After both the City of Madison and Dane County received a number of complaints about political posters hanging in public building windows in wake of this year’s mass protests at the Capitol about the budget repair law, a liaison committee between the two municipalities effectively banned all hanging signage in public governmental buildings.
City Council President Ald. Lauren Cnare, District 3, said a committee composed of representatives that works in both the Madison Municipal Building and the City County Building agreed in order to avoid confusion as to what signs can be qualified as political, and to maintain the buildings’ aesthetic appeals, no materials should be permitted on the walls, ceilings or windows.
“This even means no frosty snowmen lit up during the winter holidays and no signs that say ‘I love Labrador puppies’,” Cnare said. “Similarly, people cannot hang signs on walls that says your ideas are stupid or great – this should be a neutral place for people to discuss ideas in a nonpartisan way.”
Throughout February and March, many state employees who work in both buildings had hung signs in their windows either supporting or denouncing public unions’ collective bargaining rights, a move Cnare said brought some public criticism.
Still, Cnare said because hanging materials on walls and ceilings has always been against city and county ordinance, when individuals were found hanging such signs in their windows, employees generally complied.
“[This week] we added the term that you cannot stick stuff or hang decorations from your windows, and there are a slew of existing other regulations that say you cannot hang things because this is not your house,” Cnare said. “But, apparently when people did walk around and ask individuals to take down signs, everyone was cool about it – there were no fines issued or anything like that.”
Dane County Supervisor Melissa Sargent, District 18, said the committee also decided to allow for citizens to walk around the public building carrying signs or wearing shirts with their opinions on them – a privilege that had previously been mixed up with misconceptions.
The new provision would still not allow individuals to carry signs into public meeting rooms at any time or near the county clerk’s office during election times.
“I feel pretty strongly that people be allowed to exhibit their rights to free speech; however, the fact that this is a public building that is paid for by taxpayer money by people with many different opinions necessitates the need to be sensitive to the different peoples’ perspectives,” Sargent said. “But, we need to make sure the building is managed in a professional manner […] because we don’t want people to feel unwelcomed because they have a different opinion.”
Despite the changes being made to local municipality buildings, Rep. Kelda Helen Roys, D-Madison, said sign-posting regulation at the state Capitol building changes on a daily basis as the building sees various security regulations.
Roys said she has political signs hanging in her own office windows, but said until the Department of Administration changes its own policies to follow a court order calling for greater public access to the building, she will not remove her signs.
“To the extent that there are rules, they are enforced in an extremely arbitrary and capricious matter,” she said. “I will take down the signs in the window when they start complying with the court order.”
