Lingering political signs violate Fresno code

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The statewide primary election is over, but if you drive around town you may notice some political signs are still standing.

Decorated with a candidate's name and style, political ads have been covering Fresno for a few months. However, city officials say as of last week, the ads have overstayed their welcome.

"It's a code violation, but a relatively minor one," said Fresno Communications Director Mark Standriff. "Again, we just ask for the campaigns to take responsibility for getting their signs down in a timely manner."

According to Standriff, city code requires signs be taken down 15 days after the election, which would have been June 18.

"For the city it's kind of difficult for us to go around and individually remind them on a constant basis," said Standriff.

Action News found a sprinkling of ads, including Charles Magill for judge signs in Northeast Fresno. We caught up with the former candidate to ask him why some of his ads were still up. He says he's been taking them down whenever he finds them.

"Some of the signs -- particularly the yard signs -- were put up by people who came to my campaign office, so I only know they are there when people tell me they are there," said Magill.

Magill lost his race, but had the tall task of taking down more than 500 signs.

"If they tell me where the signs are I'm on it to get them down because the election is over, and I'm happy to move on," said Magill.

Magill says as for a sign painted on the National Hardware store, it will stay where it is.

The city says the next time you'll see yard and wooden signs back up again will be in August, 90 days before the statewide general election.

Action News reached out to several candidates who said they were unaware their signs were still up. They told us they plan to take them down.