Mayor Halvensleben's 100-Day Report Claims Progress on East Avenue Roundabout; Public Works Baffled

WAUKESHA — Mayor Alicia Halvensleben's office released a press release Thursday marking her hundredth day in office, listing "successful completion of East Avenue roundabout calibration and optimization" as one of five key accomplishments of her young administration. City Public Works Director Sandra Chen, reached for comment Friday, said no roundabout work had been scheduled for 2026 and that the intersection "operates exactly as it did in April."

The release, distributed to a media list of 14 outlets at 9:12 a.m., credited Halvensleben's administration with a 22 percent reduction in "roundabout-related driver hesitation events," a figure her office did not attribute to any named study or department. The four other accomplishments listed were a pothole hotline redesign, a proclamation recognizing National Public Works Week, an unspecified "streamlining" of the city's dog-licensing portal, and the hundred-day mark itself, which appeared as its own bullet point.

No Work Order On File

Chen said her department has no record of any calibration, optimization, or maintenance activity at the East Avenue roundabout since it opened in February, roughly two months before Halvensleben took office in April. "I checked our work order system twice before I called you back," Chen said. "There is nothing. The roundabout has had zero service calls since installation. I don't know what's being optimized."

Asked whether "calibration and optimization" could refer to anything short of physical construction, such as a signage review or a striping adjustment, Chen said her department had not conducted either. She added that the roundabout's paint, curbing, and signage remain the original installation from February, with no documented change in condition.

"I checked our work order system twice before I called you back. There is nothing. The roundabout has had zero service calls since installation."

— Sandra Chen, Waukesha Public Works Director

Communications Office Silent

Halvensleben's communications office did not respond to three separate requests for clarification on the discrepancy between the press release and Public Works' records, sent Thursday afternoon, Thursday evening, and Friday morning. A city hall staffer who answered the mayor's office phone line Friday said the communications director was "in and out most of the day" and took a message.

Halvensleben, elected in April on a platform that emphasized infrastructure accountability and government transparency, has referenced the roundabout in at least two prior public appearances, including a ribbon-cutting-style photo opportunity in May at which no ribbon was present and no construction had concluded, according to a city calendar entry describing the event as a "site visit."

The Streak Continues

City records reviewed independently of the mayor's office indicate the roundabout has now gone more than 190 days without a documented case of a driver completing all four exits without hesitating or making a visible course correction, a tally first reported by this publication in early August at the 165-day mark. Chen said the informal count, maintained by Public Works staff on an unofficial basis, was unaffected by anything in the mayor's report.

Ned England, 70, of Backslide Way, who has independently logged observation sessions at the roundabout since June using a personal radar gun, said he was unaware of any calibration work and had not noticed a change in driver behavior. "Cars go around the same as they always did," England said. "Some of them go around twice. Nobody told me anything got optimized, and I'm out there more than most people."

Common Council President Gary Puchalski said he had not been briefed on any roundabout project prior to the mayor's report and planned to raise the item at the council's next regular meeting. "I'd like to see the calibration," Puchalski said. "I'd like to see any evidence of the calibration. I'm not saying it didn't happen. I'm saying nobody who works on the roundabout seems to know about it."