Chalk up one more sign victory for the Outdoor Circle.

City Council Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz said his proposal