Stan Bogosian, councilman for the last eight years, was driving south on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road on Oct. 3 when he noticed something out of the ordinary.

According to Bogosian, Saratoga Vice Mayor Kathleen King was moving a sign advocating the proposed utility tax so that it obscured another election sign—a sign for city council candidate Andy Barnes.

Barnes is running for the council alone, taking on Mayor Ann Waltonsmith and Aileen Kao, who are running together on a slate. King is Kao's treasurer.

Bogosian, irritated and angered by what he saw, turned his car around, pulled up in the parking lot near Saratoga Bagels and decided to confront King.

"I put the sign back where it was," said Bogosian.

But not before he had engaged in a war of words with Kathleen King. "I told her it was a silly thing to do," said Bogosian.

Bogosian later said that disappearing signs were a common problem during every election. "But it is not common for a seated council member to engage in this kind of behavior," said Bogosian.

King later admitted that she had moved the sign advocating Measure U and V but claimed that she had not touched the opponent's sign, namely the one belonging to council hopeful Andy Barnes.

"It was a stupid thing to do," said King later.

She also sent an email to Barnes clarifying what happened.

"Stan caught me moving one of our purple signs in front of yours at the VIP cleaners (pretty dumb thing to do). I have not and will not touch anyone but our own signs," said King in the email.

"I thought it was funny. Barnes was moving his sign up and we were moving ours," said King.

Bogosian said that he was disgusted by the event and he would be glad when the elections were over. In a recent council meeting, King voted against approving Bogosian's absence for more than 60 days from regular city council meetings. The city council approved Bogosian's absence with a 3-2 vote.

Barnes, in the run-up to the elections on Nov. 2, has had problems with his campaign signs disappearing. A few weeks ago 18 of his campaign signs disappeared from all over Saratoga. Barnes said that most of the signs were found in a Los Gatos neighborhood a couple of days later. "I still lost a few signs. And they are expensive," said Barnes.

He said that he had filed a report with the sheriff's department and asked deputies to keep an eye out for people trying to steal or vandalize his signs.

"I think it was some high school student playing a prank. I do not believe that my competitors would stoop so low as to steal my signs," said Barnes a couple of weeks ago.