Mooresville Sign Ordinance

On March 20th, 2020 we received an email from the head of the town’s public works superintendent Dave Moore stating the following:

Good afternoon. This email is to let you know that some of the political signs are in violation of the Town of Mooresville UDO. The signs are not to be placed on the town right of ways.

Chapter 3, Site Development Standards;

Section f, Location and Placement;

Sub-section I, Signs may not be installed at any of the following locations:

• (a) In any public right-of-way, unless specifically authorized by the legislative body or their designee;
• (b) In any drainage or utility easement;
• (c) In any no-build or no-disturb zone;
• (d) In any public park or other public property, with the exception of those signs specifically permitted in this UDO;
• (e) On any traffic control signs, highway construction signs, fences, utility poles, street signs, trees, or other natural objects;
• (f) Obstructing any door, fire escape, stairway or any opening intended to provide entrance or exit for any building or structure; or
• (g) In a manner that obstructs or interferes with safe movement of vehicular or pedestrian traffic.

We are asking that you notify your candidates and let them know that they have 3 days from receipt of this email to remove the signs or they will be disposed of. Thank you for your help with this matter.

Regards, Dave Moore

Dave Moore
Public Works Superintendent

On April 1st, this sudden change in the practice of allowing temporary signs on public property was covered by the local paper. Read that full story here. There were several things to worth noting in this article.

One is the towns official legal opinion regarding the sign ordinance.

“Mooresville cannot tell politicians how big their signs can be or how many signs he/she can place on a property during that (60 days before and six days after an election) time frame,” Copeland wrote in her email. “But, since Mooresville’s ordinance clearly prohibits all signs, except those specifically permitted in the UDO, on public property, IC 36-1-3-11(c) doesn’t apply.”

IC 36-1-3-11(c) clearly states:

(c)Subject to subsection (d), an ordinance or a regulation of a political subdivision relating to the number or size of signs is unenforceable during the following period:

(1)Beginning sixty (60) days before an election.

(2)Ending at the beginning of the sixth day after the election.

The sign ban does not violate state law only if all signs of all types are banned from these areas. Ironically, the main photo accompanying this story is a picture of a sign in an island style right-of-way located at the corner of Indiana and Samuel Moore Parkway. That sign remained in that location until at least April 4th.

On March 27th the Republican, Democrat, and Libertarian chairs held a meeting to discuss a response to this sign ban. A letter was drafted and sent to the Mooresville Town Council with the support of all three party chairs. In that letter they detailed a request to place political signs on public property and requested to be placed on the agenda in order to request permission on behalf of all candidates during the 2020 season.

Requests to be on the agenda has been consistently denied. President Shane Williams took to Facebook on April 3rd in response to the request saying the party chairs needed to go before the Board of Zoning Appeals to get permission. Mr Willaims expressed that to his own party chair as well, since Mr Elliott was working with the all Republican council to get our concerns on the agenda. We were unable to get on the BZA agenda until August (approximately 5 months after the original request was made and well after the primary elections were over)

By April 18th the signs at Indiana & Samuel Moore had been replaced by another sign advertising a local plumbing business. We have documented many signs of all types on public property, but on April 21st we began documenting signs for Republican candidates in public spaces.

We placed our first political sign for Tonya Millis next to a Republican sign near the South Mooresville Gateway monument on May 13th. That sign remained throughout the primary election season and we did not receive any complaints about it or calls to remove it.

On May 19th at approximately 8 pm we placed a Donald Rainwater sign at the South Gateway location as well as in the island median at Indiana and Samuel Moore Parkway. At that time the plumbing sign had been at this location for a month with no public complaint from the Town Council or Shane Williams.

Approximately 17 hours later at around 1pm on May 20th Town Council President Shane Williams posts a photo of our sign at the Indiana / Samuel Moore location with the business sign carefully cropped out. On this post he claims we are “getting an unfair and unlawful advantage” and generally saying other derogatory and inflammatory things about Libertarians, which he has a history of doing. We then received the following email at 2:21 PM that same day (approximately 18 hours after placing the sign).

