VISALIA, CA — Pastor Bob Grenier isn’t wild about Wild Willy’s – and he’s certainly not wild about the fact it’s able to advertise on the butt end of local city buses while his church can’t. While Mike Lane, a Visalia Unified trustee, insists that the Visalia City Coach’s policy against religious advertising is discrimination pure and simple, transit manager Monty Cox says the issue is more complex than that.
“Suppose you get Satanic Worship of America or something,” he posited to The Fresno Bee. “We don’t want anyone to stop riding our buses because they’re offended.”
Nonetheless, Lane and Grenier, who shepherds the souls that congregate at the Visalia Calvary Church, are feeling offended. Lane is especially unhappy given that Grenier’s Reaching Youth ministry has helped fund the transit company – whose policy diverges from that of other Valley transit agencies.
“It’s just sad,” Grenier opined.
Although Dan Landers, the city attorney, has agreed to review the policy and ACLU attorney Peter Eliasberg thinks the city could successfully force ads like Wild Willy’s off of buses, Cox insists that “it’s a legal business in our service area.”
According to Eliasberg, buses are seen as “a nonpublic forum” by judges, meaning that they don’t require the same level of free-speech as a sidewalk preacher or public place speaker. In the Los Angeles attorney’s opinion, most judges would side with the city, assuming it “has made a reasoned judgment.”
But Eliasberg cautions that the bus company likely also has the right to refuse to run ads for churches, the ACLU, the National Rifle Association or any other entity so long as it has a policy that clearly articulates what its rules are.
Currently the Visalia City Coach’s policy satisfies that requirement, stating that “It is VCC’s policy to only accept advertising related to the sales of goods and services.”
Meanwhile, William Ball, the man behind Wild Willy’s, isn’t particularly pleased with having what he calls the “Funnest Place in Tulare County” described as a “sex shop.” While his Goshen shop certainly sells adult novelties, lingerie, condoms and magazines, he pointed out to the Bee that it although it sells adult DVDs and toys located in a small room, it does not rent videos, has no video viewing booths, caters specifically to couples and closes its doors at 9:00 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
“We’re really just a retail store,” Ball observed. “I pay taxes. I’m just a regular business.”
Wild Willy’s advertises on the radio, in addition to its $425/month bus banner.
Lane, who just happens to be running for City Council, denies that his complaints are part of a plan to generate pre-election buzz. “It’s not a political thing,” he insisted to the press. “I’ve got a 13-year-old daughter. It’s not moral outrage,” he promptly contradicted, “but an opportunity to have a dialogue about appropriateness.”
