10 days to shed campaign slogans
Gilroy – Election day has passed, but campaign signs linger on fences and lawns, reminders of contests fought, won or lost. In Gilroy, political signs may be posted until 10 days after the election, when city code enforcement officers can issue citations.
“Citation wouldn’t be our first step – we’d ask people who were responsible to take them down, first,” said code enforcement officer Scott Barron. That means political parties, campaigns and private owners who post the signs. “We don’t check around the city, but we’ll respond to complaints.”
More frequently, said Barron, the city responds to calls about improper locations of signs. Streets and sidewalks are off-limits to political posters, as are electricity poles and street lights.
The No on Measure A campaign spent “a couple hundred bucks” hiring a professional sign cleanup crew, said campaign manager Andre Charles. The company will spend the next two days dismantling the ubiquitous green-and-white signs. If any remain, said Charles, the campaign would pass on the citations to the cleanup company, for negligence.
Jenny Derry, executive director of the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, a major player in the No on Measure A campaign, didn’t leave all the work to the crews.
“Personally,” she said, “I went to the dump with a gigantic load of signs.”
