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Board approves digital-billboard RFP; supervisors press for free PSA slots and content limits
Summary
The board authorized an RFP to develop digital billboards on county property, with supervisors pressing staff to require public-service announcement slots, restrict certain advertising, ensure emergency-alert capability and clarify revenue sharing; staff agreed to revise RFP language.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 28 authorized a request for proposals (RFP) for digital billboard development on county-controlled property and directed staff to return with option and master-ground-lease agreements for successful proposers.
Resident Chris Norby urged the board to proceed, noting that digital signs can raise revenue and provide emergency messaging. "These signs are primarily a way of raising revenue for the county, which can be used either in ongoing operations or you can bond against future revenue for capital projects," Norby said.
Supervisors asked staff to tighten the RFP language to ensure the county can display public-service announcements (PSAs) free of charge and to reserve at least one slot for county messages so the county is not blocked out by private sales. "I just want to make sure that phrase there isn't saying that if there's any availability, we can have a slot. It should be the other way around: we should have a slot no matter what," Supervisor Nguyen said.
Vice Chair Katrina Foley and other supervisors asked whether the RFP and eventual lease agreements can prohibit certain content (for example, advertising for controlled substances or foreign-government messaging that could incite in particular communities). County real-estate staff and the county's counsel explained that because the county would control the property, the county could include content restrictions in the RFP and lease terms and would work with Caltrans requirements where signs sit adjacent to freeways.
Staff said emergency services and the county's emergency operations center would be built into lease/license agreements so urgent messages (AMBER alerts, wildfire or tsunami warnings) can be displayed with minimal delay. The board approved the RFP after staff agreed to sharpen language about public-service slots and prohibited content; the motion carried with no recorded roll-call tally in the public record at the meeting.
