Lakewood Changes Rules After Successful Yard Signs

Lakewood is expanding the definition of campaigns to apply to any City Council decision, not just elections.  The move comes in response to a successful citizen-initiated referendum to roll back a Council decision.  The change is purported to increase transparency but will also make things significantly harder for grassroots efforts.

Stop sign-red yard signs brought the zoning discussion into public focus. Many people credit the signs for making them aware of the zoning matter. Without them, there may not have been a successful referendum. Naturally, pro-density zoning advocates hated them…a lot.

However, at the time of their placement, the signs were only influencing a City Council vote, not an election. Who knew that it would grow to be more? The hope was that City Council would listen, making a referendum unnecessary.

Green “Save Bear Creek Lake” signs are still up in yards, also raising awareness and influencing Lakewood actions. But no one has suggested they be subject to campaign finance filings, perhaps because Lakewood officials agree with those signs.

In similar fashion, in 2025, transgender supporters held protests with coordinated t-shirts and pizza parties at City Council for months. More recently, anti-ICE and “No Kings” protests have been popular. All of which may have added up to $200 in spending.

Under the new municipal code section 2.54.040(A)(1)(i),  any protest that spends $200 will now have to register like an election campaign because no one knows if the matter will be on a ballot later.

Collaboration Causes Misunderstandings

Before any citizen-initiated petition, residents try to get City Council’s attention. This is generally unorganized, with everyone having their own message and their own ideas for moving forward.

Adversaries may assume collaboration where none exists. Just like more official campaigns, it may be hard to tell who is paying for what.

For example, there may be some overlap between savebelmarpark.COM and savebelmarpark.ORG but their finances were different. Only one group actively worked on the parkland dedication petition, but it may not have been successful without the combined efforts of Belmar Park supporters in general.

Now all these costs that were meant to influence Council actions will be subject to campaign finance disclosures because of what they MAY turn into.

Again, parkland dedication didn’t start as a citizen petition, but since Council didn’t listen, it grew into one. If Council did NOT listen to the trans activists that spent time and money advocating for police oversight, that might have grown into a citizen petition as well.

However, Council was not concerned with how much money was used for those protests.

Council seems to be treating people they agree with differently than people they don’t agree with.

Recap

Lakewood says residents knew about zoning changes because the City talked about it for two years. But they are so angry that people learned about zoning through yard signs that Council is writing new campaign rules. City Council did not appear to think about how this would affect any group beyond the zoning yard signs, but as the new code written, multiple groups could now be caught in this trap. 

Any spending over $200 on any issue will now be treated as an organized election, subject to campaign finance rules. This is similar to demanding candidate exploratory committees submit paperwork before committing to run for office. All spending for the zoning referendum election was filed through an official committee.

Campaign finance for elections is onerous, expensive, and deters many people from raising their voices. Besides that, many people will not know that ordering $200 worth of pizza requires paperwork and official registration, especially when multiple people contribute low amounts. However, this is what the plain reading of the proposed law says.