New rules for campaign signs adopted by Kissimmee
Candidates limited to two-foot signs on wire frames within minutes of polling center
Last year, candidates running for Kissimmee City Commission could nail signs on trees or park large buses plastered with their faces on the sides next to polling centers. The city manager described it as a “free-for-all.”
On Tuesday night, city commissioners hit the brakes on these practices.
Going forward, candidates can only post 2-by-2-foot signs on wire frames within a three-minute walk of the polling center. The designated area is a parking lot next to the Civic Center at 201 E. Dakin Ave.
Craig Holland, development services director, said the city will enforce the policy by removing and disposing of signs that don’t comply. Candidates who violate rules face no other penalties.
The policy comes after years of taxpayer money funding repairs of broken irrigation systems, damage to trees and other city property, but only applies to the Civic Center, Holland said.
“Two years ago someone took a 4-by-4 poster and was hammering it into trees or zip-tying it, and when we take it off, it breaks the trees,” he said. “It was costing taxpayer dollars for enforcement, repairs and things like that.”
City Manager Mike Steigerwald said the policy also aims to control conflict that emerged in the past over signs at the Civic Center.
“There’s been some conflicts with people trying to outdo each other because it was a sort of free-for-all,” Steigerwald said.
But candidates will have to navigate the different rules for polling locations in the cities and county versus those at privately-owned sites.
In addition, the city has separate rules for signs placed in areas away from the Civic Center, Steigerwald said.
“There’s rules that we distribute out to the candidates, like in the city code there’s a timeframe where you’re allowed to put them out and when you have to pick them up,” Steigerwald said. “And there are size limitations depending on where they’re
located — like if you’re in a residential district you can only have the smaller signs.”
Some candidates worry that with so many different rules, the city is setting up newcomers for failure — candidates like Debbie Rambis, who is running for District 3 Osceola County commissioner.
“When you’re not a career politician and running for office, it is not easy to navigate the sign rules,” Rambis said via text messenger. “I had hoped the supervisor of elections would be my one-stop shop for information related to anything elections, however, when I asked about signs I was referred to the county.”
The cities and county create and enforce their own sign regulations, said Kari Ewalt, administrative services director for the Osceola Supervisor of Elections Office in an email. The Supervisor of Elections Office offers candidates the phone numbers of the different zoning departments to get correct guidance for signs, Ewalt said.
Rambis said she read the rules online and even called the county before she put up signs but was issued a citation for not having a permit. Then she said she went back to the county with a notarized permit but the county didn’t accept her application.
“If you read the rules, you can put up signs, but the county tells you the rules don’t apply,” Rambis said. “Rules are needed but more than that, clarity and uniform applications are needed.”
Osceola County did not respond to repeated requests for comment.