T.O. residents often feel frustrated when they leave town for a few days and return to find advertising fliers adorning their door, mailbox and driveway. To passersby, the ads are a signal: "This family is out of town."

Is there an answer to this problem? With all the laws in Thousand Oaks, is it okay to distribute fliers to dwellings?

The answer is yes. Although a city ordinance declares handbills, dodgers, circulars, newspapers, booklets, posters, printed material and advertising literature left at private residences and businesses a public nuisance, the ordinance prohibiting it was repealed on May 17, 2005, effective July 2005.

It's unclear why the city lists so many synonyms. Maybe it's to accommodate a lawyer so he can claim that a booklet selling discounts on carpet cleaning and yardwork is, in fact, not printed material.

But, in any case, those dodgers- or whatever- were once not allowed if a resident or business filed a written materials exemption with the city for a nominal fee and obtained and placed a sticker on their door.

According to a May 2005 staff report written by former city clerk Nancy Dillion, only 152 of the 33,000 households in the city participated in the exemption. It apparently wasn't worth the trouble. So staff members recommended the city delete the 1972 ordinance from their books, which they did.

The city did leave an ordinance declaring the handbills, dodgers and other such items as public nuisances. They also left the ordinance that those printed materials couldn't be distributed on public property or on automobiles. They were specific about not putting the items on streets, alleys, parks and school grounds.

- Nancy Needham