Campaign rules on posting signs seem to be spottily enforced in the 27th Ward.

Six signs are posted on city property advertising incumbent Walter Burnett Jr. for alderman in the 27th Ward, and they were still standing as last Thursday — nine days after the election.

Burnett was elected to his fifth term as alderman on Feb. 22.

The signs are posted in two groups of three, one group on stoplights around the intersection of Division Street and Clybourn Avenue and the other on viaducts in an area between Chicago Avenue and Lake Street in East Garfield Park.

All candidates were told in preparation for the municipal election that not posting signs in the public way was an “existing ordinance that they must obey,” said Matt Smith, spokesman for the Department of Streets and Sanitation.

Jim Allen, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, said that the board receives many calls about illegally posted election signs, and they refer those complaints to their Streets and Sanitation ward supervisor or the city’s constituent services hotline.

GeVonna Fassett, who ran against Burnett in the election, said she called to complain about the signs in East Garfield Park to the office of Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Thomas Byrne, to the city’s constituent services hotline and to the Streets and Sanitation supervisor in the 27th Ward, Linda Delgado. Fassett said she noticed the signs were up and made her calls before the blizzard.

Smith said his department must deal with complaints in an order of priority.

“We’ve had the worst blizzard in recent Chicago history, at least in the past decade, and we still try to do things like pick up the garbage,” Smith said. “If someone posts in the public way, they should get those signs out of the public way once they have been informed of them.”

“We hope that the candidates, people who do campaigns quite often, will send their own people out to get their own stuff — not everybody is that thoughtful, but some do.”

Meanwhile, John Courtney, campaign manager for his brother Tom, another 27th Ward aldermanic candidate, received a call from Delgado to remove three signs posted at the intersection of Randolph and Halsted streets-on city property — within 12 hours of posting them.

“As soon as I identified who I was, she told me to remove those signs immediately,” said John Courtney. He was told he had 24 hours to remove them, or face a $100 fine per sign, per day they remained posted. In the same phone call, Courtney told Delgado about the East Garfield Park signs, and she told him to call back when he had specific addresses.

Viaducts typically don’t have addresses. Neither do streetlights.

The Courtneys rushed out to remove the three signs. They hadn’t posted on city property before, and they didn’t do it again, Tom Courtney said.

“Normally, you would tell someone [they would be fined] when you see numerous violations,” Smith said. “I don’t think anyone would call on that if they saw one or two signs. If you see dozens or hundreds, maybe you do that because that’s how you get results.”

Smith said violations requiring a fine typically involve a registered letter sent to the candidate.

A person who answered the phone at Burnett’s ward office said that they did not know who posted the signs, but that the alderman was making an effort to take them down. He then cut off further questions.

Delgado declined to comment for this story.