Misunderstanding or theft? Commission candidate accuses Clapper of stealing campaign sign while property owners state it was result of confusion

A Pitkin County Commission candidate is accusing an incumbent commissioner of stealing her campaign sign from an upper Roaring Fork Valley convenience store, but the property owner states it’s the result of confusion and not malice. 

Toni Kronberg is running against Commissioner Francie Jacober. Kronberg submitted a five-page affidavit Monday claiming Commissioner Patti Clapper parked in front of the Old Snowmass Market and stole her campaign sign.

The Old Snowmass Market property is owned by Michael Forrest and Ryan Chadwick. According to Chadwick, Kronberg never originally obtained permission from him to stake her sign in the flower box in front of the convenience store. That same flower box also has a Jacober campaign sign sticking out of it.

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“I never got a call from Toni,” Chadwick said.

Chadwick, a good friend of Clapper’s, also said he gave the greenlight for Clapper to take down Kronberg’s sign because he originally didn’t give permission to Kronberg to put up her sign. Forrest and a convenience store clerk, however, did give permission to Kronberg.

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Both Forrest and Chadwick said neither of them actually spoke to each other about who gave Kronberg permission to put up her sign in the first place or who gave Clapper permission to take down Kronberg’s sign.

“It’s a miscommunication,” Forrest said of the incident. “I wish Ryan and I would have spoken to each other.”

Clapper told The Aspen Times that political candidates need to gain permission from the private property owners first before erecting signs on their property.

“I’ve been doing this for six elections, and you always get the permission from the private property owner to put this sign on their private property — which I did at the Conoco — and she kept putting her sign there,” Clapper said of Kronberg. “I called the owner of the property. He had not given her permission, and he asked me to remove it, which I did, and I took it to Public Works, where there’s a stack of signs that the county picks up off of county right-of-ways.”

Clapper agreed that the two property owners, Chadwick and Forrest, did not communicate about this — also referring to it as a “miscommunication.”

“But I did not steal her yard sign. I did not throw it in the garbage,” Clapper said of Kronberg’s sign. “I left it at Public Works and told her that’s where it was, and she knew she could go there and pick it up.”

Pitkin County Attorney Richard Neiley said tampering with political yard signs is a misdemeanor offense. 

“She’s taking this yard sign thing and running with it, I think perhaps for publicity and perhaps to make me look bad,” Clapper said of Kronberg. 

In the affidavit, Kronberg claims that more of her signs throughout Pitkin County, including six along Colorado Highway 82, have been taken. The accusation against Clapper isn’t the only one Kronberg is alleging when it comes to her signs. 

According to the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office, the Public Works Department or the Colorado Department of Transportation can legally take down political signs if they pose a safety hazard in the public right-of-way.

“It is public property,” Pitkin County Chief Deputy of Operations Parker Lathrop said. “So they shouldn’t be there without permission.”

Kronberg told The Aspen Times on Tuesday that she feels the alleged theft is “taking away my ability to get my message across.”

“Signs are a form of communication,” she said. “It’s the First Amendment.”

Ray K. Erku can be reached at (970) 429-9120 or rerku@aspentimes.com.