PORT TOWNSEND — About 20 Jefferson County Republican Party supporters picketed a Jefferson Transit Authority board meeting Tuesday, but the First Amendment issue they came for was removed from the board’s agenda — a moratorium on public service announcement signs aboard buses.
After a brief discussion, the board voted 4-0 to remove the bus sign moratorium proposal from the agenda.
Transit board Chairman David Sullivan, a Democratic county commissioner, proposed the moratorium after county GOP Chairman Ron Gregory demanded that the party’s approved signs calling for cooperation with the Border Patrol be posted on transit buses.
The free public service announcements would answer to American Civil Liberties Union signs already posted in English and Spanish aboard 18 Jefferson Transit buses with the transit board’s approval. Those signs apprise riders of their civil rights should Border Patrol agents board Transit buses.
“In my view, we do have a policy,” said George Randels, board member and Port Townsend deputy mayor, who asked that the moratorium proposal be removed from the agenda. “It’s been in place for some time, and it works just fine.
“Free speech is free speech, and we should allow it for everyone.”
A moratorium would hinder free speech, Randels added.
The pickets carried signs in front of the Harrison Street fire hall uptown before the meeting inside.
One side of the signs quoted the First Amendment to the Constitution protecting free speech and the other side the language the county GOP’s bus signs proposed.
Proposed signs
The proposed signs would state: “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-written signs already aboard Jefferson Transit buses give riders three pieces of advice:
• If you’re a U.S. citizen, you don’t have to prove it.
• If you’re not a U.S. citizen and are age 18 or older, you must show your immigration papers to federal agents.
• Everyone has the right to remain silent.
The signs, titled, “Your Rights with Border Patrol Agents on this Bus,” advise riders they can contact ACLU at 206-624-2180 or www.aclu-wa.org.
Transit board member Catharine Robinson, a Port Townsend City Council member who seconded Randels’ motion, said public comments on the matter could still be taken regardless of whether the moratorium proposal was on the agenda.
Sullivan said there is no written policy, and he wanted to hear comments and move forward on a policy.
Jefferson Transit General Manager Dave Turissini said the existing policy covered paid signs, which has driven policy on free public service signs aboard buses.
He said no public service sign has been turned away because of what was said on the sign.
During the meeting, Gregory read a prepared statement saying the GOP “has never demanded or suggested that the ACLU signs not be posted. Our request was for an opposing position to be posted.
“Commissioner Sullivan, you are treading on dangerous ground when you decide whose freedom of speech you dictate as an elected official,” Gregory stated.
Sullivan, on his second four-year term as a Democratic county commissioner from Cape George, said he believes that Jefferson Transit has bigger issues to be concerned about, and he wanted a moratorium on all public service signs on buses until the board can draft a policy.
“If it’s too much trouble to have to have free signs on the buses, then we should discontinue them,” Sullivan said last week. “It just makes it more important to call it quits for the whole thing. I mean everybody. It’s a real distraction for transit right now.”
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.
GOP leaders have voiced support for the Border Patrol.
Border Patrol agents have not boarded public transit buses since checkpoints and other Border Patrol efforts to protect the U.S. border increased on the North Olympic Peninsula since late last year.
Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
