LAWRENCEVILLE, Aug. 5, 2002 – An expert hired by Trinity Outdoor to inspect six of seven billboards still standing in Snellville, testified in a sworn affidavit that there is no public safety threat posed by the remaining billboards.
Following the collapse of a massive double-sided billboard in Snellville last week where three workers lost their lives, Mayor Brett Harrell and City Council ordered that all remaining six billboards fabricated by Phoenix Structures & Services be taken down for inspection by 5 p.m. today.
With the deadline looming not a single sign had been taken down. However, based on an agreement reached in court today, the first of six new billboards that have gone up in Snellville this year will begin coming down tonight for a safety check, said a representative of the sign company.
The city’s order targeting billboards deemed to be creating an imminent public danger was an emergency public safety order, Harrell said during an special council meeting held Aug. 2.
In an affidavit filed Monday, Aug. 5, Robert N. Kenney, of the firm Cerny & Ivey said the remaining five Trinity billboards represented no imminent danger of collapse or other structural failure and there is no emergency. He noted that the remaining six billboards the city is targeting for removal are very different in design to the billboard, which fell last week.
City officials are blaming a faulty weld that occurred during the manufacturing process for the failure of the 35,000 lb. billboard. Sign company officials said the signs still standing are secured by welds and large bolts as well.
Attorneys representing the two outdoor advertising companies headed to the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center Monday where they filed a temporary restraining order and two other lawsuits directed at the city.
The sign companies felt they were not being given enough time to comply with the order, said Linda Klein, an attorney representing Trinity Outdoor LLC.
“You don’t take these things down with a cherry picker bucket,” Klein said. “They weigh 35,000 lbs. to 40,000 lbs. It takes a 200-ton crane to move one these signs. What concerned us was that the city wanted these taken down immediately. There needed to be a safety protocol. And that is all we were insisting on. That it be done safely.”
With their concerns addressed, the billboard companies will now take down the signs, Klein said. The first sign to come down will be the ADvantage sign at the Express Oil Change. Removal was expected to begin tonight.
The sign companies’ experts still all believe that it would be better to leave the signs in place, Klein said.
“Do we disagree that they should come down? Yeah, but if that’s going to make [city officials] feel safe and as long as we have experts involved to watch over the safety that is all we want,” Klein explained.
The process of pulling the signs down will continue until all the signs are inspected, repaired if necessary, and re-installed. The process also depends on the weather, Klein said.
“If there is any wind, or rain, or lightening, they will have to stop,” Klein said.
All the welds on these signs were tested over the weekend by sonogram, Klein said.
Under the terms of an agreement hammered out by attorneys representing both the city and the sign companies, Trinity Outdoor LLC and ADvantage Advertising LLC, both dropped their lawsuits and requests for a temporary restraining order against the city.
According to the settlement, the sign companies agreed to take down the six remaining signs for inspection by 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9. Experts hired by the city and the sign companies will combine their efforts during the inspection process.
Once the signs are deemed safe they will be re-installed and the city will continue to abide by a Nov. 29, 2001 federal court order, which wiped out the city’s long-standing sign ordinance and brought the massive billboards to Snellville.
A moratorium the city imposed on the installation of any new billboards at the Aug. 2 meeting will also be dropped in 30 days to allow for the installation of an eighth billboard.
Furthermore, the city will not fine or file any lawsuits against the billboard companies. The sign companies agreed cover the cost of the inspections and to pay the city $50,000 for employee overtime costs and attorney fees associated with the tragic collapse.
City Council will have to hold a meeting no later than Monday, Aug. 12 to approve the agreement hammered out in court this week. Council’s failure to ratify the agreement could put the billboard companies’ lawsuits back on the table, Klein said.
A number of city officials including council member Jerry Oberholtzer and Harrell attended Monday’s court proceedings. Following the hearing, Harrell told reporters he was pleased with the settlement.
Gwinnett Superior Court Judge R. Timothy Hamil presided over Monday’s hearing. Hamil said the cases were originally assigned to Gwinnett Superior Court judges Billy Ray and Deborah Turner, however, their schedules would not permit them to hear the case.
Following the hearing, Klein refused to say whether the billboard company would file a lawsuit against sign fabricator Phoenix Structures. However, she did say Trinity would not be paying the $50,000 agreed to in the settlement.
“The money won’t necessarily be coming from Trinity,” Klein said. “ Trinity is a small company with about five employees. Trinity does not build the signs.”
In their lawsuits, the billboard companies were prepared to argue that the city’s Aug. 2 emergency meeting following the billboard collapse was in violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act and that the city had violated its own zoning regulations. In addition, the order represented a taking of property without allowing for due process, the lawsuit contends.
“The city was responsible to perform inspections and determine code compliance and other safety requirements,” the lawsuit stated.
The city inspected and approved the location of all six standing billboards including the one that fell, Klein said. The city had only conducted a footing inspection on the billboard that collapsed, she said.
Named in the court action, which will be dismissed pending approval of the settlement agreement by City Council, are Mayor Harrell, Steve Carter, building inspector; Jessica Roth, zoning enforcement officer; and Jeff Timler, director of planning and development.
The lawsuit contended that the Aug. 2 emergency council meeting should have been a public hearing and not held behind closed doors. City officials contended that the meeting was valid because discussing issues that involved potential litigation are exempt under the Open Meetings Act.
In his sworn affidavit, Donald C. Danysh, a co-owner of ADvantage complained that he was not notified of the city’s order or that an emergency meeting was being held by the city to discuss the billboard collapse.
Danysh pointed out on March 27 that the city’s building inspector, who was named in the lawsuit, conducted a final inspection and approved his company’s only billboard in Snellville located on Scenic Highway at the Express Oil Change.
Clifford Leverenz, an expert hired by ADvantage to examine their one billboard in the city, spent eight hours on Saturday, Aug. 3 with a senior weld inspector and a technical services company checking that billboard.
Leverenz pointed out that the design of that billboard is quite different than the one that fell. Leverenz pointed out that it was best to test the signs while they are standing. A few minor welding flaws were discovered, Klein said. The city stopped Leverenz’s crew from doing minor cosmetic welding repairs to that sign on Saturday.
As far as the city violating its own zoning regulations, according to Klein, city code requires that the city give notice which describes any defect or zoning code violation and give 10 days to correct the problem unless an imminent emergency exists.
The sign companies argued that the remaining signs were not of similar design to the one that fell and their experts determined that the remaining signs were safe and did not pose an imminent danger or emergency.
