Dispute Over Political Signs Ignites Debate in Baudette, Minnesota

BAUDETTE, MN (trfnews.i234.me) The City Council in Baudette, Minnesota is dealing with a controversy over political campaign signs in that town.
this sign on the east side of bought it minnesota was vandalized this past week it’s at the heart of a political sign controversy in that city this week the council repealed its election sign ordinance the story in from our news partner the northern light region newspaper the baudette city council met for its regular monthly work session on thursday february 25th a large crowd of close to 40 individuals was in attendance all there to show their support for delvin risi and a trump billboard he owns and sheriff gary fish and his decision not to cite individuals for what the council had determined to be violations of its election sign ordinance others were there to express what they felt was their right to keep signs up and our flags flying for the candidates of their choice claiming they were just practicing their free speech rights the work session got underway with zoning administrator tom eaton giving a quick history of how it came to this point eaton explained that the ordinance as written allowed property owners within the city to display election material up to 10 days after the general election which would have been november 13th at a december work session the council decided to extend that time period to january 20th which was inauguration day eaton went on to explain that at that time he consulted with he consulted with budette city attorney steve anderson and sent letters to approximately 28 people who were deemed to be in violation of the ordinance the letter explained that the plan to enforce the ordinance and that january 20th would be the deadline to remove signs flags etc in question the 20th came and went and when i sent the names of people that were still in violation to the sheriff’s office they declined to prosecute or send any citations because of what they thought was unconstitutional and a violation of freedom of speech eaten stated hopefully we can put this to bed it’s obvious that people don’t agree with our ordinance but it’s my job to enforce the ordinance as it is on the books and that’s what i was trying to do eaton said at the february regular council meeting eaton brought the council up to date on sheriff fish’s decision and it was decided that fish and anderson would be invited to the work session to work out a solution mayor rick rhones asked sheriff fish if he had anything to say i think i made my decision fish said anderson asked the council what they saw as the issue and what action they wanted to take what exactly are we talking about should we enforce the ordinance at ordinance asked anderson i think it’s more of an issue of a description of what’s in the ordinance i don’t think we should start getting into flags or whatever i think the ordinance had yard signs the cardboard and paper signs in mind that’s my opinion said mayor rohn ron went on to say my opinion may be a little skewed because i still have a trump 2020 flag flying on my porch that flag was up there a year before the election so it was up there outside that allowed time then and nothing was said but now some people are upset about it anderson clarified that the statute that the state statute allows local governments to enact ordinances to limit the display of campaign signs and material outside of the state’s allowed window of time to do so i would point out that this was pointed out to me when i originally sent a letter to mr reesey about his billboard and it was in violation of our local ordinance and it was pointed out that the state statute trumped no pun intended our local ordinance but when the window expired our city ordinance kicked back in eaton said correct said anderson when that happened i started getting complaints again people complain about two feet of grass in someone’s yard we address that people complain about garbage in someone’s yard we addressed that i addressed this one because we got complaints about it if you want to go through the whole ordinance book and start seeing which ones should be approved and which ones shouldn’t i guess that’s an option but i was just trying to enforce it as it is written eaton continued rowan asked the council if they had any comments council member brock uh st stebach and said he was in agreement with throne it’s my understanding that we already voted on this a long time ago council member brett hansen said i don’t see having an ordinance on the books if we don’t enforce it so there’s a question said council member marla carlson well that’s the issue the ordinance says banners and signs so what what it what’s the description of a sign rhone said i don’t really don’t see that is an issue for the council to to decide said anderson uh what’s the definition of a sign does a flag kit fit the description of a sign i think it’s a bigger picture that the council needs to decide the idea has been raised that the ordinance may be unconstitutional and it may be what i think the council needs to decide is it needs to decide to do something do nothing like marla said and you shouldn’t have an ordinance on your books if you’re not going to enforce them if the decision of the