Electronic Billboard to Replace Spreckels Sign, Raises Questions About First Amendment

Plans are underway to tear down the current Spreckels sign that stands 38 feet high on Commerce Boulevard, adjacent to Highway 101, and in its place erect a 50-foot-high electronic billboard.

N2 Holdings, a private Petaluma-based media company, is charged with selling the advertising, building and managing the new sign — but the Planning Commission said last week they wanted to control the type of advertising displayed — something not done on the Spreckels sign.

“I’m a big believer of free speech,” said Commissioner John Borba. “But I don’t want to see a sign that says ‘Rohnert Park, the Friendly City’ under an advertisement for a marijuana cooperative, or a massage parlor or a casino — anything like that.”

“It would deflect from what we’re trying to do for our town’s image,” Borba added.

Christopher Miller, the chief legal and marketing officer for N2 Holdings, said even though the company has proprietary rights over the advertisements sold, there are limits to controlling the content of the ads.

“To a certain extent, as a provider of content, a media company, we have limitations on the degree of censorship that we can exercise ourselves,” Miller said. “Clearly if we are in a relationship with a city like Rohnert Park, and the city wants to set certain parameters on what can be put on the sign, that’s really up to the city; we’ll follow the city’s rules.”

Miller said the company screens all content for inappropriate messages prior to display.

Marilyn Ponton, the city’s planning and building manager, said any limitations on sign content will be deferred to the City Council.

“We need to address how that’s going to play out, because we are charged with reviewing signage in this town,” Borba said.

But, whether this is an issue of free speech or not, is unclear.

“This issue will be vetted by the city attorney [Michelle Kenyon] in the future,” said Assistant City Attorney Ben Winig.

“The city has to be very careful here,” said Peter Scheer, the executive director of the San Rafael-based First Amendment Coalition. “Whenever you have governments — whether it’s at the federal, state or local level — deciding on the basis of content, what messages can be shown, and what messages will not be allowed, there is a great risk of censorship.”

“Rohnert Park might argue that it has its own right, based on the First Amendment, to avoid being associated with messages that it finds distasteful,” he added. “The law in this area is unsettled.”

But, Scheer said, “Rohnert Park would be prudent to adopt an advertising policy that is completely neutral as to the content of the billboard advertising. Otherwise it is very likely to find itself responding to a lawsuit, which will be very costly to defend no matter what the outcome.”

Planning commissioners touted the city-owned sign, managed by a private firm, as an example of the direction Rohnert Park should be moving towards — more public-private partnerships. 

Rohnert Park will receive 20 percent of the profits on the ads sold, and 10 percent of the advertising time for city announcements.

Miller said the current sign, erected in 2003 and managed by the city, is losing illumination, it’s not reaching its economic potential and costs to manage it are accelerating.

“The idea was to have a sign that is a little higher so that it’s easier to see, with the brightness equal to the brightness of the Spreckels sign when it was first built,” Miller said. “The sign is very hard to see, and by the time you figure what it is and what you’re trying to see, you’re almost past it.”