Port Orange, FL – Port Orange decides to take a wait-and-see approach before its City Council adopts any formal reguations for sign spinners, including how big the signs can be.
In a pair of 4-1 votes during Tuesday night’s meeting, the POCC voted to keep the status quo and re-visit the issue after 120 days to see if the businesses that employ sign spinners can police themselves and not need the city to do it for them.
That vote came after the POCC heard a special committee report during the meeting on creating new standards for those who are hired to stand – and occasionally dance – at street corners while holding signs for motorists to see as they drive by.
District 2 Councilman Don Burnette insisted on having the roughly 4-month waiting period because he wanted to get a status report at some point before the end of the year, amending the original wait-and-see motion made by District 1’s Bob Ford that formally accepted the report made by committee head Newton White.
Mayor Allan Green was the lone “no” vote both times, putting himself firmly in the camp of those who say sign spinners are an eyesore.
“That is what I call eye pollution,” Green said. “I disagree with it. I will always disagree with it. I’m adamant that [those businesses who employ sign spinners] need to be involved in the chambers [of commerce]. There’s other things they can get involved in if they took the same amount of money and did their job.”
Green also said that he wouldn’t have an issue with the sign spinners if they stayed on private property or directly in front of the businesses that employ them, but seeing numerous businesses employing sign spinners on street corners at busy intersections galled him.
“That is wrong,” Green added. “It’s always gonna be wrong.”
Green also argued that the businesses employing sign spinners are taking advantage of all the hard work the local business community has done while also making a dent on the community’s beauty, something he said undermines all the money the city’s spent over the years to create that beauty.
The rest of the POCC took a different view, with some – like Burnette – sharing Green’s view on how ugly the sign spinners are but unwilling for now to take away an advertising tool that those business owners insist works for them.
Those who support the sign spinners argue that it’s an effective and cheap way to advertise. Some opponents call them a potential safety hazard – especially if the signs or the sign spinners get in the way of vehicles – and are worried that more businesses could employ them in the future, causing crowded street corners filled with people holding signs for hours at a time.
Some POCC members – including District 4’s Scott Stiltner – expressed doubt that those businesses can keep themselves regulated long-term, even with the help of the Port Orange-South Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce.
A full-on ban against sign spinners is unlikely, especially since some POCC members have said publicly that it could be seen as an attempt to squash freedom of speech.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.