The Encinitas City Council Wednesday night unanimously approved a new banner display policy, which lifted the ban in time for this year’s Arts Alive program.
The council also directed city staff to expedite the banner permit process for the 101 Artists' Colony, which produces the program, so the organization can print its banners later this month.
"We've got some sponsors ready to go and maybe you could do us a favor," said 101 Artists' Colony President Danny Salzhandler before the vote.
The banner permit process was suspended in April after the city was threatened with legal action for blocking banners with the image of late Encinitas Councilwoman Maggie Houlihan. The Artists’ 101 Colony covered Houlihan’s picture with vinyl stickers after the city deemed the image violated banner rules.
The council established a subcommittee during its Aug. 22 meeting to revise the rules regarding the use of light poles for the city’s downtown banner program and appointed Councilman James Bond and Councilman Mark Muir to the committee. The council was unable to reach a consensus on the wording of the ordinance during its Sept. 26 meeting.
Bond said Wednesday night that the issue had turned into an “attorney slugfest.”
“I’d like to think that the citizens of Encinitas could follow common sense and the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law, because we’re never going to be able to make that letter perfect,” he said.
The new law clarifies the intended purpose of the banners, specifies that banners not related to specific events not be displayed for more than 90 days and gives the council the right to terminate the banner program at any time.
The policy permits banners that promote or depict civic events such as art festivals, athletic events and car shows, as well as city points of interest, attractions and milestones. The policy prohibits the promotion or depiction of living political figures, however.
Council candidate Lisa Shaffer pointed out that the new policy would have permitted banners with Houlihan’s image.
“If this proposed ordinance had been in effect, Maggie’s image would have been allowed,” she said. “So, what’s the point?”
Shaffer also questioned the reasoning behind a sentence in the proposed ordinance that stated, "The purpose of this section is to avoid public controversy regarding the perception of any such figures, either positive or negative."
“Why is that a legitimate goal for the city?” Shaffer asked. “Why are we censoring art in order to control what people perceive about public officials?”
Councilwoman Teresa Barth suggested the council remove the sentence. The rest of the council agreed prior to the vote, including Muir, who said he didn’t want the process to become paralyzed by overanalysis.
“I want to go forward with this thing,” he said.
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Here is a link to the Channel 10 News coverage of last night's city council meeting. Very curious that there is no mention of this in the article above. http://www.10news.com/news/encinitas-mayor-councilman-blasted-for-putting-up-campaign-signs-before-allowed
We need citizens to inform themselves to the fact that the Stocks//Muir group will handle this campaign just like their video indicates. No ethic and no regrets. Why are the illegal signs still up? Will they be going down two days earlier? Vote for an open and ethical city council. Vote for Krantz and Schaffer.
Please people, inform yourselves and let's get a council we can feel good about. Twelve years of this is enough.
If we sit on our hands, our freedoms will continue to be abridged by bullies, who use their power to rob us of our individual liberties, our neighborhood cohesion, and our community's diversity in character. Stocks, as we know, doesn't follow parliamentary procedure or Roberts Rules of Order. He unilaterally shortens our allotted time to speak, as listed on the agenda, while allowing City and Water District reports to go on interminably. These should be restricted to no more than half an hour, particularly when there is a full agenda and many public speakers. Instead, the public's right to speak is taken away and a "connected" few, special interests, get to go on an on, approaching or for more than an hour! After the bad publicity for Jerome Stocks, associated with what's being called "Sign-Gate," we now discover he, in conjunction with the city manager, who seems to "jump" at Stocks' command, have now cancelled the October 17 Council Meeting! This decision, to cancel a regularly scheduled Council Meeting, was accomplished behind closed doors, without public input. It certainly APPEARS to be a futile attempt to stop the public from being able to "weigh in" during oral communications!
Then Council could have voted. Instead, a bogus subcommittee was appointed, an alternative not on the agenda, so no public speakers could address or object to the advisability of that move to delay and extend the banning of freedom of expression within a limited public forum. As usual, the subcommittee idea didn't come up until the public hearing portion of the discussion had been closed. Stocks has the audacity to blatantly manipulate the agenda, to take things off the agenda, to CANCEL a Council Meeting without a vote. Stocks effectively changed the law in order to ban banners, while trying to do retroactive damage control . . . in a futile attempt to cover-up or excuse his violations of the Constitution and EMC. He then proceeded, through his bogus subcommittee, at the wrongful advise of our biased (toward Stocks) City Attorney, to codify the very abuse of discretion to which lawyers, artists and the general public objected!
Stocks appears to think he can break the law with impunity, going so far as to say at the Forum on Tuesday that Encinitas Municipal Code is not law! The ordinances which comprise EMC are city law, & can have the repercussions of a fine or charges of a misdemeanor violation, if someone is found guilty of violating one or more of them. Like outgoing, convicted Mayor Dan Dalager, before him, Stocks has been talking out of both sides of his mouth. With one face he calls for decorum, while the other side threatens us with the “big guns” of a bully, who disregards, disrespects and attempts to devalue the voice of the community as we ask our representatives to stand for truth and our freedom to enjoy & be grateful for our quality of life. Stocks has been a bully in his arrogance & contempt for "detractors." We know how he avoids eye contact with those of us with whom he disagrees , when we speak from the dais at Council Meetings. We know how he threatens to eject members of the public for allegedly not obeying his rules, yet, now, he asks us to put our trust in him by voting for him! No way!