Digital billboard plan makes a big mark in Councilmember Kevin de León’s district

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s David Zahniser, with help from my colleagues Dorany Pineda and Caroline Petrow-Cohen, catching you up (more or less) on the events of the past week.

Backers of digital billboards had a triumphant week at City Hall, their best in more than a decade.

On Wednesday, members of the Los Angeles City Council set the stage for new electronic signs to go up on the city’s Convention Center. Two days later, they cast an even more significant vote, giving final approval to a plan to install 71 digital billboards on properties owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Metro’s package of new signs will reach into the Westside, the San Fernando Valley and South L.A. But no part of the city will receive as many as Councilmember Kevin De León’s 14th District, which takes in much of downtown and part of the Eastside. Twenty-two digital sign faces, nearly a third of the total planned by Metro, are slated to go up in his district — many along the freeways that ring downtown, according to a list prepared by the Department of City Planning.

De León, now running for reelection, has emerged as an enthusiastic supporter of the plan, saying it will allow him to remove non-electronic billboards from residential parts of his district.

A total of 200 static billboards will be taken down citywide in exchange for the installation of freeway-facing digital billboards across L.A., according to the planning department. Additional existing signs will come down in exchange for the placement of new digital billboards in non-freeway facing locations.

“Council District 14 has endured historically billboard blight without reaping any of the tangible community benefits,” De León said before casting his vote. “This proposal has my support because it finally empowers us to negotiate terms that work to our advantage.”

Backers of the Metro plan, including De León, have argued that digital billboard revenue will also generate the funds to pay for such services as sidewalk and streetlight repairs.

Nevertheless, Friday’s vote was a bit touch-and-go.

Council members initially struggled to secure the votes to pass Metro’s plan, with Traci Park, Katy Yaroslavsky, Nithya Raman and Eunisses Hernandez voting no and two absent. The plan passed on the second try after Marqueece Harris-Dawson returned to the chamber and voted yes.

Despite those divisions, the sign proposal has caused few ripples within the 14th District race.

Assemblymember Miguel Santiago, running to unseat De León, said he hasn’t gone over the list of locations planned by Metro and the city. But he welcomed the idea of ad revenue paying for city programs.

“If those dollars are meant for transportation funding ... then generally I’m supportive,” he said.

Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, another candidate in the race, had no comment on the issue, according to her spokesperson.

Tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado, yet another contender, said she is comfortable with digital billboards going up in heavily trafficked areas like downtown and Hollywood, as long as there is a community input process. However, she opposes the idea of new digital signs in Boyle Heights, a working-class, heavily Latino neighborhood on the other side of the L.A. River.

Boyle Heights is on track to receive eight digital billboards — four poles, each with two opposite-facing signs — all next to freeways, according to De León’s office.

The strongest criticism has come from candidate Eduardo “Lalo” Vargas, who warned that drivers will be distracted by signs with images that change every eight seconds. The city should find more money by cutting the police budget, not relying on new advertising revenue, said Vargas, who works as a schoolteacher.

“These digital billboards are nothing more than a handout to the predatory advertising industry at the expense of safe driving conditions and clear scenery for the residents of CD14,” he said in an email.

About two-thirds of digital billboards planned in De Leon’s district would face freeways — the 10, the 5 and the 101. Seven would face major boulevards, including two near Metro’s headquarters at Cesar Chavez Avenue and Vignes Street, according to the city’s list. One is slated to go up at 4th and Hill streets, outside a Metro subway station, about a block from Pershing Square.

With the Metro billboard plan formally approved, another policy debate looms: how to divvy up the money. Some council members — Heather Hutt, Tim McOsker, Bob Blumenfield and Raman — don’t have any digital billboards planned in their districts.

Next year, the council will have to decide how much each district will receive, and whether those who have more billboards should receive a greater amount of the revenue.

State of play

— DEMOCRATIC PARTY WHIPLASH: The L.A. County Dems started the week with a recommendation from the group’s interview committee to endorse deputy city attorney Ethan Weaver in his race to unseat Councilmember Nithya Raman. Days later, they sharply changed course, with the full body voting overwhelmingly to endorse Raman, seeking a second four-year term in her Hollywood Hills district.

