Tide may turn for taxi-top ads

Emphasis Marketing Corp. owner Kurt Theobald has lobbied for a revised ordinance since being hit with a cease and desist order in April against his taxi-top advertisements. The city said the ads for Rasta Grill and State Farm Insurance agent Bob Burkey on top of Yellow Cab Co. cars violated city ordinance, which says a vehicle may only carry ads for companies that regularly use that vehicle.

Theobald approached City Council at its July 24 meeting after losing an appeal of the city’s violation order to the Board of Adjustment.

Council sent the issue to the Plans and Policies Committee, which prompted a Sept. 14 public hearing with the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

Theobald said the support is a small victory in the struggle to get his fledgling business up and running again.

“The feedback that I got from City Council led me to believe that it’s a long process,” he said, “but I know that they’re going to go ahead and make it happen.”

He’s also taking a harder line. Theobald filed suit against the city in an attempt to recover the money he lost after the ads were pulled from Yellow Cab Co. vehicles following a city order in April.

The Aug. 9 Greene County Circuit Court filing argues that the city’s prohibition of taxi-top advertising is an unconstitutional restriction of commercial speech.

He claims he spoke several times to the city signage inspector, who told him that the signs he proposed were legal under city statute. After several Yellow Cab Co. vehicles were carrying the ads, however, the city sent a cease-and-desist order to the cab company.

“I‘m not trying to pick a fight with the city,” Theobald said. “I’m just trying to recover the losses that I’ve incurred because of this mistake.”

In the suit, Theobald requests that the city’s sign ordinance, Springfield City Ordinance Article 5-1400, be declared unconstitutional and that the city reimburse him for lost revenue. Theobald owes about $50,000 to Great Southern Bank and several private investors.

The city, however, doesn’t feel that it is liable for his lost revenue.

“He made a business decision without apprising himself of all of his options or what his obligations were in operating that business,” City Attorney Dan Wichmer said. “While I feel bad for him for doing that, that doesn’t place the responsibility on the city.”

The city Plans and Policies Committee on Aug. 23 recommended that the Planning and Zoning Commission get a proposed change of the sign ordinance to public hearing.

If the commission were to make that recommendation, the council could hear first reading on proposed changes at its Sept. 18 meeting.

If that issue passes, Wichmer said, it would make at least part of Theobald’s suit moot.

“Given the direction Plans and Policies is going with the sign ordinance, I don’t know if the lawsuit would go on unless he feels he’s entitled to damages,” Wichmer said.

Theobald said he intends to proceed with the suit to pursue damages even if the code is changed.[[In-content Ad]]