Lake Stevens mayoral candidate selective about sign law

A candidate for mayor of Lake Stevens has decided that certain laws of the city do not apply to him.

I refer to the recent article about mayoral candidate Brett Gailey’s decision to erect campaign signs that exceed the size allowed by city ordinance (“In Lake Stevens signage debate, city ordinance may be unlawful,” The Herald, July 22). He is also quoted as saying the ordinance is illegal because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Sign size is a trivial issue. That a candidate for office believes he may pick and choose which laws to obey is a major issue. Here in Lake Stevens, our process for amending a law, for whatever reason, is to propose the change, vote on it and enact it, in that order.

To unilaterally ignore an ordinance of the city that one hopes to govern smells of entitlement. I am confident Gailey does not fancy himself a duke, earl or king, possessed of divine right, but an ordinary citizen under the law, whatever he may think of it.

Politically speaking, taking down the mega signs to comply with the ordinance as it is would forestall the slightest whiff of the former.

Karl Schweizer

Lake Stevens