25-3493 Government Sign Use Policy

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RESOLUTION 25-3493 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF CASSELBERRY, FLORIDA, ESTABLISHING A GOVERNMENT SIGN USE POLICY AND PROVIDING FOR SIGN SPECIFICATIONS; PROVIDING FOR CONFLICTS, SEVERABILITY, AND AN EFFECTIVE DATE. WHEREAS, the City Commission of the City of Casselberry plans to replace various City signs on City property with new signs which will include important up-to-date public service announcements through the inclusion of an electronic message center; and WHEREAS, the City Commission finds it has a duty to communicate with the public about the administrative, legislative and other public business related to the government functions of the City of Casselberry; and WHEREAS, the purpose of the electronic message center feature is to permit the City to use advances in technology to communicate more effectively with the public through the electronic display of a variety of public service announcements selected and controlled by the City in accordance with the use policy established by this Resolution; and WHEREAS, the City will pay for and erect the modifications to the signs without contribution from any public or private entity, and the City will assume full responsibility for providing maintenance and security for the signs; and WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has recognized that the government can speak for itself and is entitled to select the views it wants to express and that permanent monuments and signs can represent government speech. See, e.g. Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, 115 S.Ct. 2239 (2015)(Texas could deny a specialty license plate to the Sons of the Confederate Veterans without violating the First Amendment); City of Pleasant Grove v. Summun, 129 S.Ct. 1125 (2009) (Placement of a permanent monument in a public park viewed as government speech and not subject to First Amendment scrutiny); Wells v. City and County of Denver, 257 F. 3d 1132 (10"' Cir. 2001) (City acted within its rights to control the contents of its own speech by prohibiting private holiday display on steps of city building); and WHEREAS, the City will exercise complete supervision and control of sign content, which will be limited to notices of public health concerns or emergencies, such as "boil water alerts" and, if space allows, notices of city -sponsored events of general public interest in accordance with policies set forth by the City Manager; and WHEREAS, the City of Casselberry government signs cannot be used by any private business or to promote any businesses or private events; and WHEREAS, a City is entitled to value public service speech over other kinds of speech; and