Signs of the Times
<br><h6>(illustration from illegalsigns.ca, Toronto)</h6><br>
<br>
I haven't mentioned billboard companies in my blog. It's about time.
Billboard companies can be a serious source of apparent impropriety
and corruption in local government. And this is an important time for
them, because things are changing in the billboard world. It's no
longer mostly about old-fashioned billboards along highways. It's
digital supergraphics on buildings and all sorts of 21st-century
innovations that require new laws and regulations. But the same old
constitutional issues remain.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://banbillboardblight.org/?p=4518" target="”_blank”">a post
this week on the Ban Billboard Blight blog</a>, in 2009 billboard companies</strong> paid
a total of more than $1 million</strong>
to firms registered to lobby Los Angeles city officials, according to <a href="http://ethics.lacity.org/" target="”_blank”">Los Angeles Ethics Commission</a>
records. This time period corresponded with the drafting of a new
city-wide sign ordinance (still pending before a City Council
committee), and several challenges by community and advocacy groups to
permits issued for digital billboards.<br>
<br>
According to <a href="http://banbillboardblight.org/?p=2457" target="”_blank”">another
recent BBB post</a>, the billboard companies' lobbying firms "also
helped bankroll 2009 election campaigns through fundraising for
candidates for city attorney, city controller, and the city council.
According to Ethics Commission reports, a total of $173,900 was raised
for candidates," although this includes money from other lobbying firm
clients. However, "the most favored recipient of this largesse was City
Councilman Ed Reyes, who was given $26,450 for his re-election campaign
against token opposition. Reyes is chairman of the council’s
Planning and Land Use Management Committee, which conducted hearings on
the new sign ordinance."<br>
<br>
There's a missing link here, so that it is impossible to know how much
the billboard companies indirectly gave to council candidates. But
according to the second BBB post, one of the lobbying firms reported
delivering the maximum $500 campaign contributions from one billboard
company to three council members, including one who had recently said in
a radio interview that he had never “willingly” taken a campaign
contribution from a billboard company.<br>
<br>
The L.A. official most involved with control of the new kinds of
billboards is the elected City Attorney. According to <a href="http://banbillboardblight.org/?p=2500" target="”_blank”">another BBB post</a>
(this one from last June), the outgoing city attorney was elected with
the help of free billboard advertising, was "publicly feted" by a
billboard lobbyist, and brokered "a disastrous lawsuit settlement with
the same companies that plastered his face around the city." There are a lot of ways a billboard company can cause trouble.<br>
<br>
It appears that the new city attorney has been more aggressive in
taking on the billboard companies, including suits and arrests of
building owners and billboard company executives who put allegedly
illegal signs on buildings. According to <a href="http://banbillboardblight.org/?p=4415" target="”_blank”">a recent BBB post</a>,
three of the companies filed a suit against the city to declare its ban
unconstitutional. Their request for a restraining order against the
city attorney was dismissed on April 2.<br>
<br>
If you think that this is just a Los Angeles problem (all those
tempting freeways and open spaces!), you should know that there are
similar anti-billboard organizations and blogs dealing with <a href="http://illegalbillboards.org/" target="”_blank”">New York City</a>, <a href="http://illegalsigns.ca" target="”_blank”">Toronto</a>, and <a href="http://antiadvertisingagency.com/" target="”_blank”">the world</a>. You can see from the picture above that Toronto has lobbyist issues, too. And here's a link to <a href="http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/65630" />an editorial cartoon from the far smaller Durham, NC</a>, where the same problem is occurring.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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