The Ballard News Tribune broke the news earlier this week that the city's anti-graffiti Nazis have threatened to fine a small Mexican restaurant in Ballard if they do not paint over a smiley face on their sign. Photo here.

From the News Tribune's story:

After an anonymous complaint from a citizen, Restaurante Michoacan, a family mexican restaurant on 15th Avenue Northwest, will have to paint over the happy face next to its sign, leaving the owners and some community members upset.

Michoacan received a call from Seattle Public Utilities and were told to paint over the happy face by Aug. 1, or they would be fined $75 a day until it was painted over, McCoy-Pantoja said, who often helps the owners of Michoacan communicate in English.

The Ballard News Tribune posted the story about it yesterday afternoon, and it was later linked by the SeattlePI.com. The story made the rounds and outraged neighbors contacted the city council, causing council staff to jump into action, and mayoral candidate James Donaldson sent out an email (pared down here) and called a press conference to talk about the incident:

James Donaldson outraged at Seattle government's attack on a small business over Smiley Face sign

"This is simply outrageous," said Donaldson, a small business owner himself. "That the city of Seattle cannot distinguish between a professionally applied smiley-face and real graffiti indicates just how out of touch the bureaucracy is with its citizens and its businesses. And a single anonymous complaint is going to force a local business owner to spend who-knows-how-much-money to remove a smiley face? What is wrong with this city?

"This is just another example of a good idea—graffiti removal—gone horribly wrong in the hands of a bureaucrat who lacks common sense. We have to roll some heads and not waste precious resources attacking our neighborhood businesses."

It turns out Donaldson, neighbors and council staff may have all wasted energy as, it turns out, the story's just not true. The kerfluffle was all sparked by a misunderstanding on the part of the restaurant owners and, perhaps, the News Tribune.

"This is not an issue," says Seattle Public Utilities spokesman Andy Ryan.

Ryan says SPU received complaints about tagging on a mural on a restaurant wall—not about the smiley face—and sent out a boilerplate notice, asking the restaurant to clean it up. "I spoke to our inspector this morning and we have never used mentioned [the smiley face]. I don’t know how they came to the impression that was included in the list of graffiti we wanted removed," Ryan says.

Nevertheless, Donaldson issued another press release this afternoon—through his spokeswoman Cindi Laws—canceling his press conference while taking credit for quashing the whole thing. Um, yeah.

"We believe that our planned press conference forced the city to resolve this problem," said Donaldson. "If this is what it takes for the little guy to get their problems solved, we welcome everyone to call us. We'll do what we can to take care of you the way the City of Seattle should have done."

Ah, campaign season.