Sedano should start a kickstarter to raise funds and pay for the Data. I'm sure many enemies of the city council and of the bill boards would love to find out that data, especially in an election year.
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Another suit targeted the city ban. In 2002, a judge issued a temporary injunction against the ban, but in 2003, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted that injunction, handing then–City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo a huge victory.
But Delgadillo — who, like the City Council and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, had taken campaign funds from billboard firms — bizarrely persuaded the council and mayor to "settle" with CBS and Clear Channel.
PHOTO BY DREW BARILLAS
Lisa Sedano: "None of the elected people, including Carmen Trutanich, seem to want to cross the big billboard companies."
In what is widely seen as an unholy deal, the city agreed to a $186 inspection fee; gave CBS and Clear Channel permission to erect more than 800 piercingly bright digital billboards without any public hearings; and agreed to declare CBS's and Clear Channel's illegal old billboards to be legal.
What did Los Angeles get in exchange?
CBS and Clear Channel agreed to dismantle just 49 of their 3,285 billboards.
Outraged by this, a competitor, Summit Media, sued. The widely vilified settlement was nullified. (Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor have appealed.)
At first, Zamperini and his boss at Building and Safety, Frank Bush, welcomed the grad student with her intense interest in their work and this convoluted history.
"They made it clear to me that the [billboard] inventory was done, that they had completed their fieldwork," Sedano says.
Anti-clutter activist Hathaway also was told by a key inspector that the inventory "was done" last year.
But in June 2011, as Sedano contacted higher-up officials for her dissertation, Zamperini refused to show Sedano the billboard database.
Zamperini cited Summit Media's lawsuit over the city's weird settlement with Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor. His reaction was odd. A government official cannot withhold public data just because somebody is suing.
Last August, Sedano asked Trutanich special assistant Jane Usher what was going on. Sedano tells the Weekly that Usher said: "I don't think that people in the city want to inflame the litigants [CBS and Clear Channel] in that case. There's a sticky wicket."
Usher denies she said that.
So Sedano demanded the database via the California Public Records Act. This time, Building and Safety told her it would cost $591.44, and Deputy City Attorney Kim Westhoff wrote her to say that the data are "not in its final form and remains unverified," so not all of it would be revealed.
Trutanich spokesman Frank Mateljan emailed the Weekly to say Sedano could see most of the data, but with startling caveats: She can see "the identity of owner (where available) and permit number (where available)."
But she'll be back at square one if she doesn't know the owner ID and permit numbers.
And there's the sticky wicket: To know who owns the illegal billboards is to know what City Hall gave away and to whom.
Correction
Our Aug. 3 news story incorrectly described the city attorney's position as to the city's billboard database ("Scholar Sues Over an Old L.A. Secret"). The city contends that it has repeatedly offered Lisa Sedano the complete database, as it exists in its current, draft form, with no caveats — provided she pay $591.44 to cover the costs of producing the records. They have also offered to provide owner identities and permit numbers in every case where such information exists. The L.A. Weekly regrets the error.
12 comments
It's getting more and more like 1920s Chicago in this city! The amount of graft and cronyism is unbelievable. I'm thankful to people like Sedano who are trying to do something about it. I wish she would also start looking into the 'relationships' (i.e. money changing hands) between the Office of The Mayor, the City Council, the Office of Permits and the big developers like CIM.
One problem seems to be that, in 20s Chicago for instance, there were a couple of radio stations and two or three newspapers reporting on the crooked goings on. But today with innumerable media outlets grabbing for our attention, it's hard for a story to get any traction unless it starts getting covered across the board. Unfortunately government corruption isn't as sexy of a story line as the latest Kardashian folly so I guess this story will only get so much media interest before it fades away and allows these crooks to go on with business as usual.
The LA city government is a total mess.
Thousands of illegal billboards, illegal weed shops sprout up every day.Cutting bus service to build light rail then building the rail in areas its not needed or building a rail to the airport that doesn't make it to the airport (twice!).
