Michael Galasso of Robbins Kelly Patterson and Tucker talked about regulatory and permit issues that the recent IBO show.  Galasso practices out of home law in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.  Here are some excerpts from his talk.

Getting into out of home

I did litigation work.  I was assigned to Norton Outdoor as a new lawyer.  I knew nothing about billboards.  When the partner I worked for left private practice a few years later,Tom Norton said OK you’re my guy.  Tom immediately said you’re going to join OAAA.  As a young lawyer, I did not see the benefit of being an OAAA member back then but it has been invaluable to my practice over the last 20 plus years.

Make sure your lawyers know the out of home business

Make sure that your lawyers are knowledgeable about the industry, that they participate and stay up to date on things.  The first thing I do when I log into my computer every day is read the Billboard Insider e-mail…sometimes there’s something that happens in Nebraska that might have something to do with Ohio Kentucky or Indiana where I am.  It’s a great way for a lawyer to keep up with the industry and not just legal issues.

A worrisome trend towards revoking permits

What I’ve seen probably since about 2015 is a trend towards revoking or canceling or giving violation notices for permits that were already issued…you go in, you submit the application, you get the permit, you build and then someone complains. Sometimes it is a nearby property owner, sometimes its people who aren’t residents of the the village.  What happens is the government wants to be responsive to that complaint and they revoke the permit and they say whoops we shouldn’t have given it to you…In Ohio if you get an ODOT permit…as long as you provide truthful information in your application and you built in reliance on that permit then the state can’t say oh gosh we shouldn’t have approved it.   However, this legal theory doesn’t apply to cities, villages and townships.. I think that’s ripe for a challenge and am waiting for the right case to press it…

Creating the paper trail for a legal challenge

 Submit complete and accurate information with your permit application and then keep a copy of it.  The online portals sometimes keep the information and sometimes they don’t…and then you’re left trying to prove what you said. If it’s paper…keep a copy of what you submitted because…for example, the city of Cincinnati lost all records pertaining the Billboard for permits ten years ago.  They didn’t tell us but when we came time for permits renewals they said they instead of us sending you a bill this year you should send us a spreadsheet and tell us you have…We found out later that they lost all their records…You need that to be able to show what was approved.

Billboards are speech.

Billboards are in the speech industry and it’s really important to to get that out because there’s extra layers of protection that go with that and the one thing that judges all the time is a quote from the Metromedia decision the 80s that billboards are venerable forms of speech that they are ingrained in American culture…When we did the Billboard tax case Ken Klein who’s retired now from OAAA was our expert witness…He did a great report showing how billboards interface with other forms of media. He gave examples of how billboards are used in Los Angeles interface with the news, how they can provide timely information based on sports and weather all forms of noncommercial speech.  It was the incredibly important and the judge really relied on it when he ruled in our favor.

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