Signs of Tension in Supervisor Race

With a locally heated contest forr, first district, we've seen not only signs and bumper-stickers but a pony the size of a dog touting candidates in advance of the June 5 election.

But some of these efforts to reach out to the voter may be in violation of city municipal code number 18.12.080.L. The city's associate planner Wendy Atkins sent a letter to candidates in March with the following requirements:

1. Size: Each sign shall not exceed eight square feet in area
2. Time: Each sign shall be removed not more than 10 days following the election.
3. Unimproved Property. If the signs are to be displayed on unimproved property, the candidate shall file written approval of the property owner and a deposit of $25.00 with the city clear for the signs, to be refunded upon removal of the sings
4. Political signs shall not be displayed on public property (including City right-of-ways).

Two weeks ago, Patch and other local media received evidence, including photographs, of violation of the two of these conditions by Sonoma mayor . The information came from a representative of candidate .

One was for signs posted on unimproved property, though the property owner said they were planted without his permission.

We also verified that Sanders signs that appear to violate the size restriction were located on Broadway directly across from .

Later than same afternoon, I visited the location of the offending signs, outside on Broadway. Owner Robert A. Wilson was there, and openly admitted he had put the sigs up.

"She's the only candidate who cares about these kids," he said, referring to the high school students who make up a large share of his customers. "I used to have the signs on my lawn, but moved them over there," to a driveway south of his store.

When asked if he had heard anything about a possible size violation, he said no, but said the city was always getting after him for some violation of code or another.  

Patch called the city planner's office on Friday, and when Atkins returned the call we asked if they had received the complaint. She verified they had, on April 17.

I asked if she knew whose campaign was potentially in violation, and she would not confirm that Mayor Sanders was the candidate in question. She responded "I don't know whose sign it is, I only received a general description of the area."

She would also not identify the person from whom she received the complaint. "We don't typically release information about code enforcement inquiries," she said.

"I'll be doing a site inspection next week to verify the dimensions of the sign, and it there is a violation, I will send a letter to the person's campaign, the property owner, and the business owner, if any."

As our conversation took place on Friday, April 20, I asked when she planned to do the site inspection.

"I'm hoping to get to it early next week," she said. "We've been short-handed in the planning department, due to life and health issues,"  she said, adding that she had missed a couple days of work recently.

About two hours after our conversation planning director David Goodison sent me and others an email message stating  the following:

"The City received a complaint about a possible violation of the Sign Ordinance on Tuesday. On Friday, Planning staff verified that the sign in question does exceed the normal limits. Per standard practice, we have called the campaign and will follow up with a letter.

"To date, this is the only complaint that we have received regarding political signs."

A call to Sonoma Old School on Monday confirmed that the signs were still there.

Another charge from the Cuclis campaign held that a member of Sanders' campaign staff had been found by the police to have signs from Cuclis' campaign in the back of her van.

In answer to my inquiry to the , Sgt. Spencer Crum responded as follows:

Sonoma PD did not take a report on the incident. An incident did occur similar to what you mentioned. …  Our deputy responded to a call and resolved a civil sign dispute without any charges being filed. Allegations of sign stealing are prevalent in every election. There are no photographs available from the SPD…. The Police Department is a neutral entity and doesn't normally get involved in political based complaints/issues."

An inquiry about the signage issue was sent to the Sanders campaign via email on their website; there is no phone number listed on the site for contact.

There will be a for the first district seat on Thursday, April 26, sponsored by the Sonoma County League of Women Voters. It will be televised on Sonoma Sun TV, channel 27. It's to be held from 7:30 p.m. to 9 at the Sonoma Community Center.