§ 30-2. Public property; damaging or defacing; regulation of advertisements and notices.
(a)
No person shall damage or deface any public building, public work or public property.
(b)
No person shall post, stick, stamp, paint or otherwise fix, or cause the same to be done by any person, any notice, placard, bill, car, poster, advertisement or other paper or device calculated to attract the attention of the public, to or upon any public property, including, but not limited to, any street, sidewalk, crosswalk, curb, or any other portion or part of any public way or public place or building, or any telephone pole, light standard, stop sign, railway structure, tree, bush or shrub, or upon any railings, gates, or other parts of any public bridge, viaduct, subway or overpass, or upon any other public property, right-of-way or easement granted to the county, except in accordance with the exception for the Memphis Area Transit Authority set forth in this Code or when otherwise expressly authorized by law. No person shall remove, deface or otherwise tamper with any lawfully posted signs.
(c)
Any notice, placard, bill, card, poster, advertisement or other paper or device as referred to in subsection (b) of this section, which contains a message attributable to a person or entity named thereon or an advertisement or telephone number notification for the benefit of a person or entity, or any properly authenticated photograph or videotape of same, shall be prima facie evidence that the notice, placard, bill, card, poster, advertisement or other paper or device was placed on public property in violation of this section by the person or entity whose name appears thereon or whose telephone number appears thereon, or by their employee or agent while acting in the scope of their employment or agency and on behalf of the person or entity whose name or telephone number appears thereon.
(d)
Each notice, placard, bill, card, poster, advertisement or other paper or device as referred to in subsection (b) of this section found posted on public property in violation of this section shall be deemed to be a separate violation of this section. Each separate violation shall be punishable by a fine of $50.00. In addition, in order to remediate the harm caused the county by any violation of this section, the county shall be entitled to recover a penalty in an amount equal to the cost incurred in locating, removing and disposing of such material; provided, however that such penalty shall not exceed $200.00.
(e)
The division of planning and development through the office of construction code enforcement is hereby authorized to issue citations for violations of this section and to act as the county's official representative in all prosecutions of such violations.
(Code 1992, § 22-1; Ord. No. 58, 8-14-1989; Ord. No. 174, § 2, 4-8-1996; Ord. No. 272, 6-23-2003)