Costa Mesa council rules political signs can be up longer leading to Election Day

The Costa Mesa City Council this week adopted new rules allowing political signs to be up longer in the final weeks heading up to Election Day.

The council’s 3-0 vote Tuesday — Mayor Steve Mensinger and Councilman Gary Monahan were absent — means political signs can be posted in the public right of way at any time during the six weeks before a city, state or federal election.

The rest of the year, those signs can be put up in those areas only Fridays through Sundays.

Such signs must be removed within 10 days after an election.

Not part of the new sign rules was a previous cap that limited sign owners to 10 at a time citywide — a rule that city officials have previously said was impractical and virtually impossible to enforce.

The new regulations apply to signs that are portable and used for non-commercial purposes, such as political or public discourse.

The adopted changes, which the council also discussed last month, are meant to help Costa Mesa comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that requires cities to equally regulate any temporary sign, whether it’s commercial or political.

City officials also say the new rules will help reduce the staff time needed to enforce regulations on signs during the heart of campaign season.

More than 1,800 illegal signs were removed during the 2014 election season, mostly because they were placed in the public right of way outside of permitted times.

Recent elections have also seen reports of signs being stolen or vandalized.

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Luke Money, [email protected]

Twitter: @LukeMMoney