Turns out city council candidates are as blissfully unaware - and willfully ignorant - of city bylaws as most other Prince George residents.
At least if the way they're paying attention to the election sign bylaw is any indication.
The Citizen looked at the location of campaign signs across the city to see if they met the criteria laid out in the new election and political signs bylaw city council passed last year. The review found the signs for numerous candidates, including several of the incumbents who voted for the revised bylaw, have been put up in locations in clear violation of the bylaw.
Longtime city councillors Murry Krause and Brian Skakun both have a long history of putting up signs along Highway 97 on the hillside leading from the Nechako River up to the Hart, as well as along Highway 16 on Peden Hill. Neither is allowed under the new bylaw, although in his report to city council last year about the new bylaw, Walter Babicz, the city's chief electoral officer, acknowledged (in bold print, no less) that the city doesn't have the jurisdiction to regulate signs placed along highways within city limits. The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is in charge of that.
The purpose of the revised bylaw, Babicz wrote last year, was "to improve and simplify for both candidates and the public the regulations related to election and political signs..." In other words, they'd like candidates to post signs in certain locations only and not try to exploit loopholes like posting signs along the highways.
As a result, all of the candidates received detailed instructions in their nomination packages, including satellite maps, describing exactly where they were allowed to put their "Vote For Me" signs.
That's why there are no campaign signs in the middle of Foothills, Tabor and Ospika Boulevards anymore and why they haven't sprung up like dandelions on previously popular corners like Fifth Avenue and Highway 97. Cameron Stolz, there's a reason why your sign is by itself at First and Victoria, a popular spot for election signs in previous campaigns. Signs are now limited to 14 general sites within city limits on a first-come, first-serve basis and First and Victoria is not one of them.
The sign bylaw also applies to residential properties, where signs are not allowed to be larger than 16 square feet. So those two four-foot by eight-foot signs for Skakun and Kyle Sampson on that fence along Ospika are also in violation.
In past years, candidates smeared their signs on all four corners of Austin Road and Highway 97 in the Hart. Under the new bylaw, candidates are allowed to put signs on two narrow slivers on the northeast and southeast corners of the intersection only and well back from the highway. Yet, as of Wednesday morning, one incumbent candidate - Susan Scott - and a former city councillor seeking reelection - Stolz - both had large signs on the southwest corner of the intersection next to the service road along the Hart Mall.
Details, details, some might argue but this intersection has seen several fatalities in recent years, several of which visibility was considered a contributing factor.
It's really a matter of fair play.
For the candidates who have followed the bylaw to the letter and carefully erected their signs in the designated areas, they are being penalized for following the rules while their competitors are getting an advantage by breaking them.
Most of all, details are what political life in local government is all about, from passing bylaws, approving developments and setting tax rates. If city council candidates - and particularly the incumbents who should know better because they were the ones who voted this bylaw into effect - can't bother following city bylaws, it begs the obvious question of why should anybody else.
-- Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
