South Windsor Deputy Mayor Seeks to Limit Unauthorized Political Signs

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign …

Recently, Deputy Mayor Gary Bazzano has embraced his inner Five Man Electrical Band when he drives around town.

Indeed, with election season winding down, Bazzano has noticed the proliferation of political lawn signs that have cropped up around town.

Many of those signs, Bazzano said, are placed without permission on town or state-owned property, creating an unsightly mess.

“It’s excessive,” Bazzano said in a recent telephone interview. “When the signs are put on property when they are not authorized or not allowed, it makes the town look much worse when it comes to aesthetics.”

Bazzano said that the idea is that a resident puts a political lawn sign on his or her own property, presumably to show that person supports a particular candidate.

But when lawn signs start cropping up on street corners and in front of vacant properties, then it violates the spirit of showing one’s support for a political candidate.

The problem, according to Bazzano, has gotten worse recently.

“It’s definitely grown with each new election cycle, with either new people who are running who don’t know the rules or people are just abusing the system,” he said. “To just put signs somewhere where no one is going to bother [removing them], it’s just litter.”

Bazzano said that he is concerned about signs making their way into parks.

“Imagine if we allowed signs on public property, what Rye Street Park or the Major Michael Donnelly Land Preserve would look like?” Bazzano asked. “These town properties are the only sacred grounds left in town. I’d hate to see our parks covered with signs because we don’t have regulations in place.”

Bazzano said that he is in favor of some type of regulation or ordinance that clearly sets forth the rules for putting lawn signs on town property.

Another issue, according to Bazzano, is the placement and number of signs near Election Day polling places.

“That’s one we really want to clamp down on,” Bazzano said. “Do you need 30 Bazzano signs at a polling place? I think we need regulations for signs on Election Day at polling places.”

At least one town - East Windsor - does not permit signs that are driven in the ground within a certain distance of a polling location. Signs held by supporters and candidates, however, are permitted.

Bazzano said that he wanted to make it clear that he was not trying to clamp down on free speech, so much as strike a balance to preserve the aesthetics of the town while still permitting people to show their support for political candidates.

“I’ve got no skin in the game,” Bazzano said, noting he is not running for office this year. “When I run, I e-mail or call every person and ask ‘Do you mind if I put up a lawn sign? If they say yes, great. If not, I move on. Imagine having no rules where you could put sign anywhere on town property. It would just make town look that much more unpresentable.”

While it is too late for this election cycle, Bazzano said that he would like to have the issue addressed before next year’s Election Day.