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Regular meeting <br />May 1, 2006 <br /> <br />Ms. Brot requested that speakers present would be allowed to talk to the Council. Ms. <br />Brot moved to Suspend the Rules that interfered with Bill 8835 and consider it tonight. <br />It was seconded by Mr. Glickert. <br /> <br />The motion was approved by a majority with two Nays coming from Mr. Price and Mayor <br />Adams. <br /> <br />Ms. Brot moved to take Bill 8835 off the Table and was seconded by Ms. Brungardt. <br /> <br />The motion was approved by a majority with Nays coming from Mr. Price and Mayor <br />Adams. <br /> <br />Ms. Brot gave a brief background of the bill and had speakers to talk on the legality of <br />Freedom of Speech and how it should apply to sign ordinances. <br /> <br />Discussion among Council took place. <br /> <br />Citizens Comments: <br />Tony Rothert, 4557 Laclede Ave <br />Mr. Rothert is the legal director of the American Civil Liberty Union of Eastern Missouri. <br />Guarantee that political speech is not suppressed by the government. Sign ordinance <br />has to be fair and equal to political speech. Political speech is the most protected by <br />the First Amendment. Mr. Rothert explained the three parts of University City’s sign <br />ordinance that raised concern: <br />1. Short limits on the duration period of which the signs can be displayed for some <br />of the candidates and longer for others <br />2. Size limits on political signs that are different than other temporary signs <br />3. The prohibition of illumination of political signs <br /> <br />Mondi Ghasedi, 6644 Kingsbury <br />Board member of the American Civil Liberty Union <br />University City’s sign violation came to her attention when ACLU was examining <br />municipalities sign ordinance violation when she was appalled to learn that U-City’s <br />ordinance was 12 years behind the times. Signs/political speech can be limited <br />reasonably, as long as it is done fair and consistently. If you want limitations on <br />temporary signs the City must enforce the same limitations on all temporary signs. <br /> <br />Deb Carlin, 7132 Washington <br />Ms. Carlin would like to know the ideology of this issue. She would like to know who is <br />feeling like they are being suppressed. She is in fear of a littered community. <br /> <br />Kathy Straatmann, 6823 Crest 2W <br />Ms. Straatmann felt the members of the Council were not working in harmony with each <br />other. <br /> <br />Ms. Brot motioned for the second and third reading of Bill No. 8835. She thanked those <br />who participated in the discussion: she said that her overall goal was to make <br />Page 6 <br /> <br />