City Won’t Waive $461 Fee For Banners Advertising Easter Rites

Those street-light-pole banners are everywhere--advertising church festivals, private school events, chamber of commerce food-tasting fairs and synagogue open houses. And the Los Angeles City Council routinely waives city fees for such community groups.

That is, until a church in Porter Ranch put up 10 banners advertising its Easter service.

Following the recommendation of the city attorney’s office, the City Council voted Wednesday to refuse the church’s request to waive the $461 fee because the banners refer specifically to a religious event.

Assistant City Atty. Gail Weingart said the city cannot support religious events because of court decisions mandating separation of church and state.

“It’s not an Easter parade,” she said. “It’s not an Easter egg hunt. It’s inviting people to a religious service.”

Tim Winters, executive pastor of the merged Shepherd of the Hills/Hillcrest Christian Church, said the congregation is not going to challenge the decision.

The fee “isn’t going to break us, but it’s the principle of the thing that frustrates us,” said Winters, arguing that religious purposes are behind banner advertising used by other religious groups who did not have to pay the fee.

Pole banners are often used by synagogues for open houses, which seek to attract new members, and by churches advertising their fund-raising festivals.

At the request of community groups, the council routinely approves up to a dozen such waivers each week for carnivals and other events. Winters’ contention is that the money such events raise is used to further the religious activities of the church or synagogue.

The city’s decision was applauded by Harry Schwartzbart, president of the San Fernando Valley chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “In principle, I believe that public property should not be made available for any religious display that stays up overnight because it implies approval by a government body of a particular religion,” Schwartzbart said.

Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the Porter Ranch area and proposed the fee waiver for the church, said he understood the assistant city attorney’s position, but supports a waiver nonetheless. Bernson and Councilman Rudy Svorinich Jr. were the only two council members who ignored Weingart’s advice and voted for the fee waiver.

The purple banners had already gone up on March 8 when the church learned of the city attorney’s stand.

Winters conceded that there is no getting around the fact that the church wanted to call attention to its 10:30 a.m. Easter service on April 7.

The church, which is averaging 2,100 worshipers at its Saturday evening service and two Sunday morning services led by Senior Pastor Dudley Rutherford, has rented a tent that could hold 4,000 people for the single Easter-morning service. The church’s sanctuary will be used for a puppet show for children while the adults are under the tent.

Another way to catch the eyes of motorists is billboard advertising.

St. James Presbyterian Church on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana has had a billboard up since mid-October that pictures a variety of church members--”Real People, Real Faith.”

“Dozens of people have come to the church after seeing the billboard, and it would be fair to say that eight to 12 of them are regular visitors,” said Jeffrey Johnson, a church elder who is in charge of the congregation’s growth.

St. James Presbyterian is selling part of its property and is about to tear down its earthquake-damaged sanctuary to rebuild, but Johnson said that church members are still willing to pay “hundreds of dollars per month” for the billboard in order to attract prospective members.

“We looked into pole banners, but we thought that a billboard with a photograph of some members would have a more personal appeal,” Johnson said.

But that wouldn’t work for Shepherd/Hillcrest Church, Winters said. With the church located at the west end of Rinaldi Street near new Porter Ranch housing developments, the nearest billboards are quite far away and light-pole banners are more appropriate along residential thoroughfares, he said.

Times staff writer Hugo Martin contributed to this story.