Campaign signs keep city busy

73 signs removed from public property in one 10-day period



Call it a sign of the times.

Every two years, election season ushers in seven weeks of political advertising as candidates vie to make their names recognizable to the public before Conejo Valley voters cast their ballots.

In Thousand Oaks, the city’s sign ordinance dictates when and where those eye-catching advertisements are allowed to enter the local landscape, a landscape which is tightly controlled by a number of municipal codes that make the city distinctive, such as the oak tree ordinance and rules protecting the hillside viewshed.

Temporary political signs may appear 45 days before an election but must be removed within seven days of the election being held. They cannot be placed on public property and they can only be placed on private property with permission of the owner. The city’s public works department is responsible for removing signs from public property and public right-of-ways like center medians, sidewalk tree wells and main thoroughfares that do not front residential properties.

City workers removed 73 signs from city property between Oct. 1 and Oct. 11, according to information provided by the city clerk’s office.

Signs endorsing Conejo Valley school board candidate Amy Chen were the most common items to be picked up over that 10-day period. The city’s public works department reported removing 24 of her signs from public property.

School board candidate Angie Simpson and Ventura County Community College District hopeful Craig Everett each had 10 signs removed.

Improperly placed signs supporting Chen, Simpson and Everett (44 in total) accounted for more than half of the signs city workers retrieved from prohibited areas, including the Newbury Park Library and the city’s transportation center on Rancho Road.

Four signs supporting Nellie Cusworth, who is running for a seat on the Conejo Recreation and Park District board of directors, were found to be in violation of the sign ordinance. The same number of signs was removed for Thousand Oaks City Council candidates Bob Engler and Kevin McNamee.

Three signs belonging to City Council candidate and current CRPD director Ed Jones ran afoul of the city’s prohibition of political advertising on public property. CVUSD candidate Cindy Goldberg also racked up three violations.

City Council candidates Thomas Adams and William Tomasi had two signs removed.

Congressional candidate Antonio Sabato Jr. and Ventura County Board of Education candidate Mike Teasdale each had one sign removed from public property.

Three signs on ballot measures were picked up by public works staff: one for No on 10, one for Yes on 6 and one for No on 6.

The city’s sign ordinance presumes that signs promoting political candidates have been erected by the candidate or someone representing them.

But if you see a sign on public property, vigilantism is never the answer, officials said.

The sign ordinance prohibits members of the public from removing signs without the permission of the person who erected them. Such an act could result in criminal theft charges.

Improperly placed signs can be reported by calling (805) 449- 2100 or via the city’s mobile app, ConnecTO.

Property owners are allowed to take down signs that have been placed on their land without permission.

The language of the ordinance allows the city to bill candidates for the cost of removal but at the Oct. 9 City Council meeting, City Manager Andrew Powers said that is not the council’s current policy. He said that while instating a fine was theoretically possible it would be challenging to enforce.

Powers said many campaigns are staffed by volunteers but the onus of improperly placed signs is on the candidates.

“During the campaign season we have specific rules. All candidates are informed of those rules,” he said. “It is the candidate’s responsibility to educate those volunteers on what is appropriate in terms of sign placement.”

Some say improperly placed signs aren’t always the result of a misguided but well-intentioned volunteer.

School board candidate Jenny Fitzgerald said in an Oct. 10 Facebook post that the pattern of illegally placed signs for certain candidates represented a “blatant disregard for our community norms” that pointed to a much more troublesome issue of “above-the-rules” thinking.” Fitzgerald and fellow school board candidate Bill Gorback did not have any signs picked up by the city between Oct. 1 and 11, according to the figures provided.

Barbara Sponsler, a supporter of Chen, Everett and Simpson, said some of the signs found on public property were put there by rivals to try and make their opponents look bad.