LA council vote stops billboards from converting to digital

The City Council voted today to stop processing permits for converting billboards to digital format, and sought legal advice on what to do with the 100 digital billboards that are already up.

"I'd like to see, at the very least, the billboards that shouldn't be in residential areas moved," said City Council President Eric Garcetti, who authored the motion.

"I'd also like to see a reduction of (digital billboards), if we can't do an outright elimination of all of them," he added.

A month ago, a Superior Court judge nullified a settlement negotiated by then-City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo with CBS Outdoor and Clear Channel Outdoor that had given both companies special rights to convert their billboards to digital format.

The judge agreed with a rival company, Summit Media, that the settlement created an uneven playing field. Superior Court Judge Terry Green has yet to decide the fate of billboards that have already been converted to digital format.

"The judge said that the settlement was wrong, but didn't say that the existing billboards should come down," Garcetti said. "We need to assess now what we think the law says and what any process would be for getting some or any portion of them down.''

He directed the City Attorney's Office and the Department of Building and Safety to report back to the council on that matter.

CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves lodged a written protest against Garcetti's motion, calling it "unfairly punitive to CBS' outdoor advertising business."

"While penalizing CBS, the Garcetti motion does nothing to address the underlying need for reasonable, effective regulation of outdoor advertising in the city," Moonves said in a letter to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Garcetti countered by saying only 13 of the 100 converted digital billboards belong to CBS Outdoor Media.