On Saturday morning, workers collecting storm debris from residential neighborhoods in La Cañada Flintridge also picked up political yard signs from some front yards, city officials said.
Those employees of West Coast Arborists, the company LCF contracts for tree maintenance and other related tasks, misunderstood instructions, according to Edward Hitti, the city’s public works director.
They had not been asked to remove political signs from yards, where they are permitted, but from the public right-of-way along Foothill Boulevard, where they are not, Mayor Jonathan Curtis said.
Three candidates — Curtis, fellow incumbent Dave Spence and Keith Eich — are running for two open seats on the City Council. The election is March 7.
West Coast staff reported to the city that it “picked up approximately 19 signs for the Mayor Jon Curtis, Councilmember David Spence and Keith Eich,” according to Hitti.
“My understanding is they got a little mixed up,” Curtis said. “Who knows where they got that idea, but apparently, from what I’m hearing, they started taking them out of yards.”
Eich said he stopped the workers from taking signs after a neighbor flagged him down. He said more than 100 signs were returned to him by West Coast Arborists workers, including 97 that belonged to him, three to Spence and one to Curtis. (Eich said he previously returned three of Curtis’ signs to where they’d been positioned.)
Eich said he was glad he found out the workers were taking the signs in time to stop them and ask for them back.
“If on Monday or Tuesday we noticed a bunch of signs missing, by then it would already have been too late,” Eich said.
Storm Debris Collectors Took Political Signs From Yards
