O.C. Firm Charged With Sign Violation

LOS ANGELES — The owners of a southern Orange County production company were charged Monday with illegally posting advertising materials in the San Fernando Valley.

Kay D. Slack, 57, and her son, Darin Lloyd Slack, 28, of Tustin, who operate Super Show Productions Inc. in Rancho Santa Margarita, were charged Monday with three misdemeanor counts of illegally posting signs on public property.

If convicted, the Slacks face maximum sentences of six months in jail and $1,000 fines on each count. A typical sentence usually includes fines and community service, officials said.

Monday’s charges grew out of an investigation by the city Department of Building and Safety that began when an inspector for the agency spotted a man allegedly hired by the defendants posting a 2-foot-by-4-foot neon pink sign advertising a “Computer Super Show” at Sherman Way and Haskell Avenue in Van Nuys, the city attorney said.

Other signs were subsequently discovered on Van Nuys Boulevard in Pacoima and Lankershim Boulevard in Sun Valley.

“We want to send a message out that people don’t want these signs up and we are going to aggressively prosecute them when we have the evidence to do so,” Deputy City Attorney Don Cocek said.

“Citizens have a right to have this enforced. They don’t want their neighborhoods junked up,” he said.

Cocek said the number of prosecutions remains small because it is often difficult to trace the signs to an individual or business.

“It’s not too often that we catch them putting the signs up. They usually do it at night when nobody is watching,” Cocek said.

And, while signs advertising garage sales and missing pets are also illegal if posted on public property, officials said their priority is pursuing those who put up large numbers of commercial advertisements.

Reached at his office, Darin Slack said: “We had less signs up than people at garage sales.”