COMMENTARY

“Riding my bicycle in the central beach yesterday afternoon, I counted 24 signs for Richard Winger sings, 21 for Amelia Graves and two for Carroll, with one of those signs placed in Carroll’s own front year.  Along the same 6 mile loop this morning, I saw that more than a dozen new signs for Carroll had sprouted during the night.  All but one of the new Carroll signs was placed in public right of way or on vacant lots.”

MARK SCHUMANN

As a member of the City Council, Tracy Carroll called for a more restrictive ordinance governing the placement of political signs.

Now that Carroll is running for re-election, she and her supporters seem to think they are above that very same law.

Having already thumbed her nose at the City’s long-standing ordinance preventing daily and weekly rentals to transits, is Carroll now planning to challenge a provision in the City’s Code  prohibiting the placement of campaign sings in public right of way?

One Carroll sign was in the right of way in front of Holy Cross Catholic Church this morning.  Though Carroll’s campaign treasurer, Bill Curtis, is a member of the Holy Cross congregation, it is a stretch to believe the church is making an endorsement in the Nov. 5 municipal election.

Another Carroll sign was staked in the right of away in front of a Vero Electric substation.  Does Carroll consider City property to be her’s as well?

Yet another Carroll campaign sign grew up overnight in the right of way adjacent of property owned by the Indian River County School Board. If the School Board is endorsing Carroll, that is sure news to me.  Even if Carroll had the School Board’s blessing, which she does not, it would still be illegal to place her sign in the right of way along Indian River Drive.

Riding my bicycle in the central beach yesterday afternoon, I counted 24 signs for Richard Winger sings, 21 for Amelia Graves and two for Carroll, with one of those signs placed in Carroll’s own front year.  Along the same 6 mile loop this morning, I saw that more than a dozen new signs for Carroll had sprouted during the night.  All but one of the new Carroll signs was placed in public right of way or on vacant lots.

Given that the improperly placed signs went up some time from 5 p.m. Saturday to 7 a.m. Sunday, I could not help but wonder if Carroll and her supporters are taking advantage of the fact that the City’s Code Enforcement officers will not be out to pick the signs up until Monday morning.  Then I recalled that Carroll recently refused to put her name on a proclamation in recognition of National Code Enforcement Month.  No wonder!