Mahwah October 17, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 7 Council grants OK for signs in rights of way by Frank J. McMahon The Mahwah Council has passed 10 resolutions granting this year’s mayor and council candidates permission to post temporary signs in the township’s rights of way and on public property. The candidates who obtained that permission include incumbent Mayor William Laforet and his challenger Edward Sinclair, who is currently superintendent of the department of public works; incumbent Council Members John Roth and Lisa DiGiulio, and council candidates Steven Sbarra, Jonathan Marcus, and Todd Van Duren. Resolutions were also passed to grant the same permission to Freeholder Robert Hermansen, who is seeking reelection; Patricia Spiech, the wife of Council President John Spiech; and Councilman Roy Larson, who sought permission to post temporary Garage Sale signs in the rights of way and on public property. Each resolution was passed 4-1, with the councilperson named in each resolution abstaining from his or her particular vote and Councilman Harry Williams voting against granting permission to anyone. Williams has been a supporter of banning all temporary signs in the township’s rights of way and on public property for aesthetic reasons. During the summer, the council reached a consensus that all signs should be banned and introduced an ordinance to amend the township’s current sign ordinance, which prohibits all temporary signs in the public rights of way or on public property unless council permission is obtained. Although the existing ordinance has not been enforced, the council wanted to eliminate the governing body’s ability to grant permission to applicants who seek the council’s approval to post temporary signs in the rights of way and on public property. The governing body could not come to agreement on adopting that ordinance, and it died in a tie vote at a public meeting in September. That event prompted all the candidates to file applications for permission to post their temporary political signs. Since May, the council has grappled with the sign issue because of a concern that the township’s roads will be littered with signs from candidates on the federal, state, county, and local levels, including candidates for the board of education, in the upcoming general election. The ordinance amending the existing sign ordinance was introduced in June by a 4-2 vote. At that time, the council majority agreed with Williams, who predicted that Macarthur Boulevard would look “like a circus” during this year’s election period. The ordinance was sent to the planning board, which found the proposal consistent with the township’s master plan, although one non-voting member of the board expressed the view that the ordi- nance was well intentioned, but vague, and could have unintended consequences on small business owners trying to get their businesses started. The council delayed taking any action on the ordinance amendment as they debated the wisdom of prohibiting all temporary signs on public property and in public rights of way in order to prohibit political signs during election periods. Mahwah Township Attorney Andrew Fede advised the council during that debate that it could not single out political signs for prohibition, although it could control the size of the signs. He also advised that previous case law indicated that the council could limit the time that signs are posted as long as that limit applied to all signs at all times of the year. But he said placing time limits on the posting of signs before and after an election would pose a constitutional problem. The council also considered the difficulty the ordinance amendment would place on township officials who would have to enforce it. The vote on the ordinance was delayed several times due to the absence of one or more of the council members.