LOS ANGELES, Calif.–The Los Angeles City Council today approved a 10-year contract with a Florida-based company to manage the city’s thousands of bus benches.
The Board of Public Works selected Martin Outdoor Media among three applicants to replace and manage the city’s benches. The City Council debated the contract on Wednesday, with it generally receiving support, but a vote was put off amid concerns raised by Councilman Mitchell Englander.
After about 90 minutes of debate today, the council approved the pact on a 11-1 vote, with Englander dissenting.
Under the terms of the contract, Martin will replace the benches at the city’s 4,000 bus stops with new benches and install 3,000 new trash cans. The city will retain ownership of the benches once they are installed.
The agreement requires Martin to pay the city at least $2.76 million in revenue from advertising on the benches over the life of the contract. Martin would be prohibited from placing alcohol, tobacco, firearms or sexually explicit ads on the benches.
An amendment to the contract added by the contract requires the company to adhere to all city zoning codes regarding the placement of advertisements. A handful of residents told the council they were concerned that advertising would begin to mar scenic corridors.
The contract also requires Martin executives to move the company’s headquarters from Florida to Los Angeles. Martin has also agreed to hire locally 30 administrative staff to manage the bench program.
Englander expressed concern that Martin Outdoor Media has not been thoroughly vetted and that the contract lacks detail about how much revenue the benches will generate.
Englander was also concerned that the final contract is with Martin Outdoor Media, LLC, rather than its parent company, Martin Outdoor Media, Inc., which originally applied for the contract.
Additionally, he worried about a provision in the agreement to pay Martin $465,000 to expedite the replacement of existing benches.
He introduced an amendment today calling for Martin Outdoor Media to work with Norman Bench Advertising–the Canoga Park-based company that maintained the benches for more than a decade in exchange for advertising revenue–to ensure that there is no overlap between benches being removed and new ones being installed.
After much debate, that motion was referred to a council committee.
Norman Bench Advertising began removing some benches after it was not selected for the new contract. The company drew criticism from city officials for failing to disclose how many benches it has and how much money it receives from displaying ads on them.
