Faced with a constricting budget and recently raised bus fares, the Columbia City Council will once again take up the discussion of whether the city will sell advertisements on the exterior of city buses.

In a 2007 report resubmitted to the council Monday, Transportation Manager Ken Koopmans said selling three ads on 25 city buses could net the city $25,000 to $40,000 a year.

Koopmans said many cities around the country use ads on buses to supplement revenue. After talking with representatives of several other cities, he said the easiest way to implement advertising is to hire an independent company to manage it.

Jill Stedem, spokeswoman for the Public Works Department, said an independent management company would handle everything for the ads, including selling, designing and producing them. "We basically don’t have to do anything," Stedem said. "They take care of everything and then send them to us to install."

The city would most likely install large frames to hold ads on the sides and back of the buses, which would cost about $21,000, Koopmans said in the report. Of that amount, $10,300 would pay to install the frames for the ads, and $10,688 would play to remove and replace Columbia Transit logos that would be covered by the advertisements.

The subject was brought up for discussion by the council recently when a student-living complex proposed purchasing buses for the city in exchange for the city establishing a new route and allowing an ad for the development on the buses.

The council balked at the proposal’s inclusion of advertising and approved the contract without it, but council members asked for more information on what benefits bus advertising might bring the city.

While some council members said they were weary of placing ads on buses, Fifth Ward Councilwoman Laura Nauser said she favors it.

"I’ve always tried to think of ways to develop private-public partnerships or funding for some of our services, and since the buses are a subsidized entity, I think it’s a logical choice to offset some of those costs with advertising money," Nauser said. "There have been some different philosophies from people who don’t want to put advertising on public property, but in my mind, generating additional income for the city trumps those concerns."

Nauser said the city would have to regulate what kind of advertising the city would allow, and other cities have already formed guidelines regulating ads’ content. The city council will revisit the issue at an upcoming work session.

In his report, Koopmans included a sample policy that prohibited advertisements involving alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, adult entertainment, medical or legal counseling services as well as political or religious advertisements, among others.

From the other cities contacted for the report, Koopmans said, 80 percent to 85 percent of businesses that buy ads are local and the remaining ads are from regional organizations.

Although the potential revenue would contribute only a minute portion of Columbia Transit’s $6.46 million annual budget - mostly subsidized with federal and city dollars - it would help offset some expenses for providing the service, Nauser said.

"It seems like a win-win situation for a $20,000 investment and a couple thousand a year in maintenance. It seems the benefits far outweigh any negative," Nauser said. "I think with the budget the way it is, it’s the catalyst that’s starting to change some of the prior obstacles.

Advertisement

Get your brain and body in shape. Food Wednesdays, Pulse Sundays and Sports daily. 13 weeks of everyday delivery for as little as 29¢ a day. Get the Tribune. Get a lot.