Related story: O'Boyle, Delray settle dispute over campaign signs
Town Commission candidate Martin O’Boyle, long embroiled with Gulf Stream officials over the town’s codes, took on neighboring Delray Beach last month in a federal lawsuit alleging the city violated his First Amendment right to free speech by removing his campaign signs from city streets.
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 24 and assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks, sought an emergency ruling since the election was so close.
O’Boyle’s suit said his workers saw city employees remove his signs along the city right of way in late February but left untouched the cluster of signs planted by Delray Beach City Commission candidates.
City officials first told O’Boyle his signs were removed because he was not a candidate in the March 11 Delray Beach election, the suit claims. He protested, but the city kept removing signs.
He then contacted the city attorney’s office and was told that signs in the public right of way abutting private property would be removed unless the candidate had the permission of the property owner, according to the suit.
His employee asked four business owners if the other candidates had the owners’ permission, and the owners all replied no, the suit alleges.
Most of the signs he placed in Gulf Stream have been removed because they violated the town’s strict policy regarding placement of political signs, Town Clerk Rita Taylor said. Signs must be on private property, no less than five feet from the road, cannot be within 10 feet of a neighbor’s property and must have the permission of the property owner.
— Price Patton
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