Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Question: An international company is putting signs and cards all over utility poles and bus stop poles in Pearl City, saying it needs part-time and full-time workers. Is that legal? It's adding a lot of rubbish to the neighborhood. Posters make a mess
that needs cleaning upQ: People are making little holders out of masking tape, inserting about 15 or so business cards, and placing it all over the lightpoles in our Kailua neighborhood. The tape lasts a couple of days and then the business cards are strewn all over the street. I called the number listed to complain and got a recording and of course no one ever called me back. This is littering. Whom do we call to complain?
Answer: The posting of fliers, whether for a business, garage sale, missing pet, birthday party or concert, is an eyesore in many neighborhoods, compounded by the litter issue. Whether it is a problem and how it is handled often depends on the community, noted Detective Letha DeCaires of the Honolulu Police Department's CrimeStoppers program.
City and state laws prohibit unlawful posting in public places, including public utility poles and lamp posts. But the problem is one of enforcement, since violators have to be caught in the act of posting before they can be cited. So while you can call police to report the violation, they won't cite anyone unless they actually witness the posting, even though the fliers have names and phone numbers.
If you actually see someone posting a sign, you can call 911 and perhaps a beat officer nearby can respond quick enough, said police Sgt. Barry Chang of the Kaneohe District. In the past, officers have followed up by calling the companies involved and advising them of the law or have just taken down the fliers themselves, he said.
An alternative is to call the city's graffiti hotline, 296-9473 or, if you know for a fact that an electric or telephone pole is involved, call Hawaiian Electric or Verizon.
Or be proactive, community officials say, and just take the postings down yourself.
In Pearl City, the problem of illegal posters and signs is "becoming rampant" and "it looks real bad in the community to have pieces of paper stuck on telephone poles or street lights," said Albert Fukushima, president of both the Pearl City Neighborhood Board and the Manana Community Association.
He said Manana association board members just tear down the fliers whenever they see them and advise others to do the same. There's also a problem of big signs being fastened to fences and other areas, Fukushima noted. In those cases, either the sponsors are advised "this is not a bulletin board" or the city is contacted.
Kailua Neighborhood Board Chairwoman Faith Evans says she doesn't recall a complaint about the problem in the four years she's been chair, "but that does not mean people are not upset with them, because they're all over Kailua."
The basic problem is that it's "one of those unenforceable things. Police would need to have enforcement officers just for that because there are so many of them. And, that's just not realistic."
Like Fukushima, she advised residents upset with the postings "to pull them down if they (safely) can."
Got a question or complaint?
Call 529-4773, fax 529-4750, or write to Kokua Line,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. As many as possible will be answered.
Email to kokualine@starbulletin.com