Woodland Hills Neighborhood War Brews Over Trailer Sign

A reader of the blog and Woodland Hills resident writes:

Dear Hills of Woodland Guy,

This is Woodlandhillswatcher. I dig your posts. Now, I have an investigative reporting assignment for you, if you are interested: there is an a**hole, apparently well known by Valley cops and traffic cops, who parks these trailer signs all over the place advertising household security services for 19.99 a month. I think it is Lonestar Security. Currently he has a sign on the East side of TC at Dumetz. It is totally destroyed and has been for months, but he keeps getting towed, and then returning the sign. he’ll move it up or down one block each month, it gets destroyed by people who hate it, he wipes off the graffittii and just keeps going. Traffic cops say that they tow him all the time but he’ll just pay it, bring it back out, park it and leave it. He seems intent on just being a total asshole as the signs are barely legible due to spray painting by neighborhood heroes (i’m not one of them). I can’t imagine they serve any advertising function at all; i really think he just puts them there to goad neighbors and cops. Ubelieveable. We need Hills of Woodland to bust this case wide open!

woodlandhillswatcher

I went out this morning and got pictures of the sign at the root of this escalating neighborhood skirmish, as you can see above.  I have also seen this same sign frequently parked near Shoup & Ventura Blvd. While trying to do a little research on the matter of trailer signs and parking, I discovered that there is a war that has been running since at least 2004 between and amongst the City of Los Angeles, Councilman Dennis Zine, and Lone Star Security’s boisterous  front man Brucer Boyer.

This recent Daily News article sums it all up:

And, so the saga between Councilman Dennis Zine and Lone Star Security continues.

When last we heard of this, Lone Star regional manager Bruce Boyer was challenging Zine to a debate and promising to go to public events to try to force a confrontation.

That hasn’t really happened, but Zine is angry enough that last week he sent Boyer a letter escalating their feud, refusing any debate and including copies of complaints filed against Lone Star, including one from the state Bureau of Security and Investigative Services where it was alleged Boyer pulled a rifle on a woman.

Zine has been on a campaign for the past year to try to ban the mobile advertising trailers Boyer and Lone Star have around the Valley.

“I do not wish to debate and/or otherwise meet with you,” Zine wrote. “I believe you are contemptuous of the law, and the debate, if any, should take place in a court of law.

“As a law abiding citizen, and a member of law enforcement for 41 years, I will continue to work on drafting laws to remove nuisance trailers.”

Boyer said he was not surprised by Zine’s refusal and that the allegations from 2003 were dismissed against him.

I am a big proponent of free speech.  And, I think the community needs to realize that they may not like the signs, but as long as the guy moves them every three days, he should be left  alone.  Defacing the signs only makes them more of an eyesore for the community.  Perhaps the neighborhood heroes should put their idle hands to better use and disable red light cameras.  Wait, did I say that aloud?  I’d never advocate that!

See the links below to two other archived articles about the history of Dennis Zine vs. Lone Star Security.  Seems like a highly personal waste of taxpayyer dollars in what is probably more of a machismo ‘pissing contest’ than legitimate and important city business.  Post your thoughts in the comments.

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• Article Link: July 6, 2006 Daily News Editorial, May 11, 2004 Daily News Article