TRURO — The town has stopped enforcing its bylaw regulating temporary signs, Town Manager Darrin Tangeman and Town Planner Barbara Carboni said this week. The decision followed controversy over the removal of campaign signs for select board candidate Tim Hickey.
Hickey came in last in Wednesday’s balloting, in which Nancy Medoff and Susan Girard-Irwin were elected to the select board. See separate story on the election results here.
Hickey claims that town staff removed his signs from private properties in town. “There were a number of private addresses from where signs were taken,” Hickey wrote in an email to the Independent. “Three of these individual homeowners contacted me and explained they complained to the town.”
Tangeman said that signs were removed only from public property along Route 6. “We actually looked at GIS, and we know the signs we took were in the public right of way,” he told the Independent. “Every sign had a photo of where it was located before we removed it.”
Nevertheless, acting on the advice of town counsel, the administrators opted to stop enforcing the temporary signage section of the town’s sign code.
“Given the current divisive climate in town and our need to protect the staff from continued harassment, we made the decision to stand down,” said Carboni, who is a lawyer and the town’s land use counsel.
At least one police report has been filed against town staff. “I had 12 people come to my coffee hour to yell at me very specifically on this issue,” Tangeman said.
Hickey was one of four candidates competing for two seats on the select board. He received 316 votes. Nancy Medoff and Susan Girard-Irwin won with 543 and 535 votes respectively. Kevin Grunwald got 340 votes.
Tangeman said he had directed dept. of public works staff to remove all signs on public property to comply with the sign code.
“We weren’t looking for any particular signs,” he said. Fifteen signs were taken down on one day in April, said Tangeman. All were campaign signs either for Hickey or for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, he added.
The reason that none of the other three select board candidates had their signs removed, town officials said, was that none were placed on public land.
The town’s bylaw states that temporary signs on public property must have a permit from the planning board.
“Any such permit shall be limited to holiday or special events, and shall be limited to a period of fifteen (15) days, for events lasting one day or two days,” the bylaw states. “For said events having multiple dates such permits shall be limited to a period of thirty (30) days. Not more than four (4) signs shall be erected with respect to any such event.”
The Truro Farmer’s Market and Payomet Performing Arts Center received permits for temporary signage this season, according to Carboni. No candidates for office sought permits.
According to town staff, Truro has enforced the bylaw in prior elections. In 2022, state Sen. Julian Cyr’s campaign signs were removed from the public right of way, Tangeman said.
During public comment at the April 17 planning board meeting, Hickey said that “a rather large number of signs on Truro roadways” related to the Pond Village chapel fundraising campaign were left standing.
“Ironically,” Hickey said, “the DPW worker who collected my signs from Shore Road and Standish Way on Tuesday, April 9 had to have driven by three or four of these signs and left them undisturbed.”
Tangeman told the Independent he was not aware of signs for the chapel campaign. “I haven’t seen those signs in the public right of way,” he said. “If I did, they would have been taken, too. There was absolutely no selective enforcement.”
Calling in the ACLU
At the April 17 planning board meeting, Hickey also said he had been in touch with the American Civil Liberties Union regarding the removal of his signs.
“I contacted the ACLU,” Hickey said, but they “would not offer legal advice as they do not have the staff to get involved with the town of Truro.”
Town officials received a public records request from a lawyer claiming to be working with attorneys at ACLU Massachusetts, however. That lawyer, Keith H. Bensten of Day Pitney, also forwarded an April 2019 letter from the ACLU related to the unlawful removal of signs from private property.
Tangeman said that the letter did not apply to recent sign removals. As of May 28, town staff had offered a fee estimate for fulfilling the records request but had not received a response, Tangeman said.
Hickey told the planning board in April, “At this point, I have not retained counsel nor have I any intentions of suing the town or the town officials involved in this blatant campaign of harassment but retain my right to do so if necessary.”
In a May 27 email to the Independent, Hickey said that the people who believed his signs were removed from their property “were extremely angry and at least two called the ACLU. And some filed police reports.”
Hickey would not identify the specific addresses from which he believes signs were taken. “I was instructed by my attorney friend to stay focused on the election, then we would discuss options after,” Hickey wrote.
Town officials insist they have not removed any signs unlawfully. Their choice to stop enforcing the bylaw had to do with the climate in town and “a sensitivity to First Amendment rights,” they said.
“We’ve stood down because we want to have a deeper conversation with the community about how we do this,” Tangeman said.
He said the town could vote to do away with the bylaw prohibiting temporary signage on public land. That could “allow everything,” he said, except hate speech.
The town’s current bylaw does not distinguish between campaign signs and other temporary signs. “Some municipalities have a specific regulation for election-related signs,” said Carboni. “That’s one thing we’ll be looking at.”
