Sign Vigilante Strikes Edgewood
by John Weckerle
Well, at any rate, that is what the Town of Edgewood is telling us.
In a partial response to a New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act request, the Town of Edgewood provided 107 photos of signs taken before the signs were removed by code enforcement officer Wayne Schober. Many of the signs shown in the photographs of signs displayed outside the Community Center (see our July 4 article) are not documented in Mr. Schober’s photographs. Further, while many of the signs in the photographs provided by the Town were clearly in violation of the ordinance, many of the photos did not contain sufficient detail to demonstrate noncompliance, and some photographed signs actually seemed to be in compliance with any reasonable interpretation of the requirements. The Town has not provided a substantial amount of the requested information, including field records and an inventory of confiscated signs.
The big news, however, is that there may be a vigilante among us who is taking the law into his or her own hands. In a July 23 e-mail message, Town Clerk Estefanie Muller states: “In talking to Mr. Schober, while he removed signs, he did not issue violations, picked up the signs and housed them. Also, when he displayed the signs at the Community Center, when he returned to pick them up, he noted additional signs were added unknown to him by whom” – confirming, as outlined in our July 22 article, that the Town has, in fact, violated its own sign ordinance.
To be honest, we find this a little tough to swallow, especially given that the Town has failed to provide an inventory or any other form of documentation listing the signs confiscated by the code enforcement officer. It is possible that the explanation provided is accurate, but equally possible that Town personnel simply failed to document removal of all the signs.
In the event that the former is true, however, then it is clear that a crime has been committed: someone stole these signs and deposited them at the Community Center. I have suggested to Ms. Muller that the Edgewood Police Department open an investigation into the theft. Edgewood should also re-examine the Town’s sign removal policy and make sure that confiscated signs are kept in a secure location in which their ranks cannot be augmented by shadowy, caped sign avengers under cover of darkness. Since the Community Center is apparently the scene of at least part of the crime, the Town should install motion-activated security cameras (available at Costco for a very small investment) so that the Sign Knight can be identified and apprehended.