(Illegal campaign) Signs of the times.

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

In the spring, it's tulips. In the fall, it's mums. And during election season, it's illegally posted campaign signs sprouting in the grass plots lining the city's sidewalks and roadways.

It's a perennial problem that returns with every election,said Matt Smith, spokesman for the Streets and Sanitation Department.

A recent tour of Western Avenue between Grand and Roosevelt found quite a colorful garden indeed. There were green signs advertising Larry Suffredin's bid for State's Attorney and green and blue signs for Ald. Ed Smith, who is running for Cook County Recorder of Deeds. Representative Danny K. Davis was there in name, too, dressed up bold in red and blue.

Even a tax service company, Liberty Tax Service, had planted a sign in the bed of a road divider near its store.

Chicago city code prohibits posting election signs in public areas, but campaign managers say they have a tough time controlling where their signs take root.

"I haven't seen it," said Larry Shapiro, a spokesman for Ald. Smith, of the illegal posting. "Certainly our campaign follows the law, but when campaign signs leave our office they go to many, many places. [Cook County] is such a large territory, it's absolutely beyond our control."

Even when the territory is as small as a ward, though, the sight of illegal campaign signs is not uncommon. "I think it happens to everybody," Ald. Scott Waguespack said. Waguespack said he found two of his signs stuck on a telephone pole during his run last year.

Streets and Sanitation is charged with removing the illegally posted signs, but pruning a city the size of Chicago is not easy, Smith said. And, he added,illegal postings send the wrong message.

"Vote for me, I don't comply with municipal ordinances. That's not the message you want to send out," said Smith.Removing the signs ties up workers, too, who already have more thanone million service requests to deal with every year, he added.

Smith recommended that people who see illegal signs call 311 or remove them. Who knows?  You could be claiming a bit of history.

"These campaign signs,'' said Smith, "could become collectible, too."