DAPHNE, Ala.—The Daphne City Council decided Monday during a work session that it did not have the authority to suspend the sign ordinance this summer, even though in previous years the council has passed a motion and an ordinance extending the use of special promotional signs.

“It is my understanding that we have no legal right to suspend an ordinance without abolishing the ordinance or amending the ordinance,” Councilman August Palumbo said.

The city’s lawyer, Jay Ross, said a motion could not amend an ordinance.

Council President Cathy Barnette was skeptical of how effective promotional weekend signs were, but she agreed the council should consider helping businesses as much as possible.

“I am not convinced promotional weekends do a hill of beans myself,” Barnette said.

Palumbo expressed concern that the ordinance was not enforced properly in the past. He recalled instances where merchants went too far and exceeded what was allowed by the ordinance. He said some merchants took the suspension of the ordinance to mean that there was no sign ordinance at all.

“The challenge, though, is what Mr. Palumbo has been talking about and that is the enforcement because the promotional weekends are not a negation of the sign ordinance. We need to be very clear on that,” Barnette said.

After debating whether suspending the sign ordinance to allow businesses to utilize promotional banners during summer weekends, the council decided to send the matter to the Planning and Zoning Commission since it dealt with the land use ordinance.

“It is under land use; it has to go to planning commission,” Palumbo said. “The other thing is to pass a motion, which has no effect at all.”