Amber Basares sports a “Harris/Walz” political sign in the window of her apartment after her landlord ordered her to remove the partisan political sign from the lawn inside the housing complex.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — On a recent Saturday morning, Amber Basares received a call from her landlord. His message, she says, was short and not all that sweet: remove the political yard signs from her yard.
A former housing specialist with the West Ohio Community Action Partnership and currently a self-proclaimed “activist and educator” for the Black and Brown communities, Basares has lived at Carmen Place Apartments on Lakewood Avenue in Lima since 2018. She said she has annually placed signs in her lawn supporting causes ranging from the Girl Scouts and CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) to political candidates.
Her landlord in past years has had “no issue” with the signs, Basares said earlier this week. She believes his sudden change of heart is “because “I’m a Black woman who is a Democrat, and he is a supporter of Donald Trump. I believe the issues with my landlord are because he doesn’t like who I support,” she said.
Frank Cordone, who owns Carmen Place Apartments, disagrees vehemently with Basares’ assessment.
“I have never allowed political signage on any of my properties,” Cordone said Friday. “As a businessman that’s just basic policy. I don’t care who somebody votes for, but I have to stay neutral. For some reason Amber doesn’t like me, and I don’t know why. But I can’t have political signs on my properties. It’s as simple as that. She now has a sign in her window and I don’t have a problem with that. Who somebody votes for is their business.”
Cordone denied race plays any role in his business decisions. He described himself as “the least racist person I know.”
Basares admits her landlord is within his legal rights to require her to remove any partisan yard signs.
Regulations vary between jurisdictions
A one-page lease executed between the parties makes no mention of yard signs, and state law allows property owners to make those types of decisions. The Ohio Revised Code defines at length the rights of tenants to display U.S. or POW/MIA flags, but it does not specifically address political signs in the context of tenants.
According to a brief sent out to Ohio General Assembly members in 2022, Ohio housing entities such as landlords, homeowners associations and manufactured home park operators can prohibit residents from displaying signs or flags through their rules, bylaws, declarations or rental agreements. Unlike neighboring Indiana, which prohibits HOAs from banning political signs in the 30 days leading up to an election, Ohio has no such statewide provision.
Morgan Bode, director of the Allen County Board of Election, said her office occassionally receives inquiries about what is and isn’t permissible when it comes to political advertising. She said those callers are referred to local governmental subdivisions.
“Guidelines vary from township to township and municipality to municipality,” Bode said. “It’s left up to individual political subdivisions.”
Lima Law Director Tony Geiger said the city charter does not address political advertising but noted that a long-standing city policy bans signs in the public right-of-way. That includes tree lawn spaces, the area between roadways and existing sidewalks. Signs placed there will be collected by city employees and held at the Public Works Department facility on South Collett Street.
Mercer County Engineer Jim Wiechart, in a recent missive to area media outlets, said the Ohio Revised Code prohibits the erection of signs or affixing signs, posters or advertisement to any tree or utility pole within the right-of-way of any public highway.
Such signs are subject to removal, he said.
Defacing political signs a crime
Sgt. Jason Garlock of the Lima Police Department said the LPD is acutely aware that the election season is at hand and warned residents about tampering with political signs on private property.
“Any person who defaces, destroys or steals political yard signs will be charged with the applicable Ohio Revised Code, which could include but not be limited to criminal damage, criminal mischief and theft,” Garlock said. “The Lima Police Department asks the community’s assistance by respecting all citizen’s First Amendment Rights of Freedom of Speech.”
Basares acknowledges she has no grounds on which to file allegations of discrimination against her landlord for the sign ban, but said she plans to work toward greater communication between landlords and tenants and increased education for renters about what their rights truly are. “My end goal is to start changing laws about things like this.”
“This incident hasn’t crushed my spirit, but it is disheartening,” she said.
