"Sign Gate" - Part 2

The latest chapter in the “SignGate” drama played out in 2 acts today.

(FYI – signs are expensive. They cost from $5 to $8 apiece, and an average campaign uses hundreds of signs. Not only do they have a cost to purchase, they take a considerable amount of time to deploy, and unless you have volunteers, putting out the signs is also a cost.)

ACT 1 – THE FLOPPING SIGNS

Yesterday (Oct 15) I was alerted by fellow candidate Mike Healey to the fact that along El Toro Road several of my signs (and other candidates’) had been knocked over. Today I went looking and found 21 signs - 7 were mine, 7 belonged to Liz Miller, and 4 belonged to Tom Cagley. The photo above shows the signs collected in a single day.

Nearby, signs for Scott Voigts, Dave Bass, and Andrew Hamilton remained standing. It must have been a strange wind that selectively knocked over our signs but left the signs for Voigts, Hamilton, and Bass.

My signs have been knocked down before, usually at the rate of 2 or 3 every 2 or 3 days. While going around checking my own signs, I’ve also found that Tom Cagley’s signs are often knocked over.But this was a new record - 21 in a single day. What’s interesting about knocked over signs is that they are always juxtaposed to signs from other candidates, mostly Voigts and Bass. IOW signs that stand alone are rarely disturbed, but signs close to the incumbents’ signs are often disturbed.

It reminded me of the last time I ran against Voigts. Every time one of my signs went up next to one of his, my sign disappeared. I spoke to Voigts about the problem, but he denied any involvement, although he said that several people were distributing his signs and he couldn’t be responsible for what they did, although he said he had urged everyone to play fair and not disturb other people’s signs. The practice continued, though at a lesser pace, until I finally decided not to place my signs next to his, at which point my signs stopped disappearing.

I’m reasonably sure Scott Voigts isn’t openly telling his supporters to knock over my signs and the signs of the other candidates, and leave the signs of his supporters standing. But this is what is happening.

ACT 2 – THE STOLEN SIGNS

This morning (Oct 16) I received an e-mail from City Hall saying that 9 of my signs had been confiscated and were waiting to be picked up along with over 30 more signs for other candidates. Apparently along with Liz Miller, Tom Cagley, and Scott Voigts, our supporters had put signs where they didn’t belong and the City had picked them up.

Around 11 am I rolled up to the City and went inside their bin where the signs were being stored: low and behold, nearly all the signs were missing. Stacked behind a garbage bin I found 2 of my signs and 1 for Liz Miller, but the rest of my signs and those of Miller, Cagley, and Voigts were missing. I knew Tom wasn’t available to have picked up the signs so I called Liz to see if she had picked up my signs along with hers. She hadn’t. So, sometime between when they were stored yesterday and this morning, someone went into the bin and took all the signs they could see from me, Tom, Liz, and Scott Voigts. According to City officials, the only person who had been in the bin was a Voigts supporter. Hmmm.

I asked to look at the surveillance tapes to see who had taken the signs. I was told that the City Hall has no surveillance cameras, even though it houses the City Hall as well as the Police station. Hmmm.

A SIGN FOR THE SIGNS

Earlier this year I asked each of the candidates to voluntarily forego the use of campaign signs, which I consider have no educational value, litter our streets, and cause an increase in the cost of campaigns which leads some candidates to take money from special interests and then return the favor by voting for their projects. Most of the candidates agreed to at least some form of voluntary restriction, but Scott Voigts and Andrew Hamilton were not among them.

Do you see a pattern here?

I read that Voigts is complaining about missing signs. I can’t verify that one way or the other, but I do know that Voigts’ signs have showed up on private property, school property, and HOA property, and have been lawfully removed. So while Voigts is complaining about stolen signs, my signs and other candidates’ signs are disappearing at an alarming rate, either by being stolen, the theft from the City Hall parking lot or by being knocked over, which has the same impact as being stolen.

It’s a waste of time and money and energy to be dealing with these problems. We should be discussing how to make the City a better place to live, and how we are going to meet the challenges that lie just ahead.

With your help, when I get elected to City Council I want to re-open the discussion on the use of campaign signs and I want to suggest that we limit them to individual’s property.

About Jim Gardner

Dr. Jim Gardner is the editor of CITY WATCH on The Patch and a contributing editor to OC Politics and Voice of OC. He is running for City Council in Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook.

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