Billboard company spent thousands lobbying San Jose officials

An Ohio media company spent thousands of dollars lobbying San Jose officials to vote in favor of new digital billboards downtown — and succeeded.

Public lobbying reports show Orange Barrel Media spent as much as $30,000 in January and February to hire lobbyists who met with everyone on the San Jose City Council or their staff, excluding Councilmember Peter Ortiz. Documents show lobbyists with consulting firm Jackson and Main emailed, called, texted or met with city officials to discuss approving digital billboards for San Jose at least 49 times in February alone. Councilmembers unanimously approved five digital billboards at a Feb. 25 meeting.

Clay Collett, senior development director at Orange Barrel Media, said the company often meets with local stakeholders before any public or private project comes to the city council.

“The goal of these meetings is to spread awareness of our proposal and refine our projects to better reflect the values of our city partners,” Collett told San José Spotlight. “In San Jose, as a direct result of this outreach over the last few years, we’ve improved the designs of our signs and increased our contribution of local, non-commercial content, for example.”

Sean Kali-rai and Eddie Truong, who lobbied for Orange Barrel Media, did not respond to requests for comment.

Representatives for Mayor Matt Mahan said though he didn’t meet with Orange Barrel Media lobbyists, his staff did.

“Both the mayor and members of our team have met with the opposing residents many times over the past few years,” spokesperson Tasha Dean told San José Spotlight.

Les Levitt, co-founder of No Digital Billboards in San Jose, said city officials appear to have sided with the digital billboard company rather than the residents who oppose the close to 1,000-square-foot downtown signs. A 2021 study by the San Jose Planning Department showed more than 61% of respondents “strongly opposed” digital billboards — while only 2.5% were “strongly in favor.”

“We don’t have even close to the access that the billboard lobbyists do,” Levitt told San José Spotlight. “Since we began, we’ve always tried to engage with the decision makers at City Hall and meetings are rare, and some councilmembers have refused to even speak with us.”

District 3 Councilmember Carl Salas, who is temporarily representing the downtown core, met with digital billboard lobbyists just days before he was appointed in January, according to public lobbying reports. He also met with members of No Digital Billboards in San Jose after he said he experienced “sleepless nights” over the contentious topic.

Representatives for Salas did not respond to a request for comment.

District 1 Councilmember Rosemary Kamei, who also took meetings with both digital billboard lobbyists and the opposing group, said her scheduler tries to accommodate all requests for meetings. District 8 Councilmember Domingo Candelas said he also has an “open door policy.”

“I generally try to meet with everyone, hear them out and then we go from there,” Kamei told San José Spotlight.
John Miller, another co-founder of No Digital Billboards in San Jose, said city officials are so accustomed to the talking points of digital billboard industry heads that it’s hard for them to take in new information.

“One could accept the (approval) if the billboard industry was a big employer of residents of San Jose — but that’s not the case,” he told San José Spotlight. “Not only do (Orange Barrel Media) not employ residents of San Jose, they don’t even have offices in San Jose.”

Contact Vicente Vera at [email protected] or follow @VicenteJVera on X.