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Council seeks A City Council committee wants to make it easier to enforce an ordinance against the posting of concert fliers, for-sale signs and other materials on utility poles, lamp posts and other public areas.
tighter rules
for fliers
Supporters say the bill will
target the posting of temporary
ads in many public areasBy Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.comThe Public Works and Economic Development Committee yesterday moved a bill that would toughen the Litter Control Ordinance.
Council members Duke Bainum and Steve Holmes, who introduced the measure, say the materials are unsightly and create a traffic hazard for passing motorists.
The ordinance bars people from posting signs.
The bill would make the ordinance more stringent by barring the actual display of fliers and signs on public structures. That would allow authorities to go after violators even when there are no witnesses to the actual posting.
It also would make it unlawful to instruct someone to post such a display for someone else's benefit.
The bill also allows the Planning and Permitting Department, and not just police, to enforce the ordinance.
Bainum said the bill is not designed to go after those who put up directional signs for graduation parties or the occasional garage sale, provided they are taken down within a reasonable period.
The focus, he said, "should be on the chronic commercial abusers who use this as cheap advertising and disregard community values."
Outdoor Circle representatives testified in favor of the bill.
"You see these signs affixed to every light pole on public property throughout Honolulu, it's epidemic," said Mary Steiner, chief executive officer for Outdoor Circle.
"They don't just post one, but they post literally hundreds of them," Steiner said.
Two Oahu concert promoters contacted by the Star-Bulletin say they know the law and don't have posters or fliers put up.
But they do have concerns about the bill.
Jason Miller of Hawaiian Express wonders if he will get stuck with a $500 fine if a band he is promoting chooses to stick a sign up on its own.
"Just because I know it's illegal doesn't mean a band I work with does," he said. He acknowledged that when he first started out seven years ago, he also posted signs on poles until he was told it is illegal.
Today, Miller said, he asks businesses if he can put fliers up on store windows and relies on other legal means of publicizing events.
The signs are not as rampant as on the mainland, he said.
In his hometown of San Francisco, Miller said, "it's on every inch of every pole on every block in every city."
Greg Dehnert, who promotes club events, said he sticks to posters on business windows, fliers left at music stores, a Web site and an extensive e-mail list.
But young, struggling musicians without resources often resort to utility poles to gain some publicity.
"The economy is pretty dismal here in Hawaii right now," Dehnert said. "It's a way to help promote one's events, a cheap form of getting information out there."
Dehnert said the poles also provide forums for free speech and he wondered if constitutional issues could be raised.
But Bainum said the existing ordinance has not been challenged. "This is not creating a new law per se; this is tweaking an old one," he said.
City & County of Honolulu