After Kobach warning, Wichita City Council prepares to vote on sign ordinance overhaul
After a harsh warning from Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, the Wichita City Council is poised to vote on an overhaul to the city’s ordinance regulating political signs.
The changes would allow an unlimited number of temporary signs, political or otherwise, on private property in the 45 days before an election and the two days afterward.
Kobach contends the city is willfully violating a 2015 state law prohibiting local governments from regulating the placement or number of signs on private property in the lead up to elections.
Mayor Brandon Whipple, who last week accused Kobach of attempting to stir up controversy ahead of his re-election bid, now says he will vote in favor of the new sign ordinance.
“It’s time that we change this and get this up to date, because we are about to see the political season kick off,” Whipple said Friday.
City staff recommends that the council declare a public emergency and pass the amendment on first read Tuesday, an unusual measure that would lock changes into place 49 days before the Aug. 1 primary.
At Friday’s agenda review meeting, City Manager Robert Layton said the staff’s efforts to update the sign ordinance language have been underway for the last “at least 30-45 days,” predating the May letter from Kobach’s office.
“We could have had a collaborative approach in letting the attorney general and his allies know that we were on top of this,” Whipple said. “Instead, they snail mailed us a packet and then attacked us on social media. It was just Topeka politics 101.”
Whipple was not on the City Council in 2017 when it approved an ordinance that requires permits for placing political signs and forbids placement in public rights-of-way, including the first 18 feet of private property from the curb along city streets.
“We hope that you can assure us the City will cease its willful violation of section 25-2711,” Kobach’s letter states. “But if the City intends to continue breaking the law, the Attorney General will take appropriate action.”
The amended ordinance coming to a vote Tuesday includes a number of conditions for sign size and placement that Whipple said will balance public safety with First Amendment messaging.
Signs may not be illuminated, exceed 8 square feet in area or be more than 5 feet tall. They also cannot be closer than eight linear feet to a side property line.
The proposal does allow for signs of less than 4 square feet to be placed in the public right-of-way during an election period as long as they are no taller than 30 inches and are not placed in the median, attached to traffic control devices or placed on city bridges or overpasses.
“Our ordinance is focused on size and placement based on safety,” Whipple said. “You can go to small towns and have big yard signs up and not have the same safety concerns that you have in Wichita where we’re an urban center. We have more cars, more lanes than other cities.”
Signs — political or otherwise — are also prohibited from being placed adjacent to or on public property, including libraries and parks, under the proposal. They must be removed no more than two days after an election.
City Council member Bryan Frye, who is among eight candidates challenging Whipple in this year’s mayoral election, said he needs more time to examine the amended ordinance before he can say if he supports it.
