Officers tackle sign problem

Police are reigning in signs in the public right of way, enlisting its four new ordinance officers, T.J. Turowski, Mark Hook, Ken Kunka and Sean Heck. Photo courtesy Canton Public Safety.

The newest members of the public safety department have a special task ahead of them, starting Saturday.

The four ordinance officers will be keeping an eye out for rogue signs that are pitched, planted or posted in the public right of way.

“We’re trying to make driving a little safer for the motoring public,” said Deputy Police Chief Alex Wilson. “I would think that that was probably the driving force behind passing an ordinance keeping signs out of the road right of way.”

Wilson, who helped oversee the assimilation of the ordinance officers into public safety from the building department, said even though such signs were never allowed in the right of way, public safety didn’t really enforce the ordinance against them.

“We focused more on the criminal and traffic ordinances and left the sign ordinance and blight up to the building department,” said Wilson. “Now with them being part of us, it becomes incumbent upon us. If nothing else, it’s just a different philosophical take.”

The sign ordinance prohibits placement of signs in the right of way, usually meaning the space immediately abutting the curb.

The timing of the renewed enforcement coincides with the gathering momentum of campaign season. Canton is cautioning candidates for office and their campaign committees to keep political signs on private property—with permission of the owner—where they won’t be touched by police.

“We sent out letters to everyone we know that’s running for political office requesting cooperation,” said Wilson.

Under the current law, violators can be fined $500 or put in prison for up to 90 days, or both.

Director of Public Safety John Santomauro said the goal is not to simply write tickets for the sake of getting revenue.

“What we’re after is compliance,” said Santomauro.

While in the building department, the officers were a reactionary group, mostly responding to complaints. Santomauro intends to implement a more proactive model.

Ken Kunka was an ordinance inspector with Canton for six years before the switch.

“It’s going pretty good,” he said. “We have a new way of doing things, but we’ve had pretty good training. It’s still ongoing right now, but it’s starting to get comfortable.”

As ordinance officers, they wear a uniform and drive a designated ordinance unit vehicle. Now, instead of receiving complaints over their voice-mail, they are dispatched by public safety, improving response times dramatically.

Signs are just a part of the job: they also investigate blight, garbage, noise and property standards complaints.

They’re also more aggressive with violators, writing citations more quickly than before, when the first step was to leave a business card directing violators to call the building department.

“We’ll still work with people,” said Kunka.

Santomauro said, “The simple version of the policy is ‘you’re nice until you can’t be nice anymore.’”

Police encourage residents to call the Ordinance Division at (734) 394-5335 if they have questions about ordinances. Complaints can be directed to the public safety front desk at (734) 394-5400.

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Copyright © 2006 Journal Newspapers. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2006 Journal Newspapers. All rights reserved.