[UPDATE] New West mayor’s election signs too big

Incumbent mayor Wayne Wright may be fighting for New West – but he’s bending the rules to get it done.

The City of New Westminster’s elections office received a complaint that signage in Wright’s campaign office at 612 Carnarvon St. violates election signage guidelines. Isabell Hadford, the city’s chief election officer, referred the complaint to the city’s bylaw enforcement.

“They went and visited them. They measured the signs and they were too big so they asked the people to bring them into compliance with the guidelines,” she told The Record Monday.

On Saturday, Wright held a grand opening of his campaign office in a space that was formerly occupied by a martial arts centre. A poster in the window shows a martial artist doing three different moves and Wright’s face has been placed on the three bodies.

“When you are running against all these people, you need more than yourself,” he told The Record recently. “The three people were there, we said we are going to use this as our incentive. That’s how it turned out.”

In addition to placing Wright’s head on the pre-existing sign, several election signs have been posted around the martial arts image.

“When we looked at the whole window, we made the determination that that whole window was one sign because there wasn’t anything indicating they were separate signs,” said Veronika Metchie, acting manager of licensing and integrated services.

Metchie said the signage might conform to the election signage guidelines if the signs appeared to be separate, rather than part of one large unit.

“As it is, it is one big sign. We took that as not being in compliance,” she said.

Metchie said another sign above the window couldn’t me measured because of its height, but staff estimated its size and determined it wasn’t in compliance with the election signage bylaws.

“There isn’t any talk about how many signs can be in one location. If they want to break up the signs and make them into separate signs they can comply, as long as the size of each individual sign is within the guidelines. That is what we have advised their campaign office.

City staff spoke with campaign staff at Wright’s office during their Oct. 20 visit.

“They were very understanding,” Metchie said. “We gave them a copy of the guidelines so they have that and they are able to comply. I’ll go back again tomorrow to see if there has been some changes.”

Wright told The Record there was some misinterpretation of the signage, as he didn’t think placing his image on the pre-existing signage would be included.

“As far as their interpretation goes, we accept that totally. The little heads that are there, we thought conformed to an old sign that was up that wasn’t ours, which is fine,” he said. “They want us to separate that and we will do it. We will cut out strips to make sure they are all separate signs – now we will have more.”

If space had been left between the various signs on the office window, he said they would conform to the guidelines.

“I wouldn’t have done that on purpose. It’s a simple thing to take them and separate them,” he said. “The message will be the same. The message is everything stays the same, vote Wayne.”

News of Wright’s signage issues traveled far and wide.

“I had a message come from the Ukraine. The person that sent it said, ‘I read in the news about your signs, keep it up, you are doing a fine job’ – Senator Larry Campbell.”

Shortly after the signs went up, Wright said the response to the signage had been overwhelming. He hoped it would bring a little levity to the campaign.

 “There’s more people coming here than we have had any time, taking photographs of it and stopping their cars and looking, and smiling, which is nice,” he said. “The way things are going, let’s not put too much pressure on everybody.”