Yanking county's illegal signs could pay 50 cents a pop

By Jennifer Sorentrue

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Tired of those weight-loss signs and political placards planted like mushrooms along the roadside?

Palm Beach County officials want to pay you as much as 50 cents a pop to pull them up.

Code enforcement officials have come up with a plan that would give people a bounty for plucking illegal signs

from county rights-of-way. The exact amount has yet to be decided, Code Enforcement Director Terry Verner said.

Under the plan, dubbed the "sign redemption program," participants would have to register with the county before

becoming eligible for the reward money. They would also be required to take a short training class explaining the county's sign rules.

Snipe signs, as they are officially called staked in the ground along the county's most traveled thoroughfares have been an ongoing problem

for code enforcement officers. As fast as code officers pull them from the ground, they are replaced. And although the signs on county

rights-of-way are illegal under the county's land development code, unless the business is caught putting the sign in the ground,

it's difficult for officials to cite them.

"It's one of those laws where it's very difficult to achieve 100 percent compliance," Verner said. "We are not dealing with a municipality

where it's 8 square miles. We are dealing with over 1,500 square miles."

The county commission first discussed the bounty in June, after the county's self-proclaimed sign vigilante Mike Nichols pleaded with them

to do something about the problem. Commissioners are expected to discuss the program Sept. 12.

County Attorney Denise Nieman has warned that offering the bounty could become a liability issue because many of the signs are placed

along busy and dangerous intersections. Nieman said requiring participants to sign a wavier could be one way to address liability concerns.

But it will be up to the commission to decide whether the liability risk is a big enough issue to halt plans for the program.

At least two commissioners Burt Aaronson and Addie Greene say they support the program, but both expressed concern about the risk to

the county should a participant get hurt. Greene said she already pays children in her neighborhood to collect signs from the roadside.

She doesn't allow them to collect signs from the median because it's too dangerous, she said.

But a solution must be found, Greene said. "We are beginning to look like a slum county," she said. "They are the most disgusting thing I've ever

seen." County Administrator Bob Weisman said the program would not significantly affect the budget. At 50 cents a sign, it would cost the

county $50,000 to pay participants to collect 100,000 signs.

Nichols, who has picked up about 1,000 signs every month for the last 2 1/2 years, estimates he would have raked in $12,000 to $15,000

under the county's program. Nichols has created his own Web site dedicated to the county's sign problem, and he plans to be the first person

to enroll in the program, if it is approved by the commission.

"Conventional methodology is not going to work," he said. "The bounty program will definitely address the wholesale abusers."

In addition to Nichols' collections, Verner said the county plucks thousands of signs each week from the roadside. They are dumped at the county's

 landfill. As part of the training, participants would be told where they are allowed to collect the signs, Verner said. Residents would redeem their

reward when they turn over the signs to county code enforcement officials.

"We want to make sure that we have a level of comfort that signs are not being removed from private property, or not being removed from cities

and turned into the county," Verner said.

Nick Theodore, a representative of the Florida Carpenters Regional Council, said the group uses signs to advertise jobs paying $18 an hour

about two times a year. On Monday, it planted roughly 25 signs in northern Palm Beach County.

The signs are the most effective and economical way to attract new workers, he said. But the bounty program may leave the group looking

for another way to advertise. "It has the highest results," Theodore said. "But we'll find another way to do it if we have to."

Commissioner Mary McCarty made it VERY CLEAR

what Palm Beach County's policy is in regards to illegally

 placed Campaign signs in the right-of-ways and on public property.

According to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections there were

 over 40 elections held in Palm Beach County in the last five years.

 http://www.pbcelections.org/Elections.aspx?type=past