THE BUS BENCH BENEFIT
May 9, 2005
Bus benches are sitting on public
land in 60 Florida communities.

Bus benches, covered with ads, are in cities across Florida. Most people who pass them on the street, never give these benches a second thought or notice they are sitting on public property. Fox 13 uncoverd that politicians around the state are allowing a private company to profit.

New Port Richey, Fla. is one community taking a second look at its bench program. Tom Finn, a former city council member started asking questions while he was still in office.

"It's not a good deal for any municipality where we take our citizens property rights and sell them out this way." Finn argues.

New Port Richey is not alone. More than 60 communities around the state allow the small bench billboards. But you won't find them at some places on Florida's East Coast. The idea of giving away the right of way just didn't sit well with some city leaders in Ft. Pierce.


Fort Pierce and St. Lucie County
removed all the Jaycees' benches.

Dennis Beach is the Fort Pierce City Manager. His city tore them out and all of St. Lucie County has now also removed the benches.

"The idea had more to do with advertising, says Beach, than having places to sit."

The back of the benches say they're a Jaycees' project. The Jaycees are the Junior Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit civic group which works to develop tomorrow's leaders. Darren Shields is president of the Tampa chapter.

"Historically the Jaycees were what you did as a professional if you wanted to network," Shields says.

The Jaycees put their name
on the back of the benches.

Andrew Moos is the State Chair for the Jaycees and he runs the bench program for Jaycee chapters in Florida. He says the benches have been around since the 1950's and are a good deal for communities. The Jaycees get money from the program, and people waiting for the bus have a place to sit. Moos is quick to point out that not all the benches have ads. The Jaycees also provide space free to non-profit groups like Meals on Wheels.

But it's not hard to find benches that carry paid ads. In Tampa and Hillsborough County alone, there are more than 600 benches peddling products and services.

Ads on benches in Tampa Bay sell for anywhere from $100 to $200 a month. With thousands of ads for sale around the state, that's potentially millions of dollars. But the Jaycees told us they don't make millions off it. In fact, it's just pennies on the dollars, and the small percentage upset elected leaders in Fort Pierce and St. Lucie County.

"The benefit to the local non-profit was miniscule." Said Jon Ward, Director of St. Lucie County's Cultural Affairs Department.

That county is now replacing the old benches with new ones designed by local artists. County leaders were concerned that a for-profit company was running the bench program for the Jaycees.

Andrew Moos and Darren Shields talk
with Doug Smith about the benches.

Metropolitan Advertising, sells ads, creates benches and maintains them for the Jaycees in 60 communities around the state. Metropolitan Advertising is located in a building on Horatio Street in South Tampa. Andrew Moos told us he didn't know exactly how Metropolitan Advertising was dividing up profits with the Jaycees.

"But I hope they are making a profit," Moos said, "and that they'll be around for a long time to do this with us."

A check of state records shows that Andrew Moos and the founder of Metropolitan Advertising run a seperate billboard company together. That company and Metropolitan Advertising operate out of the same building in Tampa. When we started investigating, we found that same building on Horatio Street was also listed as the address for the Tampa Jaycees.

"It definitely appears the Jaycees' organization has been highjacked by a for-profit company." Said former Councilman Tom Finn.

City Manager Dennis Beach
encouraged Fort Pierce to
remove the benches.

Fort Pierce City Manager Dennis Beach said it's clear to him that the non-profit is being used as a front for a for-profit company. But we couldn't find any clear records of how much money Metropolitan Advertising makes running the Jaycees bench program. The ad company says it costs a lot of run the business and also spends a lot of money maintaining the benches.

Doug Smith: Why not operate Metropolitan Advertising as a non-profit just like the Jaycees?

Andrew Moos: I don't know the rational for starting it that way 55 years ago, but every time they've been asked to open their books they have.


The New Port Richey City Council asked for more information and got a one page sheet of figures.

Former City Councilman Tom Finn
criticizes the bench program.

"Seven to fifteen lines on this paper really didn't paint an accurate picture of the corporate finances." Finn said.

Leaders in Fort Pierce and St. Lucie County say they didn't get the answers they wanted either. That's why local artists are now designing new benches which should be finished by the end of the year.

"We could have an eyesore, or contribute to the cultural image of the community." Said Jon Ward explaining the decision in St. Lucie County to replace the Jaycees' benches.

But when the City of West Palm Beach tried to end the bench program, it hit a roadblock. That city tried cancel the contract, but Metropolitan Advertising and the local Jaycees' chapter sued. A city attorney for West Palm Beach couldn't comment specifically on the lawsuit, but said in his experience it is very unusual for a civic group to sue a city.

Since our interview, the Tampa Jaycees have decided to take a closer look their deal. An attorney for the Jaycees sent a letter to Metropolitan Advertising asking for all the figures in an effort to determine how the ad company calculated the amount of money the Jaycees were supposed to get over the past several years.