Signs, signs, everywhere signs.

About three dozen guitar-playing, kazoo-blowing, sign-toting protesters filled Lawrence City Commission chambers Monday afternoon to protest proposed rules that would have prohibited shouting, applause and sign-carrying at commission meetings.

Commissioners saw the signs and decided not to adopt the rules.

“You hear the expression, ‘Let’s run it up the flagpole and see who salutes,'” Mayor Sue Hack said. “I didn’t see very many salutes.”

Hack had asked city staffers to draw up the decorum rules, saying she wanted to prevent disruptive behavior at commission meetings. The resulting proposal drew criticism from the Douglas County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and a variety of other Lawrence activists who said the rules would infringe on free-speech rights.

The protesters marched into Monday’s commission meeting with signs displaying a variety of messages, including:

• “Don’t silence my signs!”
• “Question authority while it’s still legal.”
• “Do you care what we think?”
• “We support freedom of speech.”
• “We love Sue Hack! She’s the best mayor we’ve ever had!” Hack was given this 5-foot-tall sign to take home after the meeting.

The protesters performed an impromptu concert before the meeting but quickly quieted in an attempt to prove they could carry signs without being disruptive to meetings.

“Everyone here is holding a sign, and it hasn’t interrupted any of the business here today,” said Caroline Farwell, who opposed the rules.

Lawrence resident Ed Tato said commissioners shouldn’t worry too much about meeting decorum.

“I think we shouldn’t be looking at making the process neat and orderly,” he said. “We should look at ways to get input so we make the right solutions. Orderliness isn’t always compatible with democracy.”

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Kansas University student Sara Thorp, Lawrence, helped precipitate the controversy by holding a “Wal-Mart sucks the life out of our community” sign at October’s meeting of the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission. She attended Monday’s meeting with a new display: “Signs can’t hurt you.”

“You’re elected to represent the interests and desires of the people of Lawrence,” she told the commission. “As such, your role is to listen to all forms of expression.

“If you ban signs and ban clapping, you’ll cut yourself off from a vital source of information you need to do your job.”

None of the 10 people who spoke Monday favored the rules. Commissioner Jim Henry suggested the commission drop the idea.

“I have no problem with signs, frankly,” he said. “If they’re disruptive, if they cause embarrassment to someone else, that’s one thing. But in four years, I haven’t had a problem with signs.”

His colleagues agreed, declining to take any action on the matter.

“Bring the signs on down,” Commissioner Marty Kennedy said. “We love to see them.”