Clintonville to review ordinance
By Bert Lehman
The city of Clintonville will not enforce its ordinance regarding yard signs, including political signs, until it amends the yard sign ordinance.
That was City Administrator Sharon Eveland’s message to the Clintonville City Council at its March 9 meeting.
The discussion at the council meeting was prompted after Eveland posted the following message on her Facebook page,
“UPDATE: For those that have been asking, Municipal Ordinance 17.12(4)(d)(9) stipulate the 10-day period for removal from the end of the election period. State Statute 12.04 also covers this issue and defines the beginning and end of the election period.
“This is a friendly reminder that temporary campaign signs are required by City ordinance to be removed within 10 days of the end of the election period. This means that campaign signs for the November 2020 election should already be removed. While we would much rather receive voluntary compliance, please be aware that violators could be cited for not removing these signs.”
That message was also shared on the city of Clintonville’s Facebook page.
“There was a less than enthused response from a lot of the community members,” Eveland said regarding the Facebook message.
Eveland said the message was shared because the city had received complaints from residents regarding the fact signs were still in yards.
“This was not initiated by the city, but we have to hear both sides, and we have to react and handle accordingly per our ordinances,” Eveland said.
Amending ordinance
After researching the matter further, Eveland said she thinks the city needs to change its ordinance regarding yard signs.
She added that a court case that dealt with regulating signage, made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court and the court ruled the sign message cannot be regulated. The size of the sign and location of the sign can be regulated.
“In order for us to enforce the sign ordinance, we really do need to make some changes (to the ordinance),” Eveland said.
Eveland asked the council members if they wanted to regulate yard signs in the city, not just political signs.
She added that if the city wants to regulate yard signs, all temporary yard signs would be impacted, including signs for fundraisers and school recognitions.
Alds. Jim Supanich, Brandon Braden and Rusty Mitchell said the only regulation the city should impose on yard signs is the size of the signs.
“I think we do have a need for temporary signs, everything from political signs to organizations such as the fire department doing fundraisers that all use these signs, so I do think they do need to be allowed, but we do need to make sure our ordinance is buttoned up and refreshed to make sure that it’s in compliance with current rules and regulations and decisions that have been made in the courts,” Braden said.
Ald. Julie Stumbris said there should be no regulations on yard signs.
Ald. Tammy Strey-Hirt said, “I think the people of our community are very passionate about what they believe in, and I think we would be very ignorant to try to take that away from them.”
She added, “We all should be letting everyone voice their opinion.”
Ald. Steve Kettenhoven said the city should limit its regulations.
Limiting regulations
“Where do we go from yard signs?” Kettenhoven asked. “Do we go to people who are hanging Packers flags on their house?”
He added, “As long as it’s really not offensive to anyone, I don’t see where there’s a problem.”
Eveland verified that the signs in question are only yard signs, not signs attached to a house or in the window of a house.
She added that the city should be concerned about the size and quantity of yard signs in the city.
“It can detract from the overall appearance of an area. It is something that we do want to be concerned about,” Eveland said.
Council President and acting Mayor Mike Hankins said if the city is going to regulate yard signs, there should be a strong reason and public interest in doing the regulations.
“And generally, not restrict things more than we have too,” Hankins said.
He added that he also did not want to create more regulations for the city to enforce.
City Attorney Keith Steckbauer recommended the city limit its regulations on yard signs to regulating offensive language, profanity and the size of the sign.
“Other than political speech, I think you can regulate how long it’s up,” Steckbauer said.
This would prevent residents from having a permanent yard sale sign up, as an example.
Enforcement of the yard sign ordinance falls under the city’s zoning administrator, not the Clintonville Police Department, Eveland said.
Until the city develops a finalized plan for yard signs, Eveland said the city will not enforce the yard sign ordinance unless the signs have profanity.
“If it’s simply that somebody’s got a yard sign that somebody doesn’t like or thinking it’s been there too long, I’m not going to address those until we finalize changes to the ordinance,” Eveland said.
Police Chief Craig Freitag told the council that when the city made the Facebook post about enforcing the yard sign ordinance, it was doing what a lot of other cities have recently done.
“We’re not out of the ordinary,” Freitag said.