Southaven mayoral candidate keeps sign suit alive despite city’s actions
A Southaven mayoral candidate who filed a lawsuit against the city Tuesday over its sign ordinance is evaluating changes made in response to the suit before deciding whether to move forward, his lawyer said Wednesday.
“We’re holding fire but are ready to go at the drop of hat,” attorney Steve Crampton said in the wake of a decision by the city to suspend temporarily the political sign component of its ordinance. “We’re pleased that they took prompt action in some respects, but not all.”
Crampton filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi in Oxford on behalf of Tommy A. Henley, who is challenging Mayor Darren Musselwhite and another candidate in the May 2 Republican primary. Henley contends the city’s sign regulations, as they relate to campaign signs, put him at a disadvantage against an incumbent with greater name recognition.
Musselwhite said late Tuesday evening that aldermen suspended regulations regarding political signs pending review to avoid potential lawsuit costs.
Crampton said he’s still concerned about certain aspects of the requirements and, therefore, wasn’t ready to say the city’s actions render the legal action moot. Musselwhite said by email Wednesday morning that the sign ordinance was actually already under review before Henley’s action because of a recent Supreme Court ruling.
Henley’s suit names the city and its planning director, Whitney ChoatCook, as defendants. Choat-Cook’s duties include enforcement of the sign ordinance.
Specifically, the lawsuit takes issue with limitations on the size, number and style of signs a candidate can have. The suit also questions, among other practices, a requirement prohibiting campaign signs until 45 days before the election.
“This restriction places challengers like Henley at a distinct disadvantage when facing an incumbent, whose name recognition is already greater and who can use his incumbency to generate even more name recognition as he holds rallies and engages in public events as a matter of course,” the suit states.
Henley notes in the suit that 45 days prior to the May 2 primary election
date would be March 18, but that absentee voting begins March 3. “Henley desires to display his signs immediately,” the suit notes.
Others spoke up as well on Wednesday in the wake of Henley’s lawsuit. Don Abernathy, a former Southaven Planning Commission member, emailed the city’s aldermen Wednesday morning pointing out that questions about the sign ordinance date to 2014. Abernathy said he resigned from the Planning Commission in 2015 after being told further legal debate would need to go through the judicial system.
Abernathy has most recently been involved in a feud with the city by a conservative tax reform group that is protesting extension of Southaven’s “Penny For Your Parks” restaurant tax.
Musselwhite, seeking a second fouryear term, said in a statement released late Tuesday evening:
“Our sign ordinance was created years ago, before me and the current board (of aldermen), and I am told the political component of the ordinance was created in response to the citizens’ concern about the pollution of our city by an unlimited amount of signs for an unlimited amount of time. It’s fair to note that I abided by the rules in 2013 as a challenger against an incumbent candidate and won the mayoral election.”
Musselwhite defeated former mayor Greg Davis, who left office under a cloud of legal issues over use of city money.
Musselwhite added in his statement: “Our board decided to temporarily suspend the political sign component of the ordinance until further review based on legal counsel. They did not want to risk the cost to our taxpayers from a potential lawsuit over a temporary issue.
“It’s interesting to me that Mr. Henley didn’t express a problem with the issue when he was acquiring sign permission from property owners late last year, even before he had filed proper documents to be a qualified candidate. When they finally learned his true intentions regarding what office he was seeking and declined permission because they support me, it suddenly became an issue for him.
“It’s also alarming to me that a mayoral candidate would sue the city and very people that he is asking to hire him while knowing it costs the taxpayers of the city money in legal fees requested by him in the lawsuit.”