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A Times Editorial
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 8, 2001
Pasco County commissioners need to decide if they are more interested in visual blight or the bottom line.
Tuesday, commissioners talked at length about the need to better regulate the pedestrian benches that plaster the county's roadside rights of way with commercial advertising. It's about time. Stricter regulation or outright prohibition is a prerequisite for a county that routinely talks about better aesthetics, beautification and, as Commissioner Pat Mulieri likes to say, the "face of Pasco County."
It's one reason why Mulieri's stand is contradictory. In the past, she has pushed for an overhaul of the county's sign ordinance and championed tighter controls on billboards. Tuesday, she said commercial advertising should remain on the benches because it benefits small businesses. Then why end at benches? Her logic conceivably could mean a return to foot-level snipe signs, utility pole placards and other advertising now deemed illegal.
The bench problem has festered for a decade. Two competing companies have littered the county with an estimated 700 to 800 benches, even though a review of county records shows 310 permitted sites.
The benches, little more than miniature billboards, frequently sit alongside busy roads that have no sidewalks. They are a popular advertising technique among real estate agents, lawyers and nearby businesses requiring a directional sign for customers. They also sit rent-free on public land, becoming effective revenue generators for their owners.
As part of the stepped up controls, the county needs to exercise its ability to regulate the rights of way along the state highways. A reluctance to do this in the past has meant the companies could drop the benches along U.S. 19 and State Roads 52 and 54 without penalty.
Next, commissioners must consider the merits of a county takeover. Commissioners Peter Altman and Ted Schrader advocated that idea after learning grant money could cover most of the capital costs. Unknown is the annual maintenance expense, which likely would come from the $745,000 local cash match in the county's $4.5-million mass transit budget. It is an idea that shouldn't be dismissed without further exploration.
If the county decides the private sector should handle the benches, then it needs a rewrite of its one-sided contracts that greatly benefit two companies -- Metropolitan Systems and Siegler Signs of New Port Richey -- with minimal return to the public.
One contract requires a $5 monthly donation to a United Way charity for each commercial advertisement. (Metropolitan said benches rent from $40 to $60 per month.) Mulieri and Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, both directors of the United Way of Pasco, should ensure the financial obligation is being met.
A new contract should establish an exclusive provider, better oversight of a more generous donation schedule and require public service information on the bench backs. It also needs to limit the number of available sites.
County Administrator John Gallagher mentioned the Parks and Recreation Department as a possible beneficiary, but it would be inappropriate for a county windfall to result from the roadside jumble.
Over the past three years, the County Commission has adopted a billboard ban, a new tree ordinance,and beefed up its code enforcement in an attempt to boost county aesthetics. Commissioners are correct not to sit for bench clutter either.