Campaign sign rules could loosen up in Costa Mesa

Costa Mesa’s policy on campaign-related signs will be up for debate at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

City staff are recommending that the city’s policy be less restrictive, likely allowing more signs to be displayed and for longer hours.

Staff also noted that Costa Mesa must comply with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision from Reed vs. Town of Gilbert, Ariz., which required cities to treat all temporary signs — be they commercial or political in nature — the same.

Some of Costa Mesa’s sign rules — such as restricting them from the public right-of-way, except on Friday nights and weekends, and owners only displaying 10 signs throughout the city at a time — should be amended, staff contend, because they aren’t likely to pass muster since the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Campaign signs have been a contentious topic in recent years. Even before the Supreme Court ruling, after the 2014 general election season, some at City Hall thought the policies should be re-examined.

Staff noted that more than 1,800 illegal signs were removed from public right-of-ways in the 2014 general election cycle because they were there outside the permitted times. Contractors, at a cost of nearly $10,000, were hired to remove signs on Mondays and Tuesdays. City staff then took over the job Wednesdays and Thursdays.

A special city elections committee in 2012 spent most of its time dealing with campaign signs, such as their size and the legality of their placement. Community watchdog groups reported hundreds of signs getting stolen or vandalized that year — some even stabbed with a knife.

A high-profile case emerged in October 2012 after a man was filmed vandalizing signs in the College Park neighborhood near City Hall that supported the council majority and a city charter. Months later, a city employee at the time, Steven Charles White, was charged by the district attorney’s office with misdemeanor vandalism.

White was acquitted by a jury in spring 2014.