Removal of Adult Magazine Racks Sought : Thousand Oaks: Council will consider a proposal to ask postal officials to remove sidewalk boxes near post office parking lot.

At the end of a row of neat coin-operated newspaper and magazine racks in front of the Thousand Oaks post office, things get a little seamy.

Just to the left of the Wall Street Journal box are four battered, besmirched racks offering adult entertainment magazines bearing suggestive titles. And Thousand Oaks City Councilwoman Elois Zeanah would like to change that.

Tuesday, the council will consider a proposal by Zeanah to ask the U. S. Postal Service to remove the boxes, which line the sidewalk on Duesenberg Drive next to the post office parking lot.

Reaction from customers at the post office Friday was mixed; some applauded Zeanah’s idea, others questioned the constitutionality of banning pornography from the sidewalk of a public street.

“Blow ‘em up,” proposed Debra Boynton, a mother of two who cast a dark look at the boxes. “No wonder our kids grow up all screwed up.” One man said he didn’t see any reason to ban the boxes. “It’s a free country,” he said.

After researching the city’s options at Zeanah’s request, City Atty. Mark Sellers said the believes previous federal court rulings may set a legal precedent for Thousand Oaks to ask the post office to move the newspaper racks.

He said the post office is not deemed a public forum, unlike city parks and government buildings.

“The post office is not for legislation,” Sellers said. “It’s for mail.”

Sellers, however, added that the city could not ask for just the pornographic racks to be removed. The Wall Street Journal and others would have to go as well.

“It’s either all or nothing,” Sellers said. “We can’t discriminate.”

Allan Parachini, a spokesman for ACLU of Southern California, said he was unaware of any such court ruling that would allow the city to remove the racks.

“We’d have to have our attorneys look at that,” Parachini said of the city’s proposal.

Councilman Andy Fox said he would want to proceed very carefully before demanding that the post office remove the boxes.

“I’m not interested in blazing trails with new constitutional laws,” Fox said. “We’ve got enough lawsuits going on with the city now.”

Officials at the post office said their understanding is that the sidewalk is public property and they have no jurisdiction over it.

“I know that is not ours,” Tom Casebeer, customer service manager, said. “We’re not letting them put anything there. There is just nothing we can do about it.”

Casebeer said he has never heard any complaints from customers about the racks.

Indeed, most customers running in and out of the busy post office Friday had not even noticed the racks.

“I had no idea,” Boynton said when the racks were pointed out to her. “I didn’t even know that was even legal.”

Customer Steve Houser said he objects to pornography in general.

“I don’t like adult bookstores either,” Houser said. “But it’s a First Amendment right.”

Zeanah said she has received several calls on the racks from residents, prompting her to ask Sellers what can be done about them.

The issue has surfaced in other Ventura County cities as well. Last year the Camarillo City Council passed an ordinance to require shopkeepers to put covers over racks containing pornographic material.

In 1992 there was an uproar in Simi Valley over pornographic material in newspaper racks in front of a shopping center on Los Angeles Avenue. Political consultant Steve Frank, at that time a candidate for Simi Valley mayor, accused the city of allowing the magazines to be sold to minors.

The city posted a warning on the box, notifying the vendor it owed a $15 business tax. The vendor later agreed to stop selling the magazine in Simi Valley, saying it had put the publication in the rack by accident.