The issue easily took up most of the night at the Haysville City Council meeting Tuesday.
“My biggest concern is the state overstepping their bounds,” Steven Crum said.
Crum is a Haysville city council member but also a state representative. He said he advocated to repeal the law in the previous session and the majority of the Kansas House of Representatives voted to do just that. However, the bill died in the Kansas Senate. “I think cities and counties should be able to choose when they want these signs displayed,” Crum said. “So I have more of a problem with what has happened at the state level with it than what the city’s doing right now.”
The city decided to try to comply with both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Kansas statute. Councilman Russ Kessler made the first motion to adjust the ordinance which led to hefty discussion. That discussion led to an order to city staff to write up an addition to the ordinance allowing temporary signs to remain up longer during election season, as per state law.
Kessler said he was happy with the compromise and had no concerns.
“I think it’ll be positive for the city to comply with state statute and it sounds like we will be complying once this new ordinance is written and approved,” he said. Haysville Mayor Bruce Armstrong has been critical of the state law saying he’s not concerned his city hasn’t been following it since it’s not constitutional.
He was pleased with the compromise but said he thinks the legislature needs to address the law and he’d encourage an opinion by the Kansas Attorney General as well.
(Read more: KWCH News)