Mayor Seizes News Racks : Publications: Impatient Donna Smith dumps three machines of sexually explicit newspapers on City Hall steps.

Mayor Donna Smith and her husband got tired of waiting for the city staff to crack down on three unlicensed news racks offering sexually oriented newspapers, so they took matters into their own hands Wednesday.

Smith and her husband, Robert, seized the news racks, loaded them in the back of their truck, drove to City Hall and dumped them on the steps.

The mayor explained that after waiting for months for the city staff to pick up the racks in front of the downtown post office, she had run out of patience. The racks had offered the Sun, L.A. X . . . Press and Hollywood Playmates.

“The bottom line is that I stole these illegal, pornographic machines,” Smith said.

Her husband interrupted: “No, you didn’t steal them. . . . You just wanted them out of there.”

The mayor then amended her statement, saying she had just taken the machines to a location “where I know they (the city staff) will do something about it.”

She was right. Shortly after the Smiths unloaded the racks from their pickup truck, two Public Works employees arrived to cart them off to the city yard.

Smith said the city was legally entitled to confiscate the racks because they were placed on a public right of way without the vendors’ having obtained business licenses.

The mayor and her husband, who coaches wrestling and other sports at Pomona’s Garey High School, said they were incensed that the sex publications were available to anyone--including children--who had 75 cents to put in the coin slot.

If the publications cannot be outlawed, the mayor said, they should be sold at adult bookstores or other places where children’s access could be restricted.

The mayor said children buy the publications out of curiosity. “I think it’s very harmful,” she said. “It can lead to sexual crimes, more sexual activity by teen-agers and teen-age pregnancy.”

Jim Atwell, co-owner of the Sun and other sexually explicit publications based in Hollywood, said his products are censored so that they can be sold on the sidewalk.

The Sun carries nude photos and ads for massage parlors, phone sex and similar businesses. But Atwell said he blocks out offensive portions of pictures.

Atwell said the vending machines are owned by independent contractors. But “if I owned the news racks, I would probably have the mayor arrested” for removing them, he said.

Smith said she was unperturbed by the publisher’s words.

“Anyone who prints those types of newspapers is sick,” she said. “They’re not paying their business licenses, and they’re ripping off taxpayers and exploiting women in these trashy newspapers.”

Smith said the city staff has been working on a procedure to remove unlicensed racks containing sexually oriented newspapers, but that the process was taking too long.

City Atty. Arnold Glasman said the staff has been surveying the city for unlicensed or illegally placed news racks, but has not yet issued citations. He said the city procedure is to notify rack owners and offer hearings before ordering the racks removed.

The mayor noted that she is not the first Pomona official to seize sex publications. She said Councilman Boyd Bredenkamp, who owns a doughnut shop, “just about had a heart attack” when he arrived at his store several months ago and found a news rack in front of it full of sexually explicit newspapers. She said Bredenkamp confiscated the vending machine.

Her goal Wednesday, the mayor said, was to get the city staff working on the problem.

“I got everyone’s attention,” she added.