CITY WINS BENCH BILLBOARD CASE IN APPEALS COURT

by Michael Monks 

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Those benches with the billboards that you see on many of Covington's street corners are not sanctioned by the City. In fact, the City does not even want them there. In 2005, an ordinance was passed that would allow Covington to remove the benches from public right-of-ways but the Bench Billboard Company sued on the grounds of free speech. A lower court dismissed the claim and Tuesday the Court of Appeals also sided with Covington:

The Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Covington’s latest effort to regulate billboard benches is constitutional.
Covington city Solicitor Frank Warnock believes that decision can help his counterparts in other major cities, including Cincinnati and Louisville, because the court’s rulings set precedents for federal cases in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan. 

But:

“As the decision said, TANK has not objected to our benches on their property, basically, and it’s theirs, because they have eminent-domain authority,” Holzapfel said. “So it’s not up to Covington or other authorities – it’s up to TANK (to ban them).” 

Read the entire article by Mike Rutledge at the Cincinnati Enquirer by clicking here. 
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The ruling handed down by the Appeals Court includes:

Bench Billboard Company offers no evidence that Covington acted with invidious intent in distinguishing between privately owned benches and newsracks, sandwich boards, and bus shelters and benches of quasi-governmental organizations. ... Covington is arguably without authority to prohibit bus shelters and benches placed by public utilities such as TANK. Sandwich boards are much smaller than BBC's benches, are temporary as opposed to permanent, and are permissibly located on public rights-of-way only if they abut a licensed business. ... Covington was therefore entitled to conclude that these benches affected the aesthetics and safety of public rights-of-way, interests that are indisputably legitimate... The ordinance does not therefore violate Bench Billboard Company's right to equal protection of the laws. 

The City of Covington wants the benches removed as soon as possible.