Why is the city of Thousand Oaks taking down all the sale signs on weekends?

On Sun., July 11, I had a disappointing day. I had headed up a fundraiser sale for our elementary school, spent weeks getting stuff donated, sorting through items and setting up a big sale. I had made 15 big, nice signs, recycling election signs with the wire to stick in the ground so I didn’t have to hang anything up on city posts using tape.

I spent one hour Sunday morning putting up all the signs. Between 8 and 9 a.m. they were all taken down by the city of Thousand Oaks, even the signs that were on private property, where I had gotten advance permission from the owners.

Due to the lack of signs, we sold between $500 and $700 less than what we have on a previous sale like this.

I called the city Sunday to get my signs back since we were going to reuse them for upcoming fundraisers, but of course city hall was closed.

Monday morning I was told that all my signs had been disposed of.

So why is the city taking down all the signs? “Because you need a permit to put up signs,” I was told. Seven days later, I’m still waiting for a return call regarding how much a permit costs and how to get one.

If the city of T.O. takes down signs to generate money from permits, they’re doing it the wrong way. The city is paying somebody to drive around on weekends to take down all the sale signs.

What does that cost us in tax money? And by seemingly not being able to tell people how to even obtain the supposedly required permit, I fail to see how the city can have any income from this procedure. The only result I can see here is wasted money as well as frustrated citizens––does it really have to be that way?
Helle Rasmussen
Newbury Park