Countywide : Sign Law Passed; Another Rejected

An ordinance regulating political signs was unanimously passed by the Fountain Valley City Council this week, while a similar proposed law narrowly failed in Costa Mesa.

The ordinance passed in Fountain Valley prohibits political signs on utility poles and other public property, but the law will not take effect until after the June 2 primary election.

The city’s current ordinance prohibits all signs except those for political candidates and causes on public property such as trees in the public right of way, lampposts and utility poles.

Councilman John Collins asked that the city consider adopting an ordinance prohibiting all signs, and Southern California Edison area manager Charles Wilson urged the council to consider the safety of service workers who use the utility poles.

“This is a habitual problem that we face every day,” Wilson told council members. “It is no question that these posters pose a great health risk to our workers going up and down those poles.”

After the last general election, city crews removed campaign signs at a cost of $1,100 to the city, according to a report to the council.

If there are signs remaining after the new ordinance goes into effect, the city will try to collect the cost of removing the signs from the responsible campaigns.

Councilwoman Laurann Cook asked the city to send notices of the new ordinance to winners of the primary, as well as the political parties in Orange County.

The city will also include the ordinance in packets handed out to political candidates when they take out notices from the city clerk’s office.

Candidates will continue to be allowed to post signs on private property, deliver pamphlets door to door, advertise in newspapers and mail brochures to targeted homes.

In Costa Mesa, the City Council denied changes proposed after a sign company complained that the city law regulating signs was too restrictive.

The new ordinance would have eased limits on when signs could be posted and also contained suggestions made by resident Ernie Feeney on how much space could be used to post signs at a given location.

To accommodate the suggestion, city staff recommended limiting to 500 square feet the total area in which signs could be posted, but the council struck down that proposal.

After much debate, including inquiries by Councilwoman Sandra L. Genis about ways to prevent people from stealing signs, the council on Monday turned down the changes by a 3-2 vote, with Mayor Mary Hornbuckle and council members Genis and Peter F. Buffa voting against it.

Hornbuckle argued that the new law wouldn’t address the most significant problems the city has with political signs--getting people to take them down.

“I think we are creating a bureaucratic nightmare when what we really want to do is clean up signs after the elections,” Hornbuckle said.

The ordinance changes will be considered by the council again in a future study session, although no date was given. Monday’s vote was the second in which the proposed additions were denied by the council.