City Hall Engages in Sign Battle

Council candidates’ campaign signs posted on city property will be promptly removed and taken to a dump. This message was given to candidates when they began the process of running for a council seat. In some prior elections, city hall allowed candidates to retrieve their signs. The retrieval process kept everyone busy, with city contractors taking signs down and candidates quickly getting them back on the street.

In Mission Viejo, candidates can expect their signs to disappear from public property. However, overzealous contractors take signs from private property as well, including retail space and homeowner association property.

Candidates and other campaign workers saw an aggressive level of sign removal in the June 8 Primary Election. Several days before the election, a citywide sweep took place. In one day, most signs throughout the city were taken from public and private property. The signs were never seen again, as city hall had also invoked a new policy for the June 8 election, disallowing retrieval of signs.

Why did the policy change for the June 8 election? For one thing, the council majority and city staff strongly opposed Measure D, the land-use initiative giving residents the right to vote on zone changes. Those supporting Measure D didn’t have mailers or much else in the way of campaign collateral, but they did have signs. That is, they had signs until the city contractors took them. The few remaining Measure D signs were either pulled up and tossed aside or destroyed. Any opponent can pull up a sign, but it takes an unusual person to rip it to shreds.

Twelve candidates are running for three council seats in the current election, and all but two of them are posting signs. Challenger Sam Mamola told a citizen group early in his campaign that he wouldn’t have signs, and recalled councilman Lance MacLean’s signs haven’t appeared.

As soon as one candidate places a sign on a corner, a half-dozen more surround it, effectively canceling each other out. A day or two later, the corner is swept clean.

Candidates – primarily the challengers – have pleaded with the city to leave the signs alone for 30 days prior to the election. The cost of constant sign removal is high for taxpayers and enormous for candidates. City hall administrators have made their message clear – they’ve worked hard to “count to three,” and they don’t want anything to change.