council is to not enforce this or do you think it’s a bad idea simply repeal that portion of the ordinance if on the other hand the council does want to regulate these type of temporary signs then what you should do is revise the ordinance bring it up to date address any constitutional issues and then enforce it and those who are then those are the two options i see said anderson ron then opened up the floor for community input asking those in attendance to keep any comments civil i did research the ordinance began delving reese’s explained that he felt the billboard he owns that has come into question would be exempt citing section 11.06 of the ordinance stating that permitted signs are exempt reese went on to explain that he pays a permit fee to the state anderson expressed his disagreement saying that when he talks about the payment of a fee it’s referring to the city’s fee then it needs to be specified in this ordinance it doesn’t say that reese’s responded well i think that’s what steve anderson is saying we may need to do away with the ordinance and rewrite it rhone said so what’s the difference if you have a heritage flag asked jesse levore you’re represented in other countries flag or you’re representing with a trump flag or biden flag or any other it doesn’t matter it’s your belief you can go back and attack someone belief beliefs it’s a god-given right for one uh number two it’s a constitutional right it’s your free will you can’t go and attack someone’s belief just because it’s against your uh political uh views i know that’s what’s uh i know that’s what’s uh going on here i think it’s a bull let’s uh stand up for what’s right for your own beliefs we can’t sit here and be quiet about it and let people push you around if you want to go vote for biden or put up a biden sign no one’s going to write on it that’s your right and everyone deserves that right at that the community members in attendance broke into applause the discussion continued for some time with discussions of the ordinance applied to bumper stickers or even flags that may be flown to honor other past presidents such as abraham lincoln or even flags from other countries things that became contentious at times with city president uh john holman nick accusing eden of carrying out his personal agenda against trump supporters and saying other high priority issues are being ignored you’ve chosen to take this football and run with it uh tom other people also think it’s a personal agenda with you then they aren’t here seeing the complaints we’re getting in the office we’ve we’ve received written complaints i’m not running this by myself if you uh don’t know that you’re not paying attention eaten answered i’m paying attention so are these people humanik said i get that but they’ve got to know the facts eaton replied if you want to build a shrine to someone on your property go ahead just don’t violate any city ordinance to do it eaton continued at that time rowan cut eaten off the crowd in the attendance was clearly in support of sheriff fish’s decision to not deliver the citations as another round of applause filled the room when dennis johnson said i support gary fish 100 percent after further discussion roane made a motion to repeal section 11.06 class d section 1110 class f with stevock and seconding of seconding those two sections address uh election signage if you did that that would resolve the immediate issue and then i would advise that the whole sign ordinance be looked at and amended anderson said before the council voted carlson addressed the room saying i just want to to make one one thing clear this is not what tom this was not tom’s personal agenda he has to respond to citizen complaints a complaint comes first so to say that he’s not doing his job properly or he has a different agenda agenda is unfair he’s a city employee and we need to stand up for him he came to us with these complaints and he said what do you want me to what do you want to do and we decided as a council to have him enforce it did the city of council uh agree to have him uh send that letter reecey reesey asked the council in reference to the letter saying that his billboard was in violation each council member responded yes did you read the ordinance prior to that asked reese of the council it was read to us i understood it as much as the nurse can understand it but that’s why we referred it to our lawyer carlson responded reecey stated uh he had made a correction so his billboard is in compliance by spray painting over the 2 20 20 in the message to make it a president’s sign and not an election sign once weather allowed him to do it the ultimate result of this is that i think somebody didn’t do his job and it personally affected me said reecey okay let’s leave it at that and go on to vote on the motion rhone said can i respond rick asked eaton i’d rather not get into a back and forth tom i don’t think it’s healthy for anyone responded wrong with that the council went on to vote 5-0 to repeal the two sections of the ordinance that dealt with election signage anderson said he would begin working on new verbiage with the city clerk treasurer tina renamo for an amendment to the sign ordinance and present it at a future meeting i’m Neil Berg reporting for page onepublications.com