PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson Transit Authority Board debated First Amendment issues and pared down language in a public service bus signs policy Tuesday but delayed approval until a June 16 meeting.
The transit board last month faced Jefferson County Republican Party pickets over public service signs advising bus riders about their rights in the event that Border Patrol agents board a bus.
Members of the county GOP wanted the signs erected after the transit authority approved signs from the American Civil Liberties Union providing advice about the Border Patrol.
Both signs posted
Both the ACLU and county GOP signs are posted now on Jefferson Transit buses.
The debate led to the transit board deciding to create a formal policy about public service space.
The board on Tuesday removed from the proposal a three-month limit on public service signs unless space was bought for advertising.
“I’ve got a concern about limiting public service notices to three months,” board member and City Councilwoman Catharine Robinson said, adding that certain issues are ongoing, such as domestic violence.
Board Member George Randels, Port Townsend’s deputy mayor, concurred with Robinson.
“We should make them available to organizations of all kinds,” he said.
Randels reiterated his belief that the existing policy was “not broken” and so didn’t need to be fixed.
He said the policy could put transit staffers in the role of editing placards based on their own judgments.
Speaking theoretically, Randels said signs that support a change in a law, such as legalizing marijuana, should be allowed regardless of one’s personal feelings.
“It’s not illegal to advocate for what’s against the law,” Randels said.
For this reason, Randels called the policy “a bit dicey” and board Chairman David Sullivan, a Democratic county commissioner from Cape George, agreed.
Sullivan said the policy has to be fair to all.
Proposed policy
The public service sign policy’s purpose, as stated in the draft discussed Tuesday, is to be “fair, balanced, consistent and timely.”
As proposed, the policy says — among other requirements — that free public space inside buses will be provided only in the absence of the space having been sold for advertising and that neither the space nor length of time that the announcement will be displayed is guaranteed.
Transit general manager Dave Turissini suggested that the board consider charging for all signs, regardless of whether they are public services, which would minimize the issue. That way decisions would be left to Lamar Advertising Co., Transit contract agency.
He said, however, that might be akin to “throwing the baby out with the bath water.”
GOP statement
Ron Gregory, Jefferson County Republican Party chairman, read a statement to the board accusing transit management and board members of being duplicitous “in promoting political advocacy” of “safe haven” public service signs on buses.
Gregory said the board “politicized the agency” by putting up ACLU-approved signs on buses, that actions were taken out of the public process and that, with no clear policy, the board “made it up as the issue became contagious.”
He presented copies of e-mails among staff, including Turissini, and board members discussing such issues as Municipal Research and Service Center of Washington recommending that the first sign be handled through the ACLU.
The GOP signs say: “Please cooperate if a Border Patrol agency questions you on this bus. Agents are doing their job. If you are questioned, be courteous. If you are not a U.S. citizen, always carry your immigration papers and please show them. Cooperation is always better than confrontation.”
The ACLU sign says that U.S. citizens don’t have to prove citizenship, that adults who aren’t citizens must show immigration papers to federal agents and that “everyone has the right to remain silent.”
Border Patrol officials have said they are interested in boarding buses that travel across county lines to leave the Olympic Peninsula by ferry or car, such as on highways 101 or 104. They have not boarded public transit buses.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
