‘VOTE FOR ME’—Candidate signs dominate the side of Yosemite Avenue in Simi Valley near the 118 Freeway. WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers For weeks, Bob Huber campaign signs were disappearing all across town.

Scott Santino, campaign manager for the mayoral candidate, filed a police report Aug. 31 detailing the thefts, including signs being repeatedly taken from the front of the McDonald’s restaurant on Yosemite Avenue.

Since the signs had been stolen six nights in a row, the police decided there was a good chance the perpetrator would strike again.

So over Labor Day weekend, on the night of Sept. 4 into the early morning hours of Sept. 5, Detective Sgt. Robert Arabian conducted a stakeout.

The sergeant, head of the police department’s property crimes division, sat in an unmarked van for seven hours, waiting for the thief.

Like clockwork, at 4:30 a.m. a man removed the signs—including ones for council incumbent Glen Becerra—putting them in the back of his pickup truck.

When Arabian confronted the man, he discovered he wasn’t a thief, but a property maintenance worker, clad in a McDonald’s shirt.

Though permission to post the signs had been granted, this worker was apparently just unaware.

That no one was arrested is not what has city leaders concerned.

Instead they’re asking: Is this an appropriate use of an officer’s time?

Huber’s opponent, Steve Sojka, and Sojka’s friend on the council, Becerra, say no.

Becerra, who is seeking a fourth term on the City Council, said stolen and vandalized signs are just part of any campaign and not worthy of a costly stakeout.

“As a City Council person that oversees the budget of our different departments, including the police department, I just couldn’t justify filing a police report and engaging our police department in this activity,” he said.

Sojka agreed.

“I have a serious concern about if that’s an appropriate use of resources,” Sojka said, “to pay a highly paid detective at time-anda half over a holiday weekend to baby-sit a campaign sign when we have other crime in this city.”

Based on the salary for a police sergeant, as listed on the city’s website, Arabian made about $500 for his seven-hour stakeout.

Sojka and Beccera also expressed concern that it was Arabian who conducted the stakeout.

Arabian is an outspoken supporter of Huber and can be seen speaking on his campaign videos. He is also treasurer of the Police Officers Association, which has endorsed Huber for mayor.

“Obviously, when somebody who has played a high profile in the campaign gets involved in something that even remotely resembles being political on the taxpayers’ dime, that raises concern,” Becerra said.

Huber’s camp doesn’t see this as an issue. Santino says he’s glad police took the problem seriously.

“I, as a taxpayer, and the campaign, being victims of grand larceny, would be outraged if all of the police department refused to investigate because of politics. That’s the other side,” he said. “We shouldn’t be precluded from having our thefts investigated because the POA endorsed Bob Huber.”

He said he didn’t ask Arabian to do the stakeout; he just filed a report, and Arabian called a few days later to see if there had been any patterns in the thefts.

Santino said it’s been frustrating to see sign after sign taken down. At $65 apiece, it easily adds up to felony theft, which requires $400 or more in damages.

“We knew we were going to lose signs, but the frequency and the vast amount has just been a huge surprise,” he said. “In my opinion, some of our signs have been systematically removed because they don’t want our message out there.”

Though Santino didn’t say it, Huber’s supporters have insinuated that Sojka’s camp is behind the thefts. Sojka, who has also had dozens of signs removed, said that is “totally out of line and unfair.”

Lt. Stephanie Shannon, Arabian’s supervisor, said she doesn’t believe there was a conflict of interest and that Arabian conducted himself as he would during any other surveillance.

Shannon said her unit initially wanted to use camera surveillance but was unable to because it was being used on another investigation. So they opted to use a detective instead. However, because officers had been working long overtime hours all week to make a dent in the city’s property crimes, Shannon said Arabian, “in a complete leadership decision,” took on the detail himself.

The lieutenant added that detectives have done sign surveillance before—on U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly’s signs.

City Manager Mike Sedell said the city will look into the situation but not until after the election.

“At this point there is strictly an allegation of an appearance of conflict and it’s not a continuing pattern of allegations. Based on that, we don’t ignore it, but I don’t intend to create an election issue over allegations,” Sedell said.

Shannon insists that is the case with this stakeout.

“I personally find it offensive that someone over at city hall has tried to spin (this),” she said. “Because my integrity test is if any other candidate had come to us with a felonious level crime and we could have established a pattern, we would have done the exact same thing.”