though even the code enforcement manager admitted that shouldn’t have happened because the law says those signs are to be held until after the election because candidates are allowed to request them back--we were then told there were signs in a dumpster behind the station. We were allowed to collect those signs.

Here’s the thing: of the signs collected, probably about 60 or so, the majority were Chmura, Lambert, and O’Rourke--no Wojo, no Lamb, and no Green, who are the other three candidates in the village board race. Other signs were for Fire District candiates Paul and Reynolds, and none of their opponents, either. Signs for the four park district candidates Ludemann, Newton, Poling, and Ayres were pulled from the trash, too.

Are those candidates signs somehow especially worthy of yanking away, sometimes illegally, and trashing (definitely illegally)? What’s so special about Wojo signs that not only are they not being swiped and dumped, but in areas today up and down Van Dyke road, etc., Wojo signs have replaced the signs of others in spots deemed ”prohibited” for sign placement in days prior?

I know that we do have village code about signs in parkways, etc. But I also know that the code has never been strenuously enforced like this unless it was a matter of public safety (lines of sight blocked, for example) or public complaint. It costs a lot of taxpayer money to pay staff to collect those signs. I’d hope they have more pressing work to do for us.

Allan Persons is a good man and not a liar, so if he says his staff isn’t doing it, they aren’t. At least not that they’re telling him. Are even a couple of staff going rogue, lying to management about what they’re spending time on in the field? Mr. Persons told us Public Works is not on this task of sign removal, but then why are many people in town reporting seeing red pickups like those driven by Public Works taking away all but Wojo signs? TO BE CLEAR: No one who has seen one of these trucks has gotten close enough to confirm that there’s a village logo on the side. But, people feel pretty sure that’s what they’re seeing. Why would citizens lie about that, especially when dumpster contents pretty well aligns with their story?

Two days ago I was waiting to walk across Lockport Street with two signs in my hand to place at a location for which private owner permission was given. A red Public Works truck was at the stop sign and when the man behind the wheel saw I had campaign signs in my hand, he crawled through the intersection, staring to read them, and I thought he gave me a dirty look before finally accelerating on west down Lockport. I thought I was being silly. Now? Not so much.

Fact is that whether by village employee or private citizen, these signs are being swiped and a fair number of them ended up in a dumpster behind the police department. How and why? And how and why are signs for Wojo NEVER among those taken and dumped, and his signs are further sprouting up in areas where other candidates couldn’t keep a sign in the ground for 48 hours straight? What’s special about his signs? Or, Lamb’s? Or, Green’s?

Here’s where you come in: if anyone out there sees or knows of persons both taking and placing signs, please share that story and if you can take a photo of anyone you see taking a sign, share that, too.

This is disgusting that people who have just as much right to expect a bit of respect for stepping up to run for office, who should all be treated equally as candidates, are being victimized by theft by a very few unethical people in town. How much of an insecure child do you have to be to think that you should give your campaign or any candidate ”help” by stealing?! Are we paying any village employees--even ONE is too many--or being courted for our votes by any candidates who don’t have either the intellect or the ethics of a head of lettuce?

Thanks, truly, for any information you can provide. We’ve all got one and others backs, I hope, and I think nearly all of us just want a fair and level field of competition.