By DAVID A. MANN
An ordinance adopted by the Jeffersonville City Council on Monday night mandates that advertising benches be the same size, shape and color as those placed across the city by its administration.
They can only be placed next to city benches — and only one can be placed beside each. They have to be the same green metal lattice construction. And the advertisement contained on them has to be no bigger than the area where the words “city of Jeffersonville” appear on the city’s benches.
The final reading of the ordinance passed with a 5-1 vote. Councilman Ron Grooms dissented, saying he couldn’t agree with the legislation because it was “too fast, too forward, too soon” in the way it regulated commercial speech.
Councilman Keith Fetz was not present for the vote, but issued a written statement of support.
Those on both sides of the issue spoke during the meeting.
Jeffersonville resident Mike Cozzin, owner of several advertising benches in Jeffersonville, told the council the ordinance would be “devastating to my family” and a number of businesses that advertise on the benches. He’d spoke about the issue at a council meeting last week, asking to be grandfathered in.
On the other side of the issue, Peggy Duffy, who heads the beautification committee City Pride said she supported the ordinance because “clutter is not aesthetically pleasing.”
And, she said, uncontrolled signage is not conducive to economic development.
Dominic Mongarella, the city’s safety director, said that 80 percent of vehicle crashes are the result of distractions, and the benches — routinely placed at busy intersections — are just that. Additionally, he said, the city is required under the Americans With Disabilities Act to keep sidewalks unobstructed.
Attorney Larry Wilder, who authored the ordinance, said that a number of issues had to be considered because commercial speech is protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The ordinance cannot regulate the message of the advertisement, but only the time, place and manner of it.
“The government is not in any way infringing on an individual’s commercial free speech,” he said; it’s providing parameters for doing so.
Councilman Mike Smith asked why Cozzin’s business couldn’t be given an exemption.
Wilder responded that the council couldn’t regulate one business’ free speech and not another.
“If you make those distinctions, then lawyers make lots of money — ’cause you’re going to be wrong,” he said.
Lawsuits relating to such issues have been filed and won in other cities because selective distinctions were made, Wilder said.
Advertising benches were regulated and bus stop advertisement — sold by Transit Authority of River City — were not, in a case against Louisville Metro government. He said TARC, which provides bus service to Indiana, would not be allowed to have advertisements at its Jeffersonville bus stops under the ordinance.
He said Jeffersonville’s ordinance is unique because the outcomes of those recent lawsuits were considered in its drafting.
The bench ordinance is one of nine adopted Monday which regulate the posting of signs on utility poles, alleys and other public places. They also regulate retail signs and merchandise sales on sidewalks.
Free-standing sandwich boards, used by many downtown businesses, are permitted, as are newsstands and mailboxes.
