Letter: Depoe Bay attempts to ban some political signs

All around Depoe Bay, residents are expressing their political beliefs with yard signs that proclaim: Black Lives Matter; Free Palestine; Claire Cares; Biden-Harris; Trump 2024.

In an era of polarization and social media rants, campaign signs are a relatively benign reminder we still live in a vigorous democracy where people are free to openly express their opinions without fear of government retribution.

So it came as a surprise to me, a Depoe Bay city councilor who happens to be running for the county commission, when the mayor and other unnamed city officials announced their plan to regulate and limit political signs under a new law that was suddenly placed on the June 18 city council agenda.

I should have seen it coming, though. In a June 6 email sent to me and my opponent in the general election, Claire Hall, Mayor Kathy Short complained, “You both have political signs posted throughout the beautiful city of Depoe Bay,” scolding us to “remove these visual obstructions — until we are back in the throes of campaigning this fall.”

“Thank you for your help with preserving our scenic beauty,” she concluded, making me feel lower than the persistent scum in front of Dock 2.

Fair enough. But Hall and Beasley weren’t the only offenders of some snooty, unwritten city criterion. Trump flags and Pride banners were still flapping in the wind on Collins Avenue. New people — McWhirter and DeSpain — had suddenly appeared on front lawns. Where would it stop?

Depoe Bay’s founders exempted “political signs” in the town’s original sign law, Chapter 96, wisely foreseeing the implications for freedom of speech that were confirmed in later U.S. Supreme Court rulings. In a landmark 1994 case that informs yard sign law everywhere, City of Ladue v. Gilleo, the court found a town’s interest in regulating signs doesn’t outweigh its residents’ right to free speech.

But that didn’t influence my own city government, which marched ahead with a poorly announced public hearing that no one attended. The proposed law criminalized “Display of Political Signage” based on violations of location, size, number, topic and duration — 45 days prior to an election, which means what with mail-in balloting? Each violation was a Class C infraction, but who to charge — homeowner or politician?

The council backed off but has returned with a watered-down version that still overregulates “temporary signs,” to include real estate signs “that shall be removed or replaced” every 60 days, about half the time it takes to sell a home at the coast. It will likely pass as a diversion from bigger problems, including an ongoing federal civil rights lawsuit over a disputed city council decision and eyesores such as abandoned vehicles and ugly clutter in residential areas.

Another city councilor claims I have a conflict of interest and should keep my mouth shut, which doesn’t hold water in my view. The only reason I am on the time-devouring city council is to protect the interests and rights of current Depoe Bay residents, including Constitutional protections we need to understand and respect, even when it offends our delicate sensibilities from time to time.

Depoe Bay and other cities may control public property with all the bans and regulations they can muster, but should leave citizens alone to their speech, on their own property. Democracy is seldom threatened by free speech, so why would we squelch it at a person’s home?

In the Nov. 5 election run-off, Beasley v. Hall, the hardest-fought battle now is for sign sites, and the time needed to erect them properly with stakes, wires and sprays of flowers. Unfortunately, they will be harder to find, with Depoe Bay City Hall hovering over free speech like a petty dictator.

Rick Beasley is a member of the Depoe Bay City Council and is running for county commission against incumbent Claire Hall in the Nov. 5 general election.