Group stewing after city forces it to take down symbolic giant pig

From the Sanford Herald
 
Group stewing after city forces it to take down symbolic giant pig
ANOTHER SIGN DEBATE

By JONATHAN OWENS

SANFORD — This little piggy violated the UDO.

The conservative group Americans for Prosperity’s Lee County Chapter recently employed the use of the national office’s large pig advertisement as a means of alerting Sanford taxpayers that their money is not being properly managed.
The plaster pig, which sym­bolizes frivolous spending by government entities and stands about 10 feet tall, is meant to represent the group’s views of “politicians pigging out on our tax dollars,” according to the Lee County Chapter’s chair­man, Lloyd Jennings.

But the City of Sanford’s code enforcement department only saw it as breaking the rules, saying the pig is in violation of the Sanford/Lee County Unified Development Ordinance and ordering it be removed from the vacant lot on which it sat along Horner Boulevard, a lot owned by Sanford City Councilman Mike Stone.

The pig sign, according to Code Enforcement Officer Carl Anglin, violates the UDO’s rules against portable signs. According to the UDO, a sign must be permanently fixed to the ground, but the pig stands on a trailer that is mobile.

“The UDO is very clear,” Anglin said, adding that his department pro­ceeded with the order to remove it after receiving a complaint from a com­munity member.

Further, Marshall Downey of the city’s plan­ning department said there is no way the group can fully bring it under compliance with the ordinance. But AFP is crying foul, saying the pig is simply its way to exercise free speech and that the City of Sanford is violating that right. The group’s state di­rector, Dallas Woodhouse, said the city’s efforts to re­move the pig only proves the group’s point. “Is this what people died in Word War I and II for, to have the govern­ment tell us what we can and cannot say?” Wood­house said. “We have the big government regula­tors of free speech after us and we are just trying to exercise our first amend­ment rights.”

Jennings said the pig is meant “to remind Lee County residents that we are still aware of the poli­ticians’ tax-and-spend habits and apparent dis­regard of taxpayers.”
“It appears that everyone but politicians are aware of the current economic conditions.

Both individuals and businesses are strug­gling,” Jennings said.

“Just because this is the quiet period before the fall election doesn’t mean that AFP members have forgotten Sanford’s busi­ness privilege tax, and the efforts of the Lee County Board of Commissioners to impose higher taxes.”

The pig, which has been used to portray the group’s message around the country, accord­ing the Woodhouse, has since taken up residence at Todd’s Upholstery on Horner Boulevard.

The business’ owner, Randy Todd, is no stranger to run-ins with the Sanford code enforce­ment department — he fought the city over his right to display a sign that contained his political views — but said he has found a way around the UDO that assures that the pig will be a permanent resident of Sanford.

“As long as the pig is hooked to my truck, they can’t do a thing,” he said, adding that he has even hauled the pig around town a few times. “He can stay here as long as (AFP) lets me keep it.”

And according to Woodhouse, that may be a while.

“Our group in Lee County is having a good time moving the pig around and aggravat­ing the regulators of free speech,” he said. “I’m real proud of the guys down there. They have taken care of the pig and treated him real well. I think he is a permanent resident of Lee County now.”