County says its enforcing Land Development Code equally
In comparison, city-owned Kissimmee Civic Center allows campaigns signs beyond 150 feet from the door for early voting. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON
With less than a week left until the Nov. 5 election, political candidates are in deadline mode to stump for the votes they’ll need to secure for victory once they’re all counted.
In Osceola County, that’s meant doing it without being able to place their campaign signs in spots they were able to when early voting started on Monday of last week — and all during the August primary.
But, the county’s Code Enforcement this week is enforcing its prohibition on “the placement of temporary signs … including political campaign advertisements, on County owned properties. This includes right of ways, government offices and polling locations at publicly owned property.”
That was part of an email sent by county code enforcement the end of last week — after early voting began — to political candidates. The result is an eerie lack of those signs at early voting locations on county or other public property — such as the Supervisor of Elections office, Robert Guevara Center, The Gym & Aquatic Center in Poinciana, the Narcoossee Community Center and the library in Celebration.
Signs remain outside of the Kissimmee and St. Cloud Civic Center, as those are city-owned and not under the purview of the County’s code enforcement mandate, and at the Osceola County Welcome Center, as that is owned by the Osceola Historical Society.
Osceola County Republicans say these restrictions violate state laws, and at a conference protesting the move on Monday, said the move is a, “Desperate attempt by Democrat-run Osceola County to silence political speech.”
“It’s election interference,” Osceola County Republican Party chairman Mark Cross said. “I can understand we don’t want anyone within the 150-foot perimeter (that state law says signs or candidates can’t be in relation to the front door), but outside of that perimeter is perfectly legal. Why are doing this just before the election?”
He said signs for Republican candidates’ signs were the first to come down when code enforcement officers started taking down signs on Saturday.
“It’s happening all over the county. That’s selective enforcement. And by the time you pay for these signs to be built and installed, it’s a couple thousand bucks out the of the pocket of these candidates.”
Jim Trautz, the Republican candidate for Supervisor of Elections, said he made calls to county Code Enforcement for clearer answers.
“If we don’t know what the policy is, and it’s different from the state law we’re reading, there’s a problem,” he said. “It’s not just the signs, it’s the process overall.”
A county spokesperson said the move was to apply a county land development code the same across all properties, and that since a majority of the signs involved were outside polling locations, what may look like a politically-motivated move is not.
Cross called for the Osceola Supervisor of Elections Mary Jane Arrington to “do her job,” to stop this interference but her office noted it only controls candidate and signage activity within the 150-foot “no solicitation zone.”
“We have no control over anything that happens outside of the 150-foot zone. We do not remove signs outside of the zone,” the note from the SOE said. “Any candidates or parties that have questions about signage should contact the appropriate local government.”
Code enforcement will often remove signs placed on any road right-of-way per the code, and subject the candidates’ campaigns to a $10 fee for each sign violation.
A number of candidates said they’ve switched to having volunteers wave their signs at the county-owned facilities, then taking them with them at night.
“This is an expensive process,” said Republican Florida Senate candidate Jose Martinez, who noted that polling locations in Districts 1 and 3 are all county-owned. “I’ll follow the rules, that’s no problem. But why are the rules changing after the voting has started? It’s the same rules we used during the primary.”
Democratic Party of Osceola County Chairman Steven Wells said its partisan candidates had complied with the email sent last week.
“From what I heard, the Republicans went all over the county breaking the existing ban on signs in public right of way. I understand they even put up 150 Trump signs at one polling location before the order,” he said. “The Republican Party only have themselves to blame. To focus on signs following (Sunday’s) debacle for President Trump at MSG (Madison Square Garden) and the attack on the Puerto Rican community is a distraction and disgusting behavior.”
