A spat over political signs might lead to permanent changes in the Holmes Beach code book.
Potential revisions to the sign ordinance will go before city commissioners Aug. 23 for discussion, according to a June 24 email from city clerk Stacey Johnston.
The review was triggered by a June 11 incident when Manatee County Commissioner Carol Whitmore, a Holmes Beach resident and former city official before leaving the city for a county office, collected and turned in three of her political opponent’s campaign signs to the Holmes Beach Police Department.
The signs belong to Jason Bearden, one of two challengers Whitmore will face in the Aug. 23 Republican primary for the county commission’s at-large District 6 seat. Two other candidates are write-ins in the November general election.
Bearden sought June 22 to press charges against Whitmore. So now the state attorney’s office must review a capias request from the HBPD for a potential second-degree misdemeanor charge of petit theft.
The SAO could take four months to review the request and, if the commissioner is arrested and/or convicted for the charge, she could face up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.
In the meantime, ambiguity surrounding the city’s sign code muddies the water.
Whitmore has told The Islander she pulled two signs from private property because they violated city code, which allows for political signs no earlier than 45 days before an election. She that she received permission from property owner Shawn Kaleta to remove the signs.
She also said she pulled one sign because it was improperly placed in a city right of way.
However, the city code compliance officers and police are the only people with the authority to remove signage in violation of city code and now the city no longer is enforcing the code that applies to posting within 45 days of an election.
In a June 13 email to city staff, city attorney Erica Augello wrote that the city code on posting before the election might be unlawful.
“I do not think it advisable to regulate the political signs as far as timing with the election as that enforcement is not content-neutral,” Augello wrote. “You can regulate them being located in the public right of way or other areas they are or are not allowed to be placed.
“However, until the sign code is revised, I do not recommend that the political sign provision be enforced as it very likely violates First Amendment rights.”
Augello wrote that political signage could not be regulated differently from temporary signage, for which the code requires removal of a sign “shortly after such purpose has been accomplished.”
She added that regulating political signage as temporary event signs, which city code prohibits from being placed for more than 14 days and requires building official approval for people to post, would be “problematic in a number of ways.”
Former city attorney Patricia Petruff — who may have helped the city craft the applicable code — declined to comment on the matter in a June 29 email to The Islander.
As a past city official and having campaigned in the city for her county post in past elections, Whitmore could reasonably be expected to know the removal of someone else’s signs is illegal.
While city staff won’t enforce the current political signage code, they hope people respect it out of courtesy.
Tampa-based Strategic Image Management founder Anthony Pedici emailed Augello June 14 about the code, citing a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Reed v. Town of Gilbert that restricted municipal regulation of a sign’s content.
Augello responded the same day, “The city has previously been advised to simply ask that, as a courtesy, the signage not create clutter and that property owners wait until 45 days before the election to place signs on their property. … The city is not going to get involved in removing signs, regardless of content, unless they are violating time, place and manner restrictions.”
Whitmore said she would respect the city’s call for courtesy and comply with the existing code.
“The city has always operated under it, nobody knew any different,” Whitmore said. “Until the ordinance changes … to me it’s still on the books.”
Revisions to the city’s sign ordinance will go before the commission during a work session at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23, at city hall, 5801 Marina Drive. Directions to attend the meeting via Zoom can be found at holmesbeachfl.org.