“Red Phone, do you know how to tell when election season is approaching? It is when the political candidate signs start illegally appearing on government property. After your great front page story on this last year, I thought the scofflaws would be too embarrassed to make such a foolish mistake this year, but I was wrong. Senate candidate Bill Monning has broken the ice by attaching several large signs to the chain link fences that line the water district canal at Dunne and Butterfield. This needs to be nipped in the bud early so our city is not covered with this eye pollution. Maybe the confiscation of the illegally posted signs and some fines would remind them that they, too, need to follow the law.”
Red Phone: Dear Annoyed, don’t get your hopes up. They are illegal, but the city does not have the resources to enforce every sign violation, according to City Manager Ed Tewes in that front page story we did back in September 2010.
And, yes they are illegal. The city’s lengthy sign ordinance regulates every kind of directional, commercial, temporary, memorial and informational sign (and even Christmas decorations) that one might seek to post in the city limits, at any time of year. Many of these signs require permits from the community development department, whether they are placed on private or public property.
However, temporary political signs are specifically exempt from that requirement, as long as they are placed on private property. Political signs are not allowed on public property that is owned by the city or another public agency, unless the sign owner acquires an “encroachment permit” to install them.
“In summary, people can put political signs on their own property without a permit,” city attorney Danny Wan said in 2010. “However, people cannot put any kind of signs on public property without a permit.”
