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OAKLAND — Mayor Jerry Brown may view billboards as "a modern piece of commercial art," but a City Council committee doesn't, and it voted Tuesday to explore options available to stop them from sprouting up around the Port of Oakland.
"I just personally don't believe that exchanging billboards for revenue is a good idea," said Councilmember Jane Brunner (North Oakland), chairwoman of the council's Community and Economic Development Committee. "What I do not want to see is what I do when I drive into San Francisco."
The committee's vote, which goes to the full City Council as a recommendation, ensures the growing debate over billboards and city control over the port will continue
next week.
Sparked by the Port of Oakland's plan to consider proposals for erecting billboards on its 4,000 acres, Brunner sought the committee's permission to have city staff investigate what can be done to thwart that.
Her stance was immediately countered by Brown, who said the city instead should look for ways to erect signs on city property to generate badly needed revenue.
Brown originally came up with the idea of having a billboard go up near the Bay Bridge toll plaza. Some of the revenue from that sign could be used to help pay for Brown's Oakland School of the Arts charter school, he suggested.
But on Tuesday, only one committee
member, Councilmember Henry Chang (At-Large), followed Brown's lead. He relented, however, after colleagues said it was a bad idea.
"I like the idea of actually taking a look at the whole city," Chang said. "I think the mayor's idea is OK."
Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and Brunner rejected the idea and said the debate should focus instead on the port and its plan.
"I want to have my options open," De La Fuente said of a staff investigation.
Results of that investigation and Brunner's request for the port to postpone any decision for 45 days could become moot once the Port Commission finally votes on the issue.
Port spokesman Harold Jones,
who addressed the committee Tuesday, said the port is already working on a deal that would allow a company to erect a sign near the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza.
That deal, about which Jones refused to give details, is scheduled to go before the Port Commission next month, he said.
Four companies currently are seeking a chance to build the giant advertising sign, he said.
In addition, Jones said, the port is against any move that would give the city power to control port decisions.
"Any effort to restrict or impede the port's ability to do its business would be contrary to the port's strategy of gaining revenue," he said. "The port is a business."
Jones
also attempted to relieve concerns of some that the organization's decision would result in a proliferation of signs. Instead, he said, the idea was just for a handful of billboards at most, and any billboard would meet stringent design standards.
Regardless, committee members are skeptical.
"This council has taken a very strict stance on billboards," Brunner said. "There is something ironic about the fact that we are telling businesses they cannot have new billboards but then we are allowing the port to have them."
Brown spokesman Gil Duran said the mayor was "not surprised" by the committee's stance and is "upbeat" about its decision to work with the port.
But whether
the future will include cooperation or disagreement remains to be seen.
"It is recognized that the port and the city are one, but from time to time we are not going to agree," Jones said. "The port has concerns about ... additional regulations."
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