Officers collect snipe signs

Historic City News has learned that during the month of September, Code Enforcement Officers collected over 1,000 snipe signs — mostly from County rights-of-way.

Snipe signs include “signs of any material, including paper, cardboard, wood or metal when tacked, nailed or attached to trees, poles, stakes, fences or other objects and are not related to the use of the land upon where the sign is located.”

Last year, we reported on the use and placement of political campaign signs. Political signs are not exempt from most laws that apply to other illegally placed signs. Florida election laws are also violated when political signs are illegally placed in the right-of-way.

With speculation already growing about candidates who intend to run for elected office next year, Historic City News is planning to focus on the enforcement of state laws and county sign ordinances.

When political campaign signs are, indeed, snipe signs, they should not be given special consideration. However, as we saw in the last elections, most politicians will make threats if you attempt to remove them.

Historic City News will take another look at political campaign snipe signs and ask why they should have more of a right to break the law and litter the streets than the “WE BUY HOUSES” and “CHEAP LIFE INSURANCE” guys.

Snipe signs are prohibited within St Johns County. Upon seeing illegal snipe signs, code enforcement officers are allowed to remove them.

According to the County Administrator’s office, code enforcement officers collect signs from County rights-of-way “regularly during the week and on weekends.” We will be watching with interest to see if the code enforcement officers are dancing to the County Administrator’s music during the next election season.