The McComb city board may alter its sign ordinance to reduce its restrictions after the city attorney said Tuesday he questions its constitutionality.
As officials wound down the 35-minute board meeting, Selectman Melvin Joe Johnson expressed concerns over a billboard on private property on Presley Boulevard endorsing a candidate for governor.
Johnson has questioned the sign multiple times at recent board meetings and work sessions, and he asked Walter Temple, director of McComb Department of Inspections and Zoning, what the city has to do to “get that sign on Presley moved.”
Temple deferred to board attorney Wayne Dowdy, who questioned the legality of the city’s sign ordinance that prohibits citizens from displaying political signs on private property before and after certain dates of political cycles.
“I have a real question about the legality of our ordinance,” Dowdy said. “I think that under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, that people have a right to freedom of political speech.
“I can see the legitimate interest of the city when it comes to people putting political signs on public property, but in somebody’s yard or on their private property, whoever they want to support for office, I’m afraid we would be spending money for legal fees and suit costs unwisely.”
The city’s sign ordinance requires that political signs “shall not be placed or erected earlier than 60 days prior to the specified voting day, and shall be removed within 10 days following the election to which they pertain.”
Tuesday didn’t mark the ordinance’s first appearance at city hall. It was a hot topic in the months leading up to last year’s mayoral election, and resulted in Mayor Whitney Rawlings removing his signs from yards until the qualifying deadline had passed.
