Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
September 30. 2014 12:05 p.m.
Fernandina Beach may be a small community, but it is not immune from dirty tricks during political campaign season. On Saturday night campaign signs supporting both Robin Lentz and Tim Poynter, political challengers to incumbent commissioners Sarah Pelican and Charlie Corbett, were removed from private property along First Avenue. Supporters later found the signs in a construction dumpster nearby. A sign supporting Charlie Corbett in the same area was not similarly removed.
Police Chief James Hurley in response to my query on the topic of unlawful sign removal stressed that removal of anything from private property without the owners’ permission is theft.
Section 34-6 of city code clearly states that campaign advertising is prohibited in public rights of way. This means that the average homeowner needs to understand that even though s/he maintains the city right of way between the sidewalk and the street, that area may not be used to display political signs. City Manager Joe Gerrity has provided additional guidance in the following email to candidates this morning:
Starting October 1, the City will begin removing campaign signs posted in the right of way of city, county and state roads. They will be placed either at the Police Station or the dumpster area behind City Hall.
I would suggest that you tell your supporters that a good rule of thumb is to place signs behind utility poles in order to keep them out of the right of way. Any concerns about signs removed from private property should be referred to the Police Department.
According to a 2012 report aired by WCTV-TV in Tallahassee, stealing a political sign in Florida is considered petty theft, a misdemeanor. It can land you up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. But if the sign is worth more than $300, that misdemeanor becomes a felony charge that carries a $500 fine and up to five years behind bars.
While stealing or defacing political signs might be a way of letting off steam, it is also a way to court problems with law enforcement. In today’s world, there are security cameras all around us. Stealing political signs is a small matter in the running of campaigns because candidates have many ways of getting their message to the voters.
Tolerance for competing political beliefs should be a goal for every community. Our police have better things to do with their time and our tax money than to conduct investigations into political sign thefts.
Dust the signs for fingerprints and check them against the new FBI fingerprint database to identify these vandals! LOL I hope the City will also remove the illegal power washing and will buy your house for cash advertisement signs that pop up from time to time in the ROW and on the utility poles while they are doing their enforcement.
Sounds so petty doesn’t it. Last year was the first year I had ever heard about folks removing signs. It may have been happening for years, I really don’t know. I guess it is just a sad sign ( no pun ) that some feel they need to go around and do this. It’s kind of an American tradition to put signs out at the curb. Sad statement about the times we live in.
With all of the major problems facing society today, it is tempting and easy to trivialize the loss of campaign signs during an election cycle. But as someone who has run for office in both South Florida and Nassau County, I can tell you the loss (theft) of campaign signs is a genuine obstacle to the right of candidates to get their name in front of the voting public. The cost of a single sign is not a major loss, but when hundreds of your signs disappear, it is a different story.
It is interesting to note that I never had a single problem of missing signs during my campaigns in South Florida (an area usually considered less law-abiding than our own county). Yet, a few years ago, when I was first confronted with this issue here in Nassau County, I was told by a political native, “You’ve got to understand that in Nassau County, political campaigns are a blood sport.” Indeed they are.
It’s a shame that in this great country, where we pride ourselves on open and free elections, that there are still pockets of resistance to these worthy goals. As the old adage goes, “People get the government they deserve.” If a candidate has trouble abiding by simple campaign laws, it is probable he/she will have even greater difficulty following more complex issues like the “Sunshine Laws.”
If you think this issue is trivial, humorous, or entertaining, then you are part of the problem.