Plywood political sign out, then in compliance

One late night in September, Costa Mesa activist Chris McEvoy used some plywood to make a statement of his discontent with the mayor and a proposed development in Newport Beach.

The end product read: “Riggheimer (sic) Supports 15,000+ cars a day on Westside Streets via the Banning Ranch. Save Our City, No More Riggy!!!”

McEvoy, a schoolteacher who spearheaded an unsuccessful attempt in 2012 and 2013 to recall Mayor Jim Righeimer, soon placed the sign on the front yard of his Westside home, where it sat undisturbed for about two months until a city code enforcement officer took notice last week.

On Friday, the officer issued a violation notice to McEvoy that the sign constituted “illegal storage of plywood” on his front lawn. He was told he had one week to remove it from public view.

McEvoy took to Facebook to spread the word of the notice and a potential $150 fine for his noncompliance. He also asserted that he was not going to take it down.

On Wednesday, after a Daily Pilot inquiry, city officials said McEvoy could keep the sign up and that the notice was made in error.

The officer misinterpreted McEvoy’s sign as just a piece of plywood, officials said, though a supervisor later felt it should have been characterized as a political sign, which are supposed to be taken down following the election.

Then, another higher-up supervisor interpreted the sign not as political, but a venue of McEvoy expressing his First Amendment, free-speech rights on his own property.

“It was a misinterpretation of a political sign, and we’re rescinding the notice,” said Gary Armstrong, the city’s economic and development services director. “We’re going to tell Chris we’re sorry and apologize for the confusion.”

Armstrong added that the city needs “to be very cautious of free speech. We’re very aware of that and we don’t want to infringe on anybody’s rights ... we just had a difficult election and we’re trying to learn from it. We’ll do better in the future.”

Officials said the city’s code on signage is unclear and could use some reexamination by the City Council.

“The code is vague and [is] open for interpretation,” Armstrong said. “I think we need to clean that up and get some clarity. When we do that, then we’ll also retrain our code enforcement officers on the new rule.”

McEvoy is pleased with the city’s decision.

“It’s a lot easier than going to court,” he said.

McEvoy, who faced Righeimer when he ran for council in 2008 and 2010, said the violation was a “simple misunderstanding.”

He does like that his words bring more awareness to Banning Ranch, a 1,375-home proposed development in West Newport that is predicted to increase traffic on the Westside.

“That’s the best win out of the whole thing,” McEvoy said.