Speach to Supervisors and letter re staff's de-facto refusal to comply

Akos Szoboszlay, President

I spoke to the Supervisors on Sept. 28, 2004. The result was that Supervisor McHugh, Chair, clearly annoyed at the stonewalling of staff, directed Mr. Kutras to write a memo and inform Murdter. Below is my speech and follow-up letter.

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My speech to the BOS on 9/28/04. I projected the quote onto the screen.
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Mr Murdter recently stated in an email to Supervisor Beall (viewed on screen):
“We have completed removal of the signs on Central and Foothill per the Board's direction on 5/4/04.”

The truth is:

On Central, there is one sign remaining, at Castro, in Mountain View.
On Foothill, there are signs at every intersection except where the name changes to Junipero Serra Blvd. The hypocrisy is that Foothill has better walking facilities than Junipero Serra, especially where Mr. Murdter’s Department eliminated the shoulder on Junipero Serra, making people walk in the traffic lane.

Mr. Chair, how long will it take Mr. Murdter to remove signs as he promised in May, and as he stated they have “completed removal,” but in truth, have not?
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Follow-up letter:
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Sept. 30, 2004
To: Peter Kutras, Jr., County Executive

Cc: Each member of the Board of Supervisors, Santa Clara County
Jane Decker, Deputy County Executive
Michael Murdter, Director, Roads and Airports Department

Subject: illegal "pedestrians prohibited" signs

Dear Mr. Kutras:

You were correct in stating to Supervisor McHugh that the cities have jurisdiction. But Mr. Murdter and, I’m sad to say, Ms. Decker, simply ignore that fact. They know full well which cities do not prohibit pedestrians because I sent repeated letters telling them, and how to verify the City code or ordinance using the Internet, or by calling the City Clerk by phone. The prohibitory ordinance repeals were also verified by Branch Manager Jon Elson, detailed below.

In summary, a total repeal was enacted by the Cities of Los Altos and Mountain View, and a partial repeal by the City of San Jose --not mentioning repeals by other cities that were previously complied with. In addition, there is a violation of another stipulation (right of access) plus a violation of another section of the Vehicle Code (uniform signs) that make most remaining "pedestrians prohibited" signs also illegal. Mr. Mudter also told the Board that he will comply with the right of access of walkers, in his memo of May 4, but HE HAS NOT REMOVED ANY SIGN in that regard. The uniform sign violation was newly brought up in my letter in June. All the violations are described in this link (which I sent repeatedly to Ms. Decker):

<http://moderntransit.org/expy/stonewall.htm>http://moderntransit.org/expy/stonewall.htm

In August 2003, with the new Board policy supporting pedestrians on expressway shoulders and expressway pedestrian paths, I met with Branch Manager Jon Elson. Also attending was Traffic Engineer Masoud Akbarzadeh. I sought compliance with the law, and simultaneously, the new Board policy. Mr. Elson flat out refused to comply. This was despite the fact that Mr. Elson verified the City Codes for Los Altos and Los Altos Hills. For Sunnyvale, Mr Elson showed an obsolete ordinance and I informed him that the web site of the City was [then] not updated with regards to the City Code and he needs to call the City Clerk and have the current Ordinance FAXed.

That refusal to comply was continued by Mr. Murdter claiming to the HLUET (in February 2004) that he can prohibit pedestrians at will --contradicting all relevant County Counsel legal opinions-- and disregarding Board policy. Even after receiving a letter from Sunnyvale dated March 3, 2004 that the signs "be removed in a timely manner," Mr. Murdter still had not removed ANY signs by the May 4, 2004 Board meeting, where a member of the Sunnyvale Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee showed a copy of the letter to the Board.

That refusal continues today --de facto-- by not removing signs, and by using time-wasting stonewalling tactics to avoid compliance. One such tactic was Mr. Murdter telling Supervisor Beall that signs were removed in order that the matter be dropped. I hope you realize that all the time staff spent writing reports to the HLUET, the BOS, and the current memo you were instructed to write, occurs because of the disregard for law and Board policy by the Roads and Airports Department. Specifically, if the Department would have simply complied in August 2003, a great amount of staff time --and Supervisors' time-- would have been saved.

I hope that full compliance will be achieved promptly and that you will be able to truthfully inform the Supervisors that compliance was finally achieved. I will gladly verify compliance for you if you tell me when Mr. Murdter claims he has complied.

Please send me a copy of the memo to the Board by email. Below is my speech to the Board.

Sincerely,

Akos Szoboszlay
President


Also see: Expressway topics, links page


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