City Officials Say Signs in San Angelo are a Nuisance

On many street corners in San Angelo, people will find signs attached to utility poles, stop signs, light poles or taped to boxes and placed on street corners. These include garage sale signs, free puppy signs, $10 dog signs, moving signs, “Will Buy Houses” signs, flu shot signs and more. However, the San Angelo Code of Ordinances, Article 8.06, has decreed such sign postings illegal, but that hasn’t curbed the issue city officials said Tuesday.

“Signs are a nuisance everywhere,” said James Flores, assistant director of Neighborhood Services. “The problem is they are fixed or attached to a utility pole, a stop sign or a light pole. That’s where we have a problem with them.”

Because of this nuisance, city council members requested this topic to be added to this week’s City Council Agenda, and during the City Council meeting at the McNease Convention Center, Flores discussed the problem and provided a plan to address it. 

“If people came back to get [the signs], it wouldn’t be an issue,” Flores told council members. "But 90 percent of the people who put the signs up fail do to so.”

As a result, on Mondays, Flores’ staff are going around the city and filling the beds of their trucks with all the garage sale signs people failed to take down.

Flores added that he feels the number of garage sale signs is a seasonal thing and has started tapering down with the change in weather. He also said there’s nothing wrong with people wanting to clear their garages during the warm months, but many people forget to take their signs down, which is the problem; and, the city’s “very active citizens” have been sending Flores pictures of where the problems are at.

“So I have been able to address some of the problems, but more needs to be done,” he noted.

What Flores proposed, because of complaints, is to blitz the media, blitz the radio, blitz Channel 17, and send out an educational blitz for the next few weeks to the citizens and give them a message.

“Enough is enough. We’re not going to take these signs anymore,” he said. “[We’ll] give everybody the opportunity via the radio, via the television, via the internet, via Facebook and other social media, and the paper, whatever they read their daily information on; and after the two-week time, I think we start some heightened enforcement.”

Flores explained the key is to educate the people, and if they don’t start adhering to the laws, they will face repercussions.

“After the two weeks’ time, I think it’s time to cite,” he said.

Hanging up signs in non-designated areas is considered a “view obstruction” violation, and violators will not only go to San Angelo Municipal Court, but they can also expect a Class C misdemeanor and will pay a fine up to $500.

Councilwoman Charlotte Farmer, Single-Member District 6, asked if she, as a citizen, can take down a sign, and Flores responded, “Absolutely.”

In fact, Flores is asking people to send him pictures with the signs and the addresses using a cell phone.

“We need an address; we need to deal with it. We’re not just going to throw it away” he stated. “That’s what we’ve been doing for many years. I would like to simply send that person a notice of violation to let [him or her] know that ‘hey, we know you did this. We know this is your sign. We know this is your address, and please be aware that this is illegal and that’s their first notice.”

After that first notice, residents will get a citation and face action.

Elizabeth Grindstaff, SMD5, added that there are a lot of “bizarre signs” out there in the rights of way put up by businesses, and they’re all over.

“I’m inundated with this complaint,” she said. “I tell people if it bothers you so much, go take it down. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with our citizens taking it upon themselves to clean up this community rather than thinking the answer is paying another $40 - $50,000-a-year staff person to do what we should be doing ourselves.”

Johnny Silvas, SMD3, agreed and said he also gets calls all the time, but he feels people have to be more responsible; the people should go get their signs.

“It’s been illegal forever. It’s sad we’re at this point where we’ve allowed it,” he said.

Flores said history has shown COSA’s not aggressively citing, and that’s not the goal. It’s about cleaning the city, and the way to do that is through more education and getting people to follow the ordinance. It’s also about citizens being more proactive at cleaning the city themselves. His staff, however, will deal with habitual offenders.

Rodney Fleming, SMD1, said he believes the education and the media blitz will be a big thing.

“I think that’s what needs to be pushed the most on this is to get that out there. If you see something, do something,” he encouraged.

He then told the story of how one resident recently called Mayor Dwain Morrison to complain about the trash. Morrison got the address and went to pick the trash up, but Fleming said that shouldn’t have been his responsibility.

“If you’re going to complain about it, take a picture of it, but then you pick it up and get it out of the way if you think it’s a hazard in the street for somebody,” he said. “You take care of it. We’re getting too reliant on [the] guys at the City, and we don’t have the budget to do these kinds of things. We can’t take care of everybody and do everything. You need to get off your rears and do some stuff for yourselves. Hopefully, this media blitz will be talking about that.”