Vandals deface Surf City candidate signs

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Vandals have reportedly attacked the campaign

signs of City Council candidates Connie Boardman, Bill Borden, Debbie

Cook and John Thomas -- defacing, removing and even igniting the

political message boards.

Early Saturday, resident Jerri Nelson came home from her night job to

find a Connie Boardman campaign sign aflame on her front lawn.

“I think it’s really a sad example of our democracy,” said Mike

Nelson, Jerri’s husband. “It looked kind of scary, like a burnt cross on

our lawn. I’ve seen signs spray-painted and knocked over, but never on

fire in my frontyard.”

Nelson said he immediately alerted police, who then confiscated the

remains of the charred sign and told him that although it was an isolated

incident, any further burnings would be followed up with an

investigation.

“It [vandalism] happens all the time, to all kinds of signs,” said Lt.

Dan Johnson of the Huntington Beach Police Department. “From presidential

elections to the city’s, we see signs stolen or removed each time there’s

a race.”

Some sign removals, he added, are at the city’s hands, with volunteers

taking down illegally posted campaign material from stop signs, street

lights and other public intersections. City law makes it is a misdemeanor

to place campaign signs on any public property and private property

without owner consent.

“This has never happened before,” said Boardman, who ran for City

Council in 1998. “I feel like it’s a violation of my 1st Amendment

rights.”

Of 20 council candidates running for office this year, these four have

found their signs stolen or vandalized this year, though Thomas said his

have been minor incidents. Police said that some of it is to be expected.

Others disagree.

“To have kids write or draw on the signs, that is to be expected,”

said Borden, who lost several signs when someone removed them from a

fence and threw them in a trash bin. “But to deliberately uproot a sign .

. . those aren’t kids.”

Cook said about half of her signs have been either removed or stolen,

while others have been defaced to form a vulgar word. She has been

repainting her remaining signs to correct them.

“I don’t see the signs. I just put them up, and people call me to tell

me of the defacement,” she said, adding that the rudest part is the

vulgarity forced on the public. “As far as I’m concerned, the person

responsible for this doesn’t appreciate the freedoms that we have in this

country.”