Council Moves to Lift Ban on Alcohol Ads

The Los Angeles City Council moved Tuesday to repeal a ban on alcohol advertising within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds, citing new questions about its constitutionality.

Council members said City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo urged them to scuttle the 3-year-old law because the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar ordinance in Massachusetts.

“The city attorney basically indicated we had no other option” but to repeal it, said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski. “We are looking at other things we might do.”

The move to rescind the law, which requires a final vote next month, disappointed community activists who had fought for the regulations in 1998, including Maria Calleros of the San Fernando Valley group Pueblo y Salud.

“We tried to have them suspend the ordinance instead of repeal it, because we need to do something to keep these alcohol billboards from targeting our youth,” Calleros said.

Officials said the ordinance had to be repealed to avoid potential liability in excess of $1 million in a pending lawsuit by groups including the Korean-American Grocers Assn. and Outdoor Advertising Assn.

Those groups welcomed Tuesday’s action, saying other measures can dissuade minors from drinking.

“Effective measures do not include censorship of speech,” said Steven Brody, an attorney for the nine plaintiff groups.

The council asked the Planning Department for ideas to regulate signs near schools. Councilman Hal Bernson said he will propose requiring all new billboards to obtain a conditional use permit, giving the council a say in their placement.

The Supreme Court’s June decision struck down the Massachusetts ordinance based on its regulation of content, ruling it a violation of advertisers’ free speech rights.

Miscikowski and others said the city may be able to satisfy the court’s concerns if the city were to ban all billboards, or any new ones, near schools and playgrounds.

That idea probably would face strong opposition from the billboard industry, but former City Councilman Mike Feuer is interested in the cause.

Feuer wrote the ordinance banning alcohol advertising on storefronts and billboards within 1,000 feet of playgrounds, churches, youth centers, schools and homes.

“Clearly the Supreme Court made it difficult to retain the ordinance in precisely the same way,” Feuer said. “But, I hope the council will adopt an alternative measure that achieves the same goal of protecting children.”

An attorney now in private practice, Feuer said he would like to see the city try to rewrite the ordinance to meet constitutional tests.

Feuer ran unsuccessfully against Delgadillo this year for city attorney. Billboard companies spent about $429,000 on billboards in support of Delgadillo.

A Delgadillo spokesman, Ben Austin, denied that the campaign backing from the industry played a role in the city attorney’s recommendation to repeal the ordinance.

“Our attorneys are right now exploring whether it makes constitutional sense to rewrite this ordinance or look at other ideas,” Austin said.

The city might be able to address the court’s concerns by conducting a study providing evidence of the need to ban alcohol signs near places where children gather, Austin said.