Monroe bans political signs on public property

Officials: Oversignage

in past has created

distraction for drivers

BY CHRISTINE GRIMALDI

Staff Writer

Monroe residents may notice something missing when election season arrives this fall.

The Township Council on Monday voted to ban the display of political signs on all public property, though such signs can still be posted on private property.

In a unanimous vote, the council amended an ordinance that had already barred other types of postings in the public right of way.

"The only signs being permitted will be government entity signs," said Councilman John Riggs in an interview.

The original ordinance had banned real estate signs, among others, in the public right of way.

"A real estate sign can only be located on the premises that is for sale," Riggs said. They have been prohibited on public property for about 15 years, he said. Realtors technically violate the law by posting open house signs on weekends, but do not face charges as long as they remove the signs by the beginning of the work week on Monday, Riggs said.

Violators of the updated ordinance will face summonses, but Riggs said this is a secondary resort. The council first calls the appropriate person to see if he or she can remove the political signs.

"This is not a money-making venture," he said.

Local political party leaders will be responsible for violations and removal of signs, he said. County and state parties will be contacted if the signs advertise candidates from those levels of elected office. Their offices can then take the necessary actions to remove the signs.

Riggs said the ordinance has been under consideration for about two years, since the last congressional election heavily studded the township with campaign signs.

"We had had [the signs] before, but that's when it became really critical," he said.

He said the council consulted with its legal department to scope out possible remedies and researched similar ordinances in other towns. In fact, the language of Monroe's ordinance is identical to that of North Brunswick. Riggs noted that the council wanted to implement a tried and effective model rather than something completely new.

"They had gone through at least one campaign season with that ordinance in effect, and it didn't have any negative impact on anybody," he said.

Monroe resident and Republican Club President Thomas Nothstein questioned the ordinance at Monday's meeting.

He said in an interview that this will hinder challengers running for council, which has three seats up for election next year. Democrats have long controlled all seats on Monroe's governing body, and Republican candidates have not fared well in most previous elections.

"I really feel that because of their incumbency and the length of their term in office, that obviously they're going to have a much greater name recognition than, say, any challenger," Nothstein said.

He added that the measure will be detrimental to other Democratic candidates as well.

Nothstein said he was not speaking for the Republican Club, but simply as a 21-year resident of Monroe.

"This is not something that we've discussed in the club at all, but it obviously will be discussed at our next meeting," he said.

Nothstein planned to e-mail all club members before their August meeting and urge them to call or write to the council if they share his concerns.

Though he recognizes that Democrats are prohibited from political signage as well, Nothstein reiterated that they have established name recognition, and said there are other problems along the roads beyond the signs.

"I think that the Monroe motorists have many more obstacles, especially with all the overdevelopment and the construction going on, than little 3-foot signs on a grass median," he said.

Nothstein said he was aware of only one problem in the past with disproportionate political postings, and that it occurred on the Applegarth Road median that meets Forsgate Drive.

Riggs agreed there was a problem in that area, and said that two years ago there were hundreds of congressional signs strung along the Forsgate Drive median strip between the New Jersey Turnpike and Applegarth Road. The township had no power to remove the political signs because the ordinance as it existed did not prohibit median strip display, Riggs said.

"But our police department was unhappy with them being located there because they were providing a distraction to drivers," he said. "We then established an informal policy of no signs in median strips."

Riggs said the council worked to remove the signs with Sidna Mitchell, the township's Republican Party municipal chairwoman, and Democratic chairman and Mayor Richard Pucci.

Riggs does not see the new ordinance as having a detrimental effect on the Republicans.

"Signs don't get people elected. But they still have the right to post them on private property, and those are the most effective signs because they show the will of the people, not the abundance of signs," he said.

Mitchell told the Sentinel that speaking as one individual, she has no problem with the ordinance.

"One of my pet peeves has been that people put the signs up, but they don't take them down," she said.

When she ran for state Assembly with Bill Baroni two years ago, she said she went around removing their own endorsement signs.

Signs that are placed on private properties typically are removed when the election is over, she noted.

She added that the council's measure might help Republicans in a township where their signs are often dwarfed by those of Democrats.

"If they're prohibited, then it's like we're more equal," she said.