When Ed Rendell was mayor of Philadelphia, he liked to kowtow to the billboard
industry.
Early on, Rendell made a clear decision not to enforce the 1991 law that was supposed to place a moratorium on new billboards in the city.
The law was passed because there were citizens who thought that the 4,000-plus billboards in the city were enough.
The industry chiefs didn’t. They wanted more and more and more. And the law stood in their way.
So, with a wink and a nod, Rendell allowed more billboards to be approved by the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment. After all, what’s the law among friends?
That said, I had hopes that Rendell would veto the turkey of the billboard-industry bill that landed on his desk last month.
There were lots of good reasons for him to reject the bill.
The bill changed Philadelphia’s City Charter, without the approval of the people of Philadelphia.
The amendment was slipped into the bill in a midnight meeting of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
It was done without any public hearing. It was done without any comment. It was done without the knowledge of most of the legislators in the Philadelphia delegation.
The author of the amendment was State Sen. Chip Brightbill, the Senate majority leader. But it was written by the outdoor-advertising industry. Brightbill was its shill.
The amendment was aimed squarely at SCRUB, the anti-billboard group that had successfully fought in the courts many local billboard decisions.
But in its zeal to stop SCRUB, the bill does more:
It effectively denies standing in zoning cases to every community and citizens’ group in the city.
If folks object to a ruling by the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment, only those who live within 500 feet of a proposed project are given the right to appeal these cases to the courts.
So, here we have an industry amendment, introduced by a Republican from Lebanon County, that impinges on Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter, and what happens?
The governor signs the bill.
Why am I not surprised?
Rendell was the industry’s boy as mayor. He remains the industry’s boy as governor.
Let me add here that for me, the issue was never about billboards.
I was a fan of the 1991 billboard law signed by Mayor Wilson Goode. It was an attempt to rein in an industry that routinely ignored city code.
But the real issue was the rule of law. This was legislation duly passed by Council and signed by the mayor. To me, it didn’t matter whether it dealt with billboards or pet iguanas. It was an expression of the public will.
It was the law, and city officials are sworn to uphold the law.
Letting Party A evade a law, while making Party B live by it, erodes public confidence in government. Selective enforcement is the root of corruption.
Keep in mind that SCRUB was seen as a minor nuisance by the billboard companies — until it went to the courts to challenge the zoning decisions.
And it consistently won its cases. Why? Because, as the courts pointed out — with increasing exasperation — the zoning decisions were in clear violation of the 1991 law.
If that law had been enforced by the city, there would be no need for court appeals — no need for SCRUB, for that matter.
Obviously, the billboard industry wasn’t happy with those rulings. It couldn’t find redress locally — Mayor Street vetoed an anti-SCRUB bill passed by Council.
So it went to the state legislature.
The industry chiefs wanted the deck stacked, so they couldn’t lose anywhere — not before the Zoning Board, not before the courts. The process would be wired, from bottom to top.
And, at last, they have what they want. Thanks to the legislature and Gov. Rendell.
To quote an old pol: It’s a whore’s game.