Mr. Lundy,

It was brought to my attention that there is a sign placed in the towns’ right of way at Indianapolis Road and Samuel Moore pkwy. I was asked to reach out to your party and remind you that the town U.D.O. prohibits this unless you have been granted permission by the Town Council. Respectfully,
Dave Moore
Public Works Superintendent

We responded as follows:

Dave,
Thank you for all your hard work as Public Works superintendent. We really appreciate all you and your team do for the Town of Mooresville. The Libertarian party of Morgan County wants to do our best to work within the city’s guidelines. Unfortunately, the Town Council and the BZA have been refusing our requests to be on the agenda for this issue for two months now. Therefore, we have been unable to ask for permission.

We would appreciate some guidance on how we can proceed when we are being stonewalled.

Danny Lundy
Libertarian Party of Morgan County, Chair

On May 23rd we placed a Don Rainwater sign next to another Republican campaign sign located on the west side of town. We have documentation of that sign being there since at least May 5th. That sign remained throughout the primary election season and did not receive any public ridicule or calls to remove it. At about that same time, we received this email from Town Council President Shane Williams:

Danny,

As you know, there’s been a pandemic.

Also, as you know, we take public comment at every meeting….multiple times. Every public meeting has been open to the public, even during the pandemic.

There’s been nothing preventing you from coming before us during public comments over the last “two months.” We do not turn any public comments away.

It is my personal view that the matter was settled when both a Planning Commission and former Council passed the UDO. I also think you’re on the wrong side of public opinion.

I’m only one of five though. Shane B. Williams
President
Mooresville Town Council

On May 24th, President Williams again took to Facebook to specifically call out the Libertarian Party while never mentioning the Republican candidate signs, business signs, or variety of other signs currently on public property within the town. No other candidate, business, organization, or individual has received this kind of treatment from any official for allegedly violating the sign ordinance.

On May 27th, sometime between 1 pm and 5:30 pm and just 1 week after being placed, our sign was removed from the Indiana St / Samuel Moore location. The plumbing sign next to ours, which had been there nearly 6 weeks, was also removed. Meanwhile, signs in public spaces all over town remain untouched. Our signs placed next to Republican Candidate signs remained untouched throughout the primary political season and without public outrage from Mr. Williams.

On July 9th we submitted a Freedom of information request to the Town of Mooresville Clerk’s office. We requested copies of the following documents [or documents containing the following information]:

• All signage removed by town employees, officials, or agents due to Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) infractions, including their locations, since 1/1/2019;
• All external communications requesting the removal of signage due to UDO infractions since 1/1/12019;
• All internal communications regarding the removal of signage due to UDO infractions since 1/1/2019.

We received a response to that request on the morning of July 14th. It contained many items of note.

• Dave Moore was ordered by the Town Council President to send a letter to the political chairs telling them to remove their signs. (see pages 68 & 69 of the FOI Request documents)
• As of the July 14th the sign ban had only been enforced on three occasions. In all those instances the order came directly from Town Council President Shane Williams.
  • On April 20th, in response to a Facebook post of several signs around town, Town Council President Shane Williams ordered the removal of Pro Source Roofing signs from the medians on Indiana Street. Pro Source Roofing is not publicly denounced, shamed, or ridiculed by Shane Williams. (pages 28 & 29 of the FOI Request documents)
  • On May 20th Town Council President Shane Williams ordered the removal of the “Libertarian Party Governor Sign” in the island on Indianapolis Road. At no time during the conversation regarding the removal of our Don Rainwater sign was the Drain Works plumbing sign mentioned. Despite the fact the plumbing sign had been there for more than a month prior to our sign and was mere inches away from our sign. Drain Works Plumbing was not publicly denounced, shamed, or ridiculed by Town Council President Shane Williams. (see text messages, in reverse order, on pages 13 – 24 of the FOI Request documents)
  • On May 28th Town Council President Shane Williams falsely claims that the Libertarian party chair Danny Lundy put out another sign and orders its removal. At no time during the conversation is the Grace Church sign next to the “In God We Trust” sign mentioned. The conversation is focused solely on the sign Mr. Williams incorrectly believes Mr. Lundy placed. All of those signs are removed on June 15th. None of these signs are publicly denounced, shamed, or ridiculed by Town Council President Shane Williams. (see text messages, in reverse order, on pages 6 – 12 of the FOI Request documents)
• On July 13th the Theta Tau Sorority requested permission to place signs in town right-of-ways to advertise a 5k. They were granted permission. (page 4 of the FOI Request documents)
• On the afternoon of July 13th, just before we received this FOI response, Town Council President Shane Williams orders Dave Moore and the street department to “begin the process of removing unpermitted signs in town right-of-ways”. (page 3 of the FOI Request documents)