Raman got a big 11th-hour push from Mayor Karen Bass, who wrote a letter urging the party to drop Weaver and support Raman. She received testimonials from state Sen. Caroline Menjivar, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson and former Councilmember Paul Koretz, who lost his race for city controller last year.

“I was and still am so, so full of gratitude,” Raman said after the vote.

That wasn’t the only U-turn. The Dems also started the week with a recommendation to stay out of the San Fernando Valley’s 12th District. Instead, the party’s delegates gave a full-throated endorsement of nonprofit executive Serena Oberstein, who is running to unseat Councilmember John Lee. Oberstein, the only registered Democrat in the race, received testimonials from Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, State Sen. Henry Stern and educator Loraine Lundquist, who lost to Lee in 2019 and 2020.

Asked to explain what happened with those two races, Mark Gonzalez, the head of the county party, replied: “Democracy prevailed, that’s what happened.”

— FIREFIGHTER FUNDS: Weaver, the deputy city attorney, is seeing a sudden surge of support from United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, the union that represents L.A. firefighters. This week, UFLAC reported that it has spent more than $180,000 on campaign mailers and other materials supporting his candidacy.

— MAKING THE BALLOT: Two challengers have made the ballot in the South L.A. district currently represented by Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who is running for a third and final term. Running against Harris-Dawson are real estate broker Jahan Epps and union leader Cliff Smith. In the San Fernando Valley, Councilmember Imelda Padilla also will face two opponents: real estate broker Ely De La Cruz Ayao and Carmenlina Minasova, a respiratory care practitioner.

— INSIDE INSIDE SAFE: Mayor Karen Bass’ strategy for moving homeless people indoors is entering its second year and facing plenty of challenges. Bass is still struggling with the crucial step of moving homeless residents out of hotels and motels and into permanent housing. Some Inside Safe locations have begun repopulating, forcing outreach teams to return to areas that had previously been cleared.

— SAFEGUARDS SOUGHT: The mayor is looking to convert Executive Directive 1, the emergency order that is fast-tracking approval of affordable housing, into a permanent ordinance. But some tenant rights’ advocates say more safeguards are needed to ensure that low-income families are not pushed out of low-cost housing, particularly in South L.A.

— VICTORY LAP: Bass continued to celebrate her first year in office, holding a telephone town hall and delivering a speech in Venice, at the site of one of her largest and most ambitious Inside Safe operations. “We’ve worked with unprecedented urgency to make real change,” she told the audience.

— WESTSIDE DRILLING: The council called on the city’s petroleum administrator to terminate an expired pipeline franchise agreement at the West Pico drilling site. That means that once it ends, the company won’t be able to transport oil from the facility, located on L.A.’s Westside. The motion also directs the petroleum administrator to investigate violations at the drill site and impose appropriate fines.

— SLINGERLAND SENTENCED: Former nonprofit leader Dixon Slingerland, a onetime political ally to former Mayor Eric Garcetti, was sentenced Tuesday to six months in federal prison and six months’ home detention. Slingerland embezzled money from the nonprofit Youth Policy Institute, prosecutors said, using the funds to pay for his personal expenses.

— EMPOWERING ETHICS: After three years marked by scandal in City Hall, an independent government reform group is recommending a larger and more powerful Los Angeles Ethics Commission, one that can enact laws and send reform proposals directly to voters. Still, not everyone thinks it’s a good idea.

Former Councilmember Ruth Galanter, who served on the council from 1987 to 2003, said in an interview that she views the commission as a waste of money. The state also has a Fair Political Practices Commission, which monitors compliance with campaign finance laws at state and local levels of government, she said. “These things cost a lot of money, and the taxpayers wind up paying twice,” she said.

Galanter also questioned whether a larger Ethics Commission will reduce corruption. “You cannot legislate ethics,” she said.

(Not so) quick hits

• Where Is Inside Safe? The mayor’s program to move homeless people out of street encampments and under a roof didn’t have to travel far this week. The operation went to the corner of 1st and Spring Streets, across from City Hall, moving more than 25 people indoors, some of them to the L.A. Grand Hotel, according to a Bass aide. Readers may recall that outreach workers cleared much of that area a year ago in preparation for Bass’ inauguration. (The area had since repopulated .)
  
• ON THE DOCKET FOR NEXT WEEK: Hooray for recess! The City Council, after an exhausting week of meetings with packed agendas, has started its winter break. The next council meeting is set for Jan. 9.