Signs of Revolt : Palisades Professor Stalks, Stashes Offending Realty Placards

After awhile, they weren’t just signs anymore. To Winston Salser, they were symbolic of big business flouting the law and polluting the environment in its quest for the almighty dollar.

So, Salser decided, they had to go.

Where the realty signs went exactly is still unclear. But the signs, the ones with the colored flags, some with balloons attached, others with small chalkboards, began disappearing recently from the streets of Pacific Palisades. About 150 have vanished so far, but the number, like the movement, is rising.

Salser’s campaign to rid his community of illegally placed real estate signs began quietly. Salser, a UCLA biology professor, printed up a petition urging fellow residents to take any signs placed on public property--a violation of the city’s sign ordinance--and toss them in the trash.

He passed out the petitions at shopping centers. And he waited. Slowly, the complaints trickled in from realty agencies: Where are our signs?

Salser was pleased.

“It’s a Reaganesque approach to government,” Salser said. “It would be a waste to have a government agency take the time and money to come in and remove the signs. It’s much more efficient if the citizens do it themselves.”

Popping Up Like Wildflowers

Some fear that the campaign could spread to hundreds of other street corners throughout Los Angeles, where the signs pop up like wildflowers each weekend.

Although it’s legal to place signs or posters on private property if the owner gives permission, the law governing public property is largely ignored, and real estate firms and others seeking a cost-efficient way to advertise their wares place their placards on sidewalks, lampposts and walls at will.

Salser’s quixotic war on signs has created a stir in Pacific Palisades, which forms a prime segment of the hotly contested Westside real estate market. Dolly Niemann, manager of the Jon Douglas Co. office in Pacific Palisades, said she asked the firm that placed the signs for Jon Douglas “to stay out of the Palisades” after about 50 of their street ads disappeared recently.

“As Realtors, we’re trying to stay within the law, but we’re not perfect,” she said. “We’re trying to communicate with the people in our community. If they want us to keep signs off public property, we’ll make the effort. We’re sensitive to the problem.”

But not sensitive enough, Salser contends. On Tuesday, he said, he plucked a few more signs off the street, and passed dozens of others on his way to work. He said he expects this weekend to be no different from the others--except that more signs may disappear.

‘They Should Be Punished’

“I don’t know who’s taking them all, but I’m glad to see that people are responding,” he said. “This is one of those rare crimes where the criminal advertises his or her identity. And they should be punished for it. What these (realty) people don’t realize is that they’re fouling their own nest.”

On Thursday, Salser decided to go one step further. He drafted a letter to the realty companies offering to let them have the signs he has taken back--for a storage fee.

“I’m holding these illegally posted signs bearing the advertising logo of your company, and I am prepared to return them to you upon your payment of a fee to cover my time and expenses in removing (them), for record-keeping, temporary storage and notifications,” the letter states. “The amount for each sign is $20. This is a fair charge, based upon the time and effort expended by me.

“Because of limited space I have available for sign storage, it will be necessary to arrange to reimburse me for the expenses within 14 days of the date of this letter.”

Salser said he will donate the money to a “worthy charitable or political cause.” He said he expected the letters to be mailed by Friday.

Niemann said she has addressed the Palisades’ community council on the problem of the disappearing signs, and local real estate agents have agreed to place their signs only on private property. But Salser said that not everyone is complying.

Bill Chin, president of the Los Angeles Board of Realtors, said he hadn’t heard about the sign revolt, adding that his board probably would address the problem if no solution could be reached.

“If there was a public outcry, we’d have to respond accordingly,” Chin said. “It is not in our best interests to do something that upsets people. The board recognizes that we have to respect the law.

“But we have to be realistic about this. A lot of homeowners wouldn’t be in their homes if it weren’t for the directionals (open house signs).”

Although city officials admit that the ordinance regarding city signs is largely ignored, they say there is little they can do. Many of the posters announcing musical events and dances are put up in the middle of the night, they say, and most of the realty signs are placed on weekends.

But, they add, they do try to stem the tide of illegal signs.

48,500 Signs Removed

Last year, city officials took down 48,500 signs in Los Angeles and warned 635 people that their signs were illegally posted, according to William Bradford, chief inspector for the bureau of street maintenance in the Department of Public Works. The effort barely makes a dent in the sign population, he admits, but the city doesn’t have the time, money or manpower to adequately deal with the problem.

Bradford said enforcement costs the city $3.38 per sign, bringing last year’s outlay for the war on signs to nearly $164,000.

“It’s gotten to be quite a problem over the years,” he said. “Every so often, we have a purge where we send out two or three inspectors to pull down signs in an area. But we only have one inspector for each district (24) in the city. So our people almost never see the people who put up the signs.”

Bradford said the law allows people to be cited for illegally placing signs only if they are caught in the act, “and that happens maybe two or three times a year.”

The signs got to be such a problem in parts of the San Fernando Valley that the board of realtors there took action against one of Los Angeles’ best-known firms. The San Fernando Valley Board of Realtors placed Mike Glickman Realty Inc. on one-year probation because of the firm’s excessive use of “Open House” signs in the area.

The competition among real estate firms in the Valley triggered a full-scale sign war, which realty board president Tom Carnahan said took almost a year to abate. Now, real estate agents in the area can only post a sign one hour before an open house and must take it down within one hour after.

“We wrestled with it for a long time,” he said. “It got to be a real problem.”

Mary Witko, a researcher with the California Assn. of Realtors, said similar problems with signs have forced communities throughout the state to change or pass new ordinances. She said most California cities have ordinances like Los Angeles’, although a few, like Fremont, near San Jose, allow signs to be placed on public grounds.

“It’s been a longstanding problem because real estate firms need a way to advertise and citizens want a way to preserve the way their community looks,” she said.

Salser, in his zeal to catch abusers of the law, said he recently followed a truck carrying more than 100 signs, and watched as a man placed them on several street corners around his neighborhood. When the man realized he was being followed, Salser said, he just stopped and smiled, waiting for Salser to leave. Salser smiled back and waited. It was a standoff, Palisades-style.

“I commend the citizens who have decided to fight back,” Salser said. “If people allow them to stay up, then the situation just gets worse. I would really like to see some of these (realty) firms be fined, but if enough citizens get involved, we can police the problem ourselves.”

The sign backlash raises some thorny legal questions. The city attorney’s office said the sign ordinance only authorizes the Police Department or crews from the Department of Public Works to remove signs. John Haggerty, assistant city attorney, said taking a sign could be viewed as a petty theft.

“But I doubt anybody who broke the law by illegally placing a sign would come forward to file a complaint,” he said.

Salser’s campaign could fuel another challenge to the city’s sign ordinance. In 1984, a Northridge man running for the City Council filed a lawsuit over the ordinance when city workers removed his political posters from public property. Roland Vincent said the city ordinance contributed to his poor showing in the election.

The case ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the city.

Salser is adamant about his right to take the signs, and said he will continue to encourage others to follow suit. When the realty companies and others stop placing their signs on public property, he said, he will stop asking others to take them.

“I think a lot of citizens are happier knowing that this stuff is against the law and that they can do something about it,” he said. “We don’t have to put up with this. I hope this spreads all over the city.”