Immediately following this FOI response reports began to surface online from people all over town having signs removed, including “Just Be Kind” signs, political signs, business signs, and even a “Slow, Children at Play” sign. In some cases these signs were taken from their front yards.

On or about July 11th a large trailer letter sign was parked in the Indiana Street island. Several other signs promoting concerts and local businesses also appeared around this time. The large park sign and all other signs in that island were removed by July 14th. None of these signs are publicly denounced, shamed, or ridiculed by Town Council President Shane Williams.

On Tuesday, July 21st the Mooresville Parks Depart gets on the agenda and appears at the Mooresville Town Council meeting. After much debate, the Town Council does vote 4-1 to authorize the Parks Department to place signs in the parks as needed, and to place the large portable trailer sign in the Indiana Street island location. You can read the news coverage of that meeting and/or watch the video of that meeting here.

On August 13th the Morgan County political parties are put on the Board of Zoning Appeals agenda to ask permission to place signs during the 2020 election season. Libertarian Chair Danny Lundy spoke on behalf of the issue, and Town Council President Shane Williams spoke against it. The board voted to deny the request. You can read the news coverage of that meeting and/or watch the video of that segment of the meeting here.

In response, Libertarian County Chair Danny Lundy penned an op-ed on the topic claiming the sign ban places the Town of Mooresville in a “no-win scenario” and stresses that the way this law is being enforced will hurt more than just political speech. In it he calls for the law to be fixed. That article was published in the Mooresville Times on August 19th and can be read here.

On September 1st we submitted another FOI request to the Town of Mooresville Clerk’s office. We requested copies of the following documents [or documents containing the following information]:

• Documentation of any requests for permission to place temporary signs on town property since 1/1/2019;
• Documentation of any decisions granting or denying permission to place temporary signs on town property since 1/1/2019;

On Thursday September 3rd we received this response to our request: “I have reached out to both the Public Works and Building departments and they have found no such documents.”

And yet . . .

• The Theta Tau Sorority requested permission from Dave Moore on July 13th and was granted permission.
• The Mooresville Parks Department requested permission from the Mooresville Town Council on July 21st and was granted permission.
• The Morgan County political chairs requested permission from the Mooresville Board of Zoning Appeals on August 13th and were denied permission.

Since then we have submitted several similar FOI requests that show no other persons or organizations have asked for permission to place temporary signage. Meaning the hundreds of signs placed in the same or similar fashion all over town were also ‘illegal’. Yet, they have been largely ignored.

To-date, according to FOI requests, the ONLY request to place temporary signage that has been denied by the Town of Mooresville was for political signage. The only times they seem to worry about other signage is when political parties point out that they are not following their own rules. There clearly seems to be a bias against political speech in the enforcement of this ordinance, which is protected by the first amendment.

On September 28th, after being denied our request to place signage for the 2020 elections and after other entities had been granted permission, our attorney, Mark Rutherford, sent a Demand Letter to the Town of Mooresville. In it was various Supreme Court precedents as well as similar Indiana laws that have been overturned. It also simply stated:

“In fact, there are dozens of signs of various types, mostly all non-political, arguably in violation of the Ordinance, but these signs have not been publicly ridiculed by Town Council President Shane Williams as he has repeatedly done with Libertarian Party political signs. Furthermore, exceptions have been made for a sorority and the parks department for the placement of signage in the right-of-way, but not a political party, candidate, or someone with a political statement to make.”

