Policy Needed on Christian Sign, City Told : Manhattan Beach: Lawyer says rules for signing city documents must be adopted to force a police officer to stop using the fish symbol.

Manhattan Beach’s city attorney has ruled that the city can bar a police officer from drawing a Christian symbol on traffic citations.

In a statement released this week, City Atty. Carl K. Newton reversed an earlier opinion that Officer Steve Fletcher should be allowed to continue drawing what appears to be the fish-shaped symbol, known as an ichthus, on the tickets he issues.

Newton, however, said the city must adopt a specific policy governing how employees sign city documents before Fletcher can be obligated to change his signature. It was unclear Wednesday whether the City Council or City Manager Bill Smith will do so.

Fletcher, a 22-year veteran of the Police Department, has been ordered by officials not to publicly discuss the matter and could not be reached for comment.

The ichthus controversy arose after Redondo Beach resident Kathleen Parsons complained to police and city administrators about the signature Fletcher penned on a citation he issued to her last October.

Parsons challenged the ticket in traffic court and, last month, won dismissal of the citation on an unrelated technicality. However, she maintains that tickets that include the signature are improper because the symbol indicates Fletcher’s religious belief.

During the trial, Fletcher said that he did not mean to make a religious statement and that the symbol was meant to be the letter F and has been part of his signature for 2 1/2 years. However, Newton concluded that because the symbol can be perceived as an endorsement of Christianity, the officer’s intent is irrelevant.

“Officer Fletcher’s personal interest in affixing the fish symbol to official documents is clearly outweighed” by the city’s interest in having official duties carried out free of any perceived religious interests or ideas, Newton wrote.

City Councilman Dan Stern said that Fletcher, for the good of the Police Department, should stop using the fish symbol on his own.

“The officer isn’t terribly cooperative,” Stern said. “I think he realized people wanted him to stop it . . . but he seemed to have taken the position that if we can’t legally stop him, then he’s going to continue to do it.”