One of the candidates for House District 10 has accused a Houston city official of an “abuse of power” after the removal of a campaign sign along the Parks Highway. KTNA’s Phillip Manning has more:
On Tuesday, the campaign of Patricia Faye-Brazel said Houston Deputy Mayor Lance Wilson abused his power as an elected official by removing a four-foot-by-four-foot campaign sign from near the intersection of King Arthur Drive and the Parks Highway in Houston. The seat Patricia Faye-Brazel is running for spans from Northern Wasilla to the Upper Valley.
For his part, Deputy Mayor Wilson says he did remove the sign on Saturday morning. Both he and the campaign say there were conversations earlier in the week regarding the sign’s legality. While posting signs in the Alaska Department of Transportation’s right of way is not allowed, political campaign signs often end up there, and it’s normally not an issue unless one blocks visibility. Wilson says this one did.
“It obscures the view—or obscured the view of southbound traffic on the Parks Highway as you approached the stop sign.”
Wilson says he spoke with DOT regarding his concerns, and was told that it was unlikely a state employee would be able to address it. He says he was told that he, as a private citizen, could remove the sign if it caused a safety risk, which he ultimately did. In addition, Wilson says the sign violated the City of Houston’s requirement to have a permit for signs and to avoid blocking visibility to drivers.
Patricia Faye-Brazel’s campaign manager, Jeffrey Eide, says the sign did not obscure motorists’ views at or near the stop sign, and that the campaign was talking to the City of Houston about municipal requirements at the time it was taken down.
“The majority of the shock came from the fact that we were discussing this directly with the mayor, we were discussing this with city hall, and that Lance had gone around all of that conversation and physically removed it seemed more spiteful than due process.”
Tuesday’s press release points out, correctly, that Lance Wilson has contributed to the campaign of David Eastman, Patricia Faye-Brazel’s opponent for the House District 10 seat. Wilson says his reason for removing the sign is not political, but for public safety. A story on the incident published by the Alaska Dispatch News says Patricia Faye-Brazel believes Wilson holds a grudge against her for the way she voted during her time as a Planning Commissioner in Houston. Jeffrey Eide denies that Faye-Brazel believes a personal grudge was involved.
“Patricia is not in a position to assume that, and she’s exactly the type of person to assume the best in people’s intentions. In this case, though that was brought up in the past as a possible interaction, this was about protecting the sign and the campaign’s property.”
Lance Wilson also denies that a personal conflict motivated his actions.
“I thought that she was an effective planning commissioner, and even though she sometimes held a dissenting opinion from the rest of the commission, I think she served very effectively.…I don’t have any problem with her, personally.”
Jeffrey Eide says the campaign’s signs have all been removed in the City of Houston, and that the campaign is interested in discussing issues, and does not wish to “step on toes.”
