The Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight reports that outgoing Los Angeles City Council Member  Jack Weiss, who is the leading candidate for City Attorney, received a $1,000 campaign contribution in 2007 from Barry Rush, the president of Worldwide Rush. Rush is the owner of the huge, controversial Tropicana super-graphic at 10801 National Boulevard that is annoying tenants and anti-clutter activists citywide.

Councilman Jack Weiss

The present City Attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, who cut sweetheart deals

during his tenure that allowed proliferation of vast numbers of outdoor

ads on Los Angeles boulevards, is termed out. Weiss considers himself

the Anti-Delgadillo and hopes to replace him in the March 3 election.

“Tenants

and others angered by the ads on the National Blvd. building as well as

others around the city may be disturbed to learn that Weiss was the

recipient of a $1,000 campaign contribution in 2007 from Barry Rush,

according to City Ethics Commission reports,” writes Dennis Hathaway,

president of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight.

The news hit the blogosphere a few days before Weiss held a Wednesday press conference across

the street from the six-story building on National Boulevard to update

anti-clutter activists and the media about his efforts to rid the city

of ugly supergraphics, which have been popping up like pimples on

hormonal teenagers for the last couple of years.

On hand was a

fire official who told the small contingent of journalists that the Los

Angeles Fire Department has ordered the owners of nearly 20 buildings,

including the one on National Boulevard, to remove the heavy, vinyl

supergraphics now draping these buildings, many of which would prevent

people from escaping in a fire.

Hathaway also reports that

Worldwide Rush contributed to many other politicians who have allowed

billboard proliferation while failing to put teeth in the city's

disastrous billboard ban. These include, says Hathaway, “$1,000 to

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and $500 each to councilmen Ed Reyes, Tom

LaBonge, Bill Rosendahl, and council president Eric Garcetti, who said

in a recent radio interview that he had never knowingly taken campaign

contributions from billboard companies.”

In response to Hathaway's charge, Weiss' Deputy Chief of Staff, Lisa Hansen, told the L.A. Weekly:

“Every time the billboard/supergraphic issue has been discussed in

Committee, Planning Commission, or City Council, Jack Weiss has been

the most outspoken and most aggressive advocate for putting a stop to

illegal supergraphics. No one has a tougher record fighting

supergraphics than Jack Weiss, proof that he does what's right

regardless of contributions.”

Weiss' acceptance of Barry Rush's money, however, shows the councilman has no trouble playing both sides of the billboard.

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