On October 3rd, the Mooresville Times ran a front-page article covering the letter. It featured, yet again, signs in the island at Samuel Moore and Indiana St. You can read that article here. In it, Lundy said that it was unfortunate that the situation has led to the letter being sent, adding that the fight is not about the Libertarian Party.

“It is really about protecting everybody’s rights in town,” Lundy said. “If you can’t put a ‘Just Be Kind’ sign out by your mailbox, I mean, that is an infringement.”

On November 5th the Town of Mooresville responded to our letter stating:

“The Town of Mooresville respectfully disagrees that it is enforcing its sign ordinance in violation of the First or Fourteenth Amendments.”

After receiving the letter from our attorney, Mr Williams then begins making public calls for us to “release all the donations and donors that contributed to their “legal” fund. He also at times would contact members of our party demanding to know who our donors are. This was accompanied by a series of unsubstantiated claims and attacks against the county party and several members individually. Those hostilities continue to this day.

At the end of 2020 Jessica Hester resigned from the council and Greg Swinney was appointed to replace her. With a new council makeup and a new council president we thought we may be able to finally have a council at least willing to listen to our concerns. We began working with Councilman Dustin Stanley to write a compromise amendment to the Mooresville UDO.

The issue of signs came up again on April 20th, 2021 when Republican Chair Daniel Elliott addressed the issue in front of the council during discussion of a Resolution to make Mooresville a “First Amendment Sanctuary”. You can read the news coverage and/or watch that video HERE.

Mooresville has conducted occasional “purges” of signage around town (usually triggered by some event)

• Once on the very day we received our first FOI request in the summer of 2020, which resulted in signs (Political and otherwise) being pulled from peoples front yards.
• A 2nd was primarily focused on the downtown area and came after GOP Chair Daniel Elliott spoke to the council in April 2021 about how the ordinance was not being applied equitably.

Shortly after that discussion and the passage of the First Amendment Resolution, Party Chair Danny Lundy pens a rebuttal entitled “No sanctuary in Mooresville“. In it he states:

Until Mooresville stops banning people from putting a “Just Be Kind” sign next to their mailbox or putting “Slow, Children at Play” signs by the street in front of their house, it cannot claim to be a “First Amendment Sanctuary.” In fact, for the last year or more, the First Amendment has been under assault by the Town of Mooresville.

In May Councilman Stanley presents the UDO amendment for signs and a hearing is scheduled for June 10th, 2021. The Libertarian party of Morgan County begins a public relations campaign to let people know what the amendment would do and encourage them to contact the planning commission to voice their support for it.

Several members of the public get up to speak in favor of the amendment at the Planning Commission Public Hearing on June 10th. The planning commission questions Danny Lundy at length. Notable missing from the hearing are the other two party chairs. No one spoke against the amendment. Despite this the Planning Commission votes 6-0 to send it back to the Town Council for rewrites.

After the public left, the YouTube recording continued as a hot mic for approximately 19 minutes. During that discussion members of the Planning Commission discuss the amendment and one member jokes he ‘deleted his account’ to stop getting emails about the sign ordinance.

The matter then came before the council on June 15th, 2021. After some discussion and comments from the public the motion to amend the UDO and correct the sign ordinance failed due to lack of second.

It is our belief that:

• This sign ban, by its very nature, disproportionately punishes minor parties in favor of the ruling majority party in Mooresville.
• By only enforcing this ban selectively, the town has not followed its own legal guidelines to ensure they are not in violation of state law IC 36-1-3-11(c) and, in fact, have violated state law.
• That the nature of the manner of their selective enforcement would suggest they are unfairly discriminating against the Libertarian Party specifically.

It is apparent to us that this town council is using taxpayer funded town resources to carry out a private political agenda.