• Dear political candidates, staff and supporters • Politicians don’t want to improve system Dear political candidates, staff and supporters The following guidance is offered by The Kaua‘i Outdoor Circle and the statewide organization The Outdoor Circle for the use
• Dear political candidates, staff and supporters • Politicians don’t want to improve system
Dear political candidates, staff and supporters
The following guidance is offered by The Kaua‘i Outdoor Circle and the statewide organization The Outdoor Circle for the use of signs in political campaigns:
Current Law: Political signs are illegal on all public property. The city and/or state does and will cite politicians whose signs are posted on sidewalks, median strips, rights-of-ways, etc. These signs will be removed as quickly as possible.
There are no restrictions on political signs posted on private property. No limitations currently exist on the size of signs, the numbers of signs or the length of time signs can be posted by an owner.
Voters fed up: During the last several elections the beauty of our islands was seriously defaced by campaign signs. Candidates for political office and their staff encouraged the practice of placing dozens of duplicate signs on the same property. To gauge the extent to which Hawai‘i’s citizens are ready to change this practice, The Outdoor Circle in 2005 commissioned a survey that reached 524 residents statewide and had a margin of error of 4.3 percent.
Seventy-two percent of those surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that there was too much visual pollution from campaign signs in the 2004 election. It further showed that an even larger number — 76 percent — agreed or strongly agreed that Hawai‘i needs to enact legislation to control political advertising. It should be noted that the research showed that the strongest sentiments for the restrictions were from low income communities which are traditionally wallpapered with campaign signs.
Guidelines of TKOC and TOC: In the absence of successful campaign sign legislation, The Board of Directors of TKOC and TOC unanimously passed guidelines for candidates, their campaigns and their supporters regarding the posting of political signs. If followed, these guidelines will greatly reduce the visual pollution created by campaign signs in Hawai‘i.
Please note No. 5 below that requests no signs be erected more that 45 days before the election. Several signs are already up — six months before the election. TKOC and TOC request that these signs be removed until mid-September.
The following guidelines should be followed for political campaign signs posted on all private property. Campaign signs are already prohibited on public property.
1. Each sign displayed will be no larger than four feet by two feet and the total area of all signs for each private property (residential, commercial, agriculture, industrial, etc) will not exceed 16 square feet
2. The signs will not offer for sale, promote, or advertise any business enterprise or any commercial product, service, or entertainment
3. No sign will be posted when a resident or owner of the property has received any payment, fee, or other consideration of any sort for the display of the sign
4. No campaign signs will be illuminated by any form of artificial lighting
5. No sign will be erected more than forty-five days before the day of the election and all signs must be removed within ten days after the election
6. In multi-family dwellings with separate residential units, each unit will be entitled to display signs that meet the above stated requirements
7. A dwelling with multiple residential units can in its common areas, display signs that are no larger than eight by four feet, provided that the total area of all signs for such common areas does not exceed sixty-four square feet
We urge all candidates to respect the visual environment of our beautiful island home and refrain from the excessive use of campaign signs during the election.
Maureen Murphy, President, TKOC
Mary Steiner, CEO, TOC
Politicians don’t want to improve system
TGI’s recent opinion page, “Up the ante,” basically calling for higher deposits on bottles and cans is not the answer for a cleaner environment. We the people have been taxed to the max already.
When I was a child you could buy a bottle of soda and the corner store or grocery store and return it to the same store yo bought it at for a deposit. Many state have started this procedure again.
On Kaua‘i most people do not even know where to go to recycle, and why drive 20 miles to receive a $1 refund; it costs more in gas. The solution is not more deposit money to be collected but to have the store that sold the item accept it back.
OK, you say it’s going to cost the store too much money having to hire someone to do this job? My sister who lives in Buffalo N.Y. told me every convenient type store and grocery store has a kiosk type machine, available 24-7, that scans your returns and gives you your deposit money back on the spot. Many states have adopted this user-friendly procedure.
I hope our state ad local government can adopt a similar procedure, it would be win-win for everybody, the consumer gets his deposit back at his next visit to the grocery store and the grocery store has people returning more frequently and hopefully they stop in and buy something.
The only problem I see is that the current way makes it easy for the state to keep the deposit since most don’t bother with returns.
Could it be our politicians just don’t want to improve the system?
James “Kimo” Rosen, Kapa‘a
