City takes down campaign signs on private property

RIO COMMUNITIES — A city councilor who is hoping to be Rio Communities’ next mayor is upset his campaign signs were taken down by the city’s code enforcement officer.

Just before noon on Monday, Sept. 8, Rio Communities City Councilor Matthew Marquez walked into the RCPD station and questioned who authorized the removal of his campaign signs from the fence at the soon-to-be Maverick site on the corner of N.M. 47 and Manzano Expressway.

“Who said to take down the signs off the fence,” Marquez asked RCPD Sgt. Jose Rodriguez, as seen in a body cam video provided to the News-Bulletin after submitting an Inspection of Public Records Act request.

“I did,” Rodriguez replied to the city councilor.

When asked why he did it, Rodriguez said, “it’s against code.”

Saying the signs were on private property, Marquez claimed the police department doesn’t have the authority to take his “private” signs.

When Rodriguez questioned Marquez if he asked Maverick for permission, the city councilor asked the sergeant if he had contacted the gas station himself.

“The police force doesn’t take down signs,” Marquez said.

“Code enforcement does,” Rodriguez replied.

“No, not on private property,” returned the candidate.

When Rodriguez told Marquez he doesn’t have the right to put his signs on private property without permission, the councilor said the police department doesn’t have jurisdiction on private property. The city’s code enforcement department is under the supervision of the police department.

The two men continued to argue, with Marquez refusing to say if he had contacted Maverick before placing the signs on the fence.

Rodriguez then asked Marquez to leave, which the councilor refused to do and, instead, made a phone call to an unidentified woman.

“You don’t know if I got permission or not, and I’m not going to tell you,” Marquez told Rodriguez.

“Did you? Well they’re (the signs) going to stay off until you can provide proof that you have permission,” the sergeant said.

The woman on the phone could be heard on the video saying every property owner then needs to be notified about signs, and when asked by the officer if they got permission, the woman said, “Yes, we got permission.”

Rodriguez again informed Marquez that the code enforcement officer will take down any sign from private property if it wasn’t authorized by the property owner. He then closed the door, leaving Marquez in the RCPD lobby.

During Monday night’s council meeting, two candidates running for city council also questioned why their signs were taken down from the site as well.

Alan Sinclair said the city’s ordinance states the candidates should have been cited and given notification that if they didn’t comply, their signs would be taken down in 10 days.

“They were not a hazard to public safety,” Sinclair said. “We should have been notified that the signs should be taken down.”

Jo Skelton agreed, saying her signs were on the fence, secured by fasteners.

“No one has the right to remove our signs,” Skelton said. “We should have been notified.”

During the city manager’s report, Marquez questioned whether Rodriguez can make “executive decisions.” He then questioned how many applications the city has received for the police chief position.

In a phone interview with Rodriguez on Tuesday, he explained the city’s code enforcement officer, Damian Flynn, had reported the signs to him, saying they were on the NMDOT and NM 47 right of way, and on private property.

The city manager advised Rodriguez to instruct Flynn to take down the signs, and place them in the municipal clerk’s office.

As Flynn was removing the signs, Rodriguez said Marquez showed up and “very rudely” told him he wasn’t allowed to take down the signs. Before leaving, the councilor reached into the code enforcer’s vehicle and removed the three signs and put them into his personal vehicle.

“This isn’t the first time Councilor Marquez has made assumptions what law enforcement does. I believe it was all of a personal matter,” Rodriguez said. “I feel he has a disregard for the policy.”

Rodriguez said the city has been in contact with representatives from Maverick and they were told they don’t allow anyone to put campaign signs on their property.

When asked about the woman who Marquez called, Rodriguez said it was the city councilor’s wife, Monique.

“It was his wife. It was her voice, and I saw her name on his phone,” the police sergeant said.

“I was just a little taken back because he is representing himself as a city councilor and is running to be our future mayor,” Rodriguez said. “He presented himself rudely to me and misrepresented himself as getting prior approval. I feel his actions could have been different.”

In a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, Marquez said he received a phone call Monday morning saying code enforcement was taking down his signs from the old Tillery property.

“Before I got there, the code enforcement officer had already took the signs off the fence,” Marquez said. “I put my sign up on Saturday. We (Sinclair and Skelton) put them up separately.”

“The signs were already in the back of his truck, and I just asked him why did you take them down and who told you to do it,” Marquez said. “I told him it’s not the right of code enforcement to take down signs.”

When asked if he had received permission from Maverick to put up campaign signs on his property, he said he had not. When asked why his wife, Monique, had told Rodriguez that they had, Marquez said she thought he had talked to the company.

“Afterwards, we spoke about it. I did not get permission. I just put it up,” said Marquez, who is running against current Mayor Joshua Ramsell. “People normally do that; everybody did. I did it instinctively.

“I wasn’t trying to break any laws, it was just the fact that the police department and code enforcement got involved when the owners didn’t notify them,” he explained. “Yes, I did make a mistake by not getting permission from the owner, and I’m learning from my mistakes.”

According to the city’s ordinances, 4-13-8 Nonconforming Signs, “As determined by the Code Enforcement Officer, any non-conforming sign shall be modified to conform to this Article within 10 calendar days of issuance of citation or notification.

“As determined by the Code Enforcement Officer, any sign that poses an immediate hazard to public safety shall be removed immediately, until such time that the Code Enforcement Officer determines the sign complies with this Article.

“As determined by the Code Enforcement Officer, any sign that contains speech that is obscene, defamatory, fraudulent, or contains fighting words, or speech that incites criminal conduct is deemed as non-conforming and shall be removed immediately.”