Deep Pockets: L.A. Billboard Companies On Pace to Spend $1.5 million Lobbying City Officials
Five billboard company lobbyists, clockwise from lower left: Ken Spiker, Jr.; Mark Waronek, Laura Brill, Steve Afriat, Kristen Montet Lonner
For the first three months of 2010, the five major billboard companies in L.A. paid $379,000 to firms lobbying on their behalf, according to reports filed with the City Ethics Commission. At that rate, those companies would exceed the $900,000-plus spent in 2009 by almost 60 per cent by the end of this year.
The big spender was Clear Channel Outdoor, which paid a total of $176,118 to Kendall, Brill and Krieger; and Afriat Consulting Group. Next on the deep-pockets list was CBS Outdoor, which paid $98,458 to Kendall, Brill and Krieger, followed by Van Wagner Communications, with $59,995 paid out to Cerrell & Associates. With relatively modest expenditures were Regency Outdoor, which paid $30,000 to Ek & Ek, and Lamar Advertising, which sent $15,000 in pocket change to Ken Spiker & Associates.
See also: Lobbyists At Work: Billboard Companies Pay Big Bucks to Influence L.A. City Officials
Dennis Hathaway
