Police report alleges theft of Venice City Council campaign yard signs

VENICE – The Venice Police Department is investigating complaints of campaign sign theft and vandalism in the Venice City Council race.  

The complaint involves theft of signs supporting Seat 2 candidate Dusty Feller from three sites on the island of Venice – two in the 300 block of Bayshore Drive and one in the 400 block of Nassau Street.

Feller filed the report on Oct. 13.

The Republican Party of Sarasota County publicized it in an Oct. 16 press release that also mentioned incidents where the campaign signs of both Feller and Mitzie Fiedler, both Republicans, were either vandalized or removed from locations in the city limits.

The election for the two council seats are the only races in Sarasota County on the Nov. 7 ballot.

The GOP release included photos of vandalized signs as part of its release, including one of Feller’s signs in the 700 block of Tamiami Trail South that may have been run over by a vehicle, as the metal stakes were bent over near the ground.

“I haven't filed a report on that,” Feller said. “I probably won’t.”

In that release, Feller said she was disappointed that supporters of her opponent “would stoop to this level to try and win an election.”

She then added, “But I’m thankful Venice Police take all crimes seriously.”

The release also noted that while the stolen signs were the typical small yard signs, over the weekend large 4-foot by 4-foot signs supporting both Feller and Fiedler were bent over or destroyed.

Fiedler was quoted in the release as saying, “This is not the way to conduct an election, and I'm very disappointed that my opponents' supporters would commit crimes to try to win.”

Though the seven-member Venice City Council is a nonpartisan board, Feller’s opponent Ron Smith and Fiedler’s opponent Joan Farrell are both Democrats.

Sign damage linked to ‘clean campaign’ pledge

The GOP release linked the sign problems to the local grassroots organization Venice Thrives – many of whom were members of the political action committee Venice Unites and employed Smith in its effort to rewrite parts of the city’s land development regulations.

Earlier this year, Venice Thrives circulated a “clean campaign pledge” that both Smith and Farrell signed.

Neither Feller nor Fiedler signed that pledge – Feller specifically noted that she was asked to do so after Venice Thrives had already endorsed Smith.

The GOP linked the sign issues to Venice Thrives through a Facebook post by Debbie Gericke – a member of both that group and the North Venice Neighborhood Alliance − in which she proclaimed, “We pulled up more illegal signs placed by the opponents today,” and also referred to Venice Thrives as a “Democrat front group.”

Venice Thrives spokeswoman Jan Vertefeuille denied any connection to the incidents in a Wednesday email.

"These accusations are baseless and only serve to divert attention from the issues that matter to Venice residents," Vertefeuille wrote. "We urge the candidates and press to focus on the issues voters care about, like protecting what makes Venice special as it grows and our quality of life."

Gericke, who noted that she is a Republican who first voted for Ronald Regan, said Tuesday that the Facebook post was made in error.

“The correct thing is that I contacted Code Enforcement and more signs were picked up,” Gericke said. “I could understand how that would be misconstrued.

“Like many right now, I'm going extremely fast to try to have the results that we so desperately want to have.”

Gericke said her Facebook post has since been edited to reflect the involvement of the city Code Enforcement and claimed that the whole purpose of the clean campaign pledge was to avoid this type of campaign issue.

”We've tried to maintain the clean campaign pledge because we’re the ones that initiated it,” Gericke said. “I think sadly a lot of this would not have gone on the way that it has gone on had both Dusty and Mitzie signed the damn pledge.”

Gericke later supplied the Herald-Tribune with photos of Fiedler and Feller yard signs that appear to be in the right of way.

Feller said some of her signs were clearly on private lawns and removed.

“I went back and replaced them and made sure they weren’t in the right-of-ways,” Feller said. “The part that bothers me the most is they’re hiding behind this clean campaign pledge and doing these things.”

More thefts than complaints filed

Campaign sign theft and vandalism is common in many elections, though complaints don’t always rise to the level of a police report.

Three of the four candidates have said their signs have been tampered with this year, while Farrell responded by text to a query about sign theft and damage by writing, “Not that I know of.”

Smith said he had signs tampered with during his 2022 campaign for Seat 5 on the Venice City Council but did not file a police report.

The most recent police report related to campaign sign issues occurred in 2019, when then-mayoral candidate Bob Daniels filed a complaint over reported theft of campaign signs in the Seaboard area of Venice.

Complaints against signs placed illegally in the city right-of-way are handled by the city’s Code Enforcement officers.

That’s what former Venice mayor John Holic did earlier this year, when he saw signs placed in the right-of-way along Tampa Avenue between Epiphany Cathedral and the U.S. Post Office.

Those signs happened to belong to both Fiedler and Feller, but  Holic said, “I wouldn't have cared who it was – it was in the easement between the street and the sidewalk and you can’t put signs on easements like that.”

Sign placement exceptions

Venice Code Enforcement Supervisor Jim Davis, in response to a series of questions posted through a city spokeswoman where signs can and cannot be placed.

Davis noted that the city uses the map provided by the Sarasota County Property Appraiser website to determine whether a sign is in the right-of-way.

Code Enforcement will remove any signs from the right-of-way but with larger signs, the owner is contacted and given 24 hours to remove it.

All signs removed by Code Enforcement are kept for 24 hours then disposed of, so the city has no record of the number of illegal signs removed each year.

There’s a $75 fine for placement of  a sign in the right-of-way but it’s up to the officer’s discretion to enforce that or just have the offending sign removed.

A new ordinance in the city’s land development codes limits the number of larger signs in front of a commercial property to one.

Previously business owners could have two or more signs touting the candidate of their choice in front of their property – construction sites such as the one on the southeast corner of Venice Avenue and U.S. 41 Business that features signs for both Fiedler and Feller being one prominent place.

Davis wrote that there have been no complaints about signs violating that new ordinance, “but realize there are violations and are working to correct that proactively.”

Davis stressed that Code Enforcement does not remove any signs from private property, unless there’s an order from a “special magistrate,” with sign violations subject to a fine of up to $250 a day.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Venice candidate claims opponents backers stole campaign yard signs