Sixty years ago, the Jacksonville Jaycees entered into an agreement with the city of Jacksonville that allows the club to install donated benches with affixed advertising signs at bus stops.
The Jaycees are going to court over the city’s charge that some of the benches violate Section 741 of the Ordinance Code.
That code prohibits signs that are attached by private parties to objects located in the right-of-way.
On Jan. 15, the Jaycees and Metropolitan Systems Inc. filed a complaint in the 4th Judicial Circuit seeking to prevent the city from requiring removal of signs attached to the benches that are located outside Urban Services District 1, the city limits of Jacksonville before the 1968 consolidation of the city and Duval County governments.
The Jaycees and Metropolitan are represented by attorney Charles McBurney.
The city does not comment on pending litigation, said Deputy General Counsel Jason Teal, who represented the city at meetings with the plaintiffs.
Those meetings came after the Municipal Code Compliance Division notified Metropolitan in September that the advertising signs on the benches located outside the old city limits are in violation of the ordinance that prohibits “snipe signs” in the public right-of-way.
The 1958 agreement
The plaintiffs contend that the original 1958 agreement, which has been renewed every five to 10 years, applies to the boundary of the city of Jacksonville created by consolidation — the boundary of Duval County.
The complaint states that on Feb. 27, 1958, the Jaycees and Atlas Advertisers Inc. and the city entered into an agreement that “contemplated a civic project” of placing bus benches at transit stops for the benefit and accommodation of the public.
On March 20, 1958, the Jaycees, Bus Bench Co. of Jacksonville and the city entered into an agreement similar to the February agreement.
Atlas Advertisers and Bus Bench Co. later merged and now are named Metropolitan Systems Inc. It is based in Tampa.
Metropolitan has agreements dating back to 1951 with more than 40 Florida cities and counties to provide bus stop benches on behalf of local Jaycees organizations and to lease advertising attached to the benches, said Andrew Moos, Metropolitan vice president of government and community affairs.
According to the plaintiffs, the parties entered into an agreement March 7, 1974, to provide the civic project in the formerly unincorporated areas of the city outside the old city limits for a period of five years.
The plaintiffs state the agreement was renewed in 1979 and again in 1984 and that since 1958, they have performed pursuant to the agreement within the old city limits and in the rest of the county that was unincorporated before consolidation.
City stands by analysis
In a Nov. 28, 2018, letter to Metropolitan, the city reiterated its claim that advertising on benches outside the former city limits violates the sign ordinance.
“The City presently stands by the analysis contained in the 1970 Legal Opinion issued by General Counsel James C. Rinaman Jr., regarding the effect of the City’s consolidation on the 1958 contract,” it states.
In the advisory opinion prepared at the request of then-Mayor Hans Tanzler, dated May 11, 1970, Rinaman confirms that in 1958, an agreement was made by the Jaycees, the advertising company and the City Commission authorizing the Jaycees to place benches at bus stops and for the advertising company to lease signage space on the benches.
There is no record of a similar agreement with the County Commission, according to Rinaman, but “the records reveal that for a period of time this matter created considerable controversy in the community,” he wrote.
On Aug. 11, 1966, the City Commission nullified the agreement and directed the benches to be removed within 10 days.
Six days later the commission approved a request to allow the companies at least 90 days to “satisfy the interests of all parties concerned.”
Rinaman stated that “nothing further appears in the minutes of the former City Commission” and “the benches have been allowed to remain on public space.”
In 1967, the Legislature enacted two special acts authorizing the city and county to enter into contracts for the placement of benches for the convenience of the public, with advertising displayed on the benches, on public rights-of-way.
The act also provided that all existing agreements made by the City Commission for the placement of benches were validated.
But Rinaman found no written agreement made by the County Commission, so he concluded that benches with advertising were allowed within the old city limits, but not in the formerly unincorporated areas of the county.
During the most recent dispute, the Jaycees and Metropolitan presented a letter and a brief submitted in June 1973 by the late Tyrie A. Boyer, the attorney who at the time represented Metropolitan Systems Inc.
Boyer wrote to then-general counsel of the consolidated City of Jacksonville Ed Austin that while a written agreement authorizing the benches and advertising was established in 1958 with the city, there was no record of a written agreement with county officials.
“But benches were placed in the unincorporated areas of the county with the knowledge, acquiescence and consent of the County Commissioners and per informal agreements with the individual County Commissioners with respect to each of their districts,” wrote Boyer.
He also offered in the brief that when the city and county governments were consolidated, the new charter provides that: “The consolidated government shall be subject to all of the liabilities, obligations and duties of the former governments from and after the effective date of this charter.”
Boyer also cited several judicial authorities in the brief that address the effects of a government entity expanding or merging into another governmental body.
He concluded “the contracts of the former city become the contracts of the latter and are applicable to the new geographical limits of the new governing body.”
Most benches donated
Benches or shelters with benches are provided by Jacksonville Transportation Authority at only 400 of its 2,600 bus stops in Duval County.
Of the 1,200 benches donated by the Jaycees and managed by Metropolitan, about 75 percent are outside the former city limits and under dispute, said Moos.
He said in addition to a sales representative, Metropolitan employs two people who make sure the benches are clean and maintain the landscape around the benches. Their salaries are paid with a portion of the revenue from the advertising leases.
Jacksonville is the third-largest market for his company in the state and “losing Jacksonville would be devastating,” said Moos.
The case will be heard by Circuit Judge Gary Wilkinson.
