A candidate for a Hamilton County judgeship is suing a political signs installer, saying he failed to uphold his end of the bargain earlier this year. But the installer and his lawyer say he's never had a complaint before and that signs are easily destroyed by weather or removed by municipalities.
Family attorney Catherine White filed a civil summons against businessman John Shackleford on July 6 in Hamilton County General Sessions Court. In it, she said Shackleford agreed on Feb. 11 to place 150 signs around Chattanooga for $15 each in her bid for Hamilton County Circuit Court judge. Instead, he installed only 112, White said, which is proven by a "bubble map" that Shackleford created showing the general location of each sign.
"The 112 on the bubble map plus the 11 signs that were held in reserve adds up to 123 signs, and not the 150 signs that plaintiff gave defendant possession to install," White wrote in an affidavit attached to her summons. "The plaintiff had to purchase more signs to install since defendant did not. Plaintiff had to purchase rebar to install the replacement signs. Plaintiff had to install the replacement signs."
As a result, White says, Shackleford owes her $2,040.92, and the small-claims matter is set for trial on Sept. 7.
Shackleford, who's been installing signs for the last decade, said campaigns tend to lose signs.
"You have traffic accidents. People may not want them there or may not like the candidate. You might not know where they went," Shackleford said Wednesday. "Some of this is done in the night. Other times the state or city pulls them. I retrieve signs out of Red Bank and East Ridge. Red Bank [in particular] has a 10-feet-from-the-curb rule."
Placing signs isn't easy, Shackleford said: "You're on the side of the road where it's filled in with rock and hard dirt and everything else." Though he trims the grass around signs and checks on them, Shackleford said, some elements are outside of his control. Through it all, he says, he's never had a complaint.
"It appears that Ms. White wants to make Mr. Shackleford the guarantor of the safety of her yard signs, which is absolutely absurd," said his attorney, Hal North, "but we'll play it all out on Sept. 7."
White, who ultimately lost the May 1 Republican primary to opponent Kyle Hedrick by about 3,500 votes, countered that Shackleford's bubble map proves he didn't install all the signs. "Stealing signs, destroying signs, or in the case of Mr. Shackleford, not putting out all of the signs as agreed upon when you consider that he also put out signs for my opponent, is wrong and frankly smacks of corruption," she said.
White expressed a similar concern in a Facebook post on April, saying she and her family spent Easter weekend putting out missing political signs or fixing others that were in shoddy condition.
"A county wide inspection revealed only a fraction of my signs were actually put out, so I had to spend money I had reserved for mailers to buy more signs," she wrote at the time. "I may not be able to send out a mailer now because of what was done to me."
Shackleford said he's now assisting on 11 campaigns. According to 2018 campaign contribution reports, he did receive three payments from Hedrick totaling $2,250 to install signs.
"Kyle Hedrick also lost signs," said political consultant Robin Smith, who runs River's Edge Alliance and worked on Hedrick's campaign. Campaign contribution reports show Hedrick paid her firm $10,430 for the work.
"But we never had any reason to believe anyone did anything nefarious," Smith said.
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.