2 Charged With Illegally Posting Ad Materials

In another indication of the city’s eagerness to crack down on so-called “quality-of-life” crimes, the owners of an 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 Rancho Santa Margarita-based Super Show Productions Inc., 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.

While charges for illegally posting signs in Los Angeles are rare, they are not unheard of.

In May, a Mission Hills man pleaded no contest to posting advertisements for a diet plan on Valley freeway ramps. David Paul Desaegher was sentenced to 30 days on a Caltrans work crew and ordered to pay more than $2,000 in restitution for the cost of removing the signs.

The prosecutions are evidence of the city’s renewed commitment to address what Mayor Richard Riordan has described as “quality-of-life” issues.

Last month, the mayor signed into law one of the nation’s strictest panhandling laws. The law bans begging at bus stops, public parking lots, freeway ramps and automated teller machines and prohibits panhandlers from using profane language or coming within 3 feet of those they are asking for money.

Earlier this month, Councilwoman Laura Chick introduced a new city program called Neighborhood Codewatch, which trains volunteers to scour city streets looking for building and safety code violations such as cars parked on lawns, abandoned vehicles and overgrown vegetation.

Monday’s charges grew out of an investigation by the city Department of Building and Safety, which began when an inspector for the agency spotted a man allegedly hired by the defendants posting a 2-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. They were removed to be held as evidence, said Deputy City Atty. Don Cocek, who is handling the case.

The man caught posting the signs said that he had been hired by Super Show Productions, authorities said. He was not named and will not be charged with any crime.

“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,” Cocek said.

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

While advertisements are tacked, stapled, nailed and taped to numerous poles all over the city, 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 that his mother “has nothing to do with the company.”

“It’s silly to issue a press release about something like this. We had less signs up than people at garage sales,” Slack said. “It’s strange that this is news.”