Mistake Enables ABC Banners to Hang From City Light Poles
Some 2,000 banners promoting ABC television were approved in error to hang from city light poles in the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles, officials said Thursday.
The oversight by the Department of Public Works allowed the banners to go up July 15 in violation of rules that allow charitable ads, but not commercial messages, from the poles.
“We simply made an innocent mistake,” public works spokeswoman Cora Fossett said after the department approved the yellow ABC banners.
Fossett said ABC paid a required $46,000 fee for the banners, which hang on such prominent Valley thoroughfares as Ventura and Cahuenga boulevards. “They paid, but we didn’t cash the check,” she said.
As with all banners hanging from city property, the City Council voted to approve the ABC advertisements, doing so June 25. Fossett said the council took action without having been advised of the mistake.
“We apologize to anyone inconvenienced by our mistake, including ABC. Still, we are asking ABC to take them down expediently,” Fossett said, adding that the department does not have the manpower to take down the banners on its own.
ABC officials declined comment.
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