A LOOK AHEAD * As neighborhood groups complain of trees and utility poles cluttered with notices, L.A. turns to a little-known law for a . . . Crackdown on Illegal Posting of Signs, Fliers

City officials, bolstered by support from neighborhood activists, have stepped up enforcement of a little-known but long-standing law that makes it illegal to post signs and handbills on trees, utility poles and government-owned structures.

Some culprits want to advertise a band’s weekend club appearance. Many want to promote the latest hot music CD. And still others are animal lovers looking for lost pets.

But many neighborhood groups, now backed by an increasing willingness by the city attorney’s office to prosecute violators, are pushing hard to stop the practice. They say the signs make neighborhoods look sloppy, they stay up too long and they are just plain annoying.

“These signs have just got to stop,” said Gloria Woods, a homeowner who leads the fight against illegal postings in Studio City. “They look terrible and junky and who wants their community to look like that? Not me.”

Officials with the city attorney’s office agree. They said increased cooperation from neighborhood residents like Woods, who alert authorities and the city Department of Building and Safety, has helped prosecutors begin to ratchet up enforcement of the ordinance that makes unauthorized signs illegal. While a push for more compliance exists citywide, the first prosecutions have come from the city attorney’s office in Van Nuys.

Since late July, the Van Nuys office has filed charges against four businesses accused of illegally posting signs. In three of those instances, charges were also filed for failing to comply with a Department of Building and Safety order to remove the signs.

In one of the cases, a resident in the Sunland-Tujunga area in August pulled down nearly 25 illegally posted signs advertising ways to obtain child support. A few weeks later a Pasadena firm was charged with seven counts of illegal postings and six counts of failing to heed orders to remove the signs. The case is pending.

According to the city attorney’s database, only two other cases have been prosecuted since January 1996. Both were also in the San Fernando Valley area with offenders being sentenced to 30 days on a Caltrans work crew. Usually a multi-count offense, each count can carry a penalty of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The Van Nuys branch of the city attorney’s office is considering charges against at least 10 other companies, ranging from small club owners to big record companies, said Deputy City Atty. Don Cocek, who is prosecuting four of the cases.

The city code makes it illegal to affix a sign of any type to city property--including utility poles, trees, hydrants and light posts--without a permit. Prosecutions have increased in part because of an April 1995 ordinance allowing building and safety inspectors, in addition to public works department officials, to cite anyone violating the sign restrictions, city lawyers said.

“We are being successful on a limited but growing basis because we have received the cooperation of some investigators in building and safety that have been aggressive in going after these guys,” said Rick Schmidt, supervising attorney for the Van Nuys branch of the city attorney’s office.

City lawyers said the process leading to prosecution often starts with residents finding the signs, photographing them and often removing them. Sometimes they will even track the signs to their origins, saving inspectors time, Cocek said.

Building and Safety inspectors then contact those who put up the signs and order the removal of remaining signs, said Thomas Pruett, the Valley’s senior citation inspector for the department. If nothing changes, the city attorney’s office picks up the case and typically holds hearings to see if criminal charges will be filed.

“We’ve been trying to pick on some of the more blatant violators,” Pruett said. “If nobody complains about these things, we wouldn’t notice.”

The posting of illegal signs also is being confronted as part of a program called Pro-Active Code Enforcement, which is included in Mayor Richard Riordan’s targeted neighborhood initiative program, officials said.

“We’re more into getting compliance than into prosecuting,” said Ted Smith, the supervising city attorney for that program. “So far, we’ve just been getting rid of them and trying to catch them while they’re going up.”

For now that approach suits many groups just fine.

“I don’t think we need to start prosecuting just yet,” said Hellen Douglas, chairwoman of the Community Standards Council in South Los Angeles. “Many businesses, around here anyway, often comply when they find out it’s illegal.”

But Jules Feir, chairman of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.’s Illegal Sign Committee, said enough is enough.

“I’m not against people finding lost pets and signs like that, but often even they don’t take the signs down, ever,” Feir said. “You would think by now people would know it’s illegal.”