Editorial: PennDOT should enforce right-of-way sign rules

When is taking a sign out of the ground a crime and when is it not?

That was the question a Westmoreland County jury had to decide. Did former Franklin Regional School Board member Gary English, 66, of Murrysville steal someone’s property by pulling out the signs that pop up everywhere like weeds along roads? Or was he just cleaning up a public — and itself illegal — mess?

The election-time argument about sign tampering is frequent. Political signs often are targets of vandalism and theft. But that wasn’t really what happened here.

For one thing, those theft cases generally are in reference to signs on private property, like the yards of supporters. That wasn’t what English did. He pulled the signs from PennDOT right-of-ways adjacent to Hempfield roads in April 2021.

The issue there is that state law doesn’t allow campaign signs — or other temporary advertising signs for businesses or events — to be in that right-of-way. PennDOT periodically sends out press releases reminding people that it is illegal, as is attaching them to traffic light poles, stop sign posts or guide rails.

It took a jury less than 30 minutes to decide that English didn’t commit misdemeanor theft.

“It’s not that I took signs. I merely transported signs to where they belong, to PennDOT,” he said.

He’s got a point — although so did Assistant District Attorney Jackie Knupp when she called him a vigilante. It wasn’t English’s job to do this, and that’s why, despite being found not guilty, he wasn’t exactly in the right, either.

The question really is: Where is PennDOT in this?

A random retiree in Murrysville shouldn’t be waging a war against the signs the state has designated off limits for reasons such as visibility, worker safety and wildlife health. They also can become litter. Pennsylvania roads have more than enough of that — and that’s also illegal.

What if PennDOT just enforced the rules it has regarding these signs?

Maybe English was not guilty of a crime. But this might be a case of the state being guilty of not doing its job.