When right wingers talk about government inefficiency they can use LA as a poster child.
The illegal billboards are a symptom but I want to know how the city government became/is so incompetent and how to reform it.
3 cheers for Sedano, with the brains and guts to take them on. Fantastic.
The billboards degrade the visual assets of the City. For those who do want to sell those out, they should at least be sold transparently, for fair value and with legit regulation.
(Sure, the so-called "LA Weekly" (RIP original LA Weekly) continues with its fake-muckraking-outrage hit'n'run news stories, but I'm glad when they at least bring awareness to an issue worth having attention.)
As long as the billboard owners are paying taxes I'm ok with billboards. If they aren't paying permitting fees or taxes then they should be taken down.
Here's a question: do we consider small 'flap board' style signs (the type that small shop owners place on sidewalks) an 'illegal' billboard? If so, then I think we need to revisit the permitting process.
As an aside, I feel this whole mega billboard, electric sign thing is a made-up problem. We have such bigger issues to address (access to mass transit, homelessness in Downtown) that it makes me feel this is a distraction.
Will the Weekly do a real news article for once? Like analysis the Public Employee Pension system? Or Los Angeles' stuctured budget deficit?
@ncrpz2 I really don't think this applies to mom and pop shops throwing up a sandwich board on the sidewalk. We're talking possibly millions of dollars in unpaid fees, taxes and fines that are owed to us that would be additional funds to help balance the budget. I think this is quite the valid story which could also lead to some uncovering of rampant corruption and hopefully some convictions if merited.
@Justice If it's all about fees, taxes and fines then I'm all for it. As long as the sign owner pay, I don't care where the signs go.
As far as 'rampant corruption' I think the assessor's scandal more than covers that. If anything, I think it's just the city not caring enough to properly collected the fees rather than the sign holders lining the pockets of city officals so that they can put up giant 'Enjoy Coke' ads.
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Time for the FBI. Bell, Cudahy and now the big fish LA the corruption is self-evident, the proof and the convictions will be harder to find.
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Hats off to Lisa Sedano.
The outdoor advertising companies continue to expand the amount of outdoor ad space.
Recently they are using new technology to make larger and brighter billboards, with this alone the amount of ad space has increased 10-20% citywide. More digital billboards are being snuck in and they have replaced existing billboards with "significantly" brighter billboards which are far more
distracting for drivers and raise driving safety concerns to a new level.
Even more disturbing is the growing explosion of "lawn furniture" outdoor ads constructed on city sidewalks. How did this happen without public approval?
Every single day the amount of outdoor ad space increases in Los Angeles, what little quality this city has is being enveloped by glaring ads. The public voted to stop this, yet the outdoor companies control the city with threats of legal action while the city attorney and city council cower and do nothing.
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This story is great, do you guys remember the one a couple of years ago where Rocky Delgadillos wife got in to a car accident with a city of L.A suv and told the other party not to report anything that her husband would fix everything, only because she was driving with a suspended license, never heard how that one eneded I guess he did fix everything. Dam corrupt bastards!
It is no surprise that Trutanich doesn't want the public to know that in spite of all his loudmouthing bragging and bullying, he does not actually have any concrete data as to how many illegal billboards there are in LA, or where they are. Funny thing though, when Trutanich was nailed for having a bunch of his own illegal billboards on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City for over two years, Zamperini at LADBS said that they were 'temporary' signs that did not require a permit. It is a sick joke the way the people of LA have been conned by Trutanich. Let's be sure to kick him out LA in March 2013. In the meantime, keep on watching him like a hawk.
I'm amazed to hear that Trutanich's organization, and the administration of the Department of Building and Safety have seemingly trying to cover up what at the least, seems like willful negligence on carrying out the laws of this city. These organizations should be audited and the administration be held responsible if it was shown that this in fact is all true. As a government of the people, the people deserve to demand transparency and accountability.
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