Home > News > One man's flag is another man's sign

By JESSE GARZA
Posted: April 15, 2006

It's made of cloth with a blue field of white stars.

It has red and white stripes and formerly fluttered in the Town of Rib Mountain while an individual dressed in a Statue of Liberty costume greeted passing traffic near Liberty Tax Service.

But is it a flag, or is it a sign?

That question may soon be answered in a Marathon County courtroom.

Liberty Tax owner Brad Sarkauskas says he'll contest a $248 citation from the town's zoning administrator who believes the display, called an American Flag Group - eight separate banners that form an image of Old Glory - flies in the face of Rib Mountain's sign ordinance.

"You appear to be blatantly disregarding the ordinance," says a letter dated Feb. 15 to Sarkauskas from zoning administrator Daniel Dziadosz that came with the citation.

The letter and citation followed a visit from Dziadosz, whom Sarkauskas says ordered that the "signs" be removed.

"I said, 'I don't have any signs. I have a flag,' " Sarkauskas says. "I told him, 'I have no intent to take it down.' "

Sarkauskas maintains that displaying the flag group is free speech protected under the First Amendment and exempt from the ordinance because it is a flag.

Town officials say it violates a prohibition against signs, pennants and decorations "fluttering, undulating, rotating or otherwise moving."

Concerned that Dziadosz might begin issuing multiple citations, Sarkauskas removed the eight poles with the 16 1/2 - by 2 1/2 -foot flag segments.

He appeared in Marathon County Circuit Court March 1, pleaded not guilty to violating the ordinance and filed a motion on April 3 to have the citation dismissed, according to automated state court records.

There has been no response to the motion, according to the records. Sarkauskas says he will contest the citation in court next month if it's not dismissed.

American Flag Groups are manufactured by Get in the Wind, a company based in Pensacola, Fla. They are created in a style known as "Windfeathers," according to Get in the Wind co-owner Kurt Lisk.

"Is it a flag? No, not in the general sense," says Lisk, who owns the business with his father, Keith.

"Is it a banner? Technically yes and no."

Kurt Lisk says the displays are open to interpretation, but he believes they are actually representations of flags.

"Having said that, I have no problem with someone saying it's an interpretation of an American flag," he says.

Keith Lisk says he and his son tell their customers to check with their localities to make sure the flag groups conform to local sign ordinances.

"The flag group is a different animal," he says. "It's a lot different than normal signage."

According to the U.S. Flag Code, "The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever."

Bill West, state adjutant for the Wisconsin American Legion, says a flag group in front of a tax preparation service sounds like advertising to him.

"In Portage, we've got guys dressed up like Uncle Sam," says West, who doesn't think the flag groups are distasteful and actually finds them attractive, but . . .

"In my opinion it's not a flag, it's a display." he says. "Normally a flag is hoisted and lowered."

Phil Freeburg, an attorney who represents the Town of Rib Mountain, thinks it's a stretch to call an American Flag Group an American flag.

"It certainly doesn't look like what the Marines raised over Iwo Jima," Freeburg says.

And Sarkauskas has no recourse under the First Amendment, Freeburg says.

"It's just a basic understanding that if you regulate the time, place and manner of speech, then that's not a First Amendment issue," he says. "It's only when you restrict the content of speech, and we are not doing that here."

Freeburg says there had been complaints about the display as well as the Liberty Tax employees dressed up as the Statue of Liberty and waving at passing motorists, though he admits there is no ordinance regulating their activity.

Sarkauskas says his Lady Liberty impersonators are also a form of protected free speech.

"We did have one complaint," he says.

"A lady came in and complained that the Statue of Liberty had a beard."

2006-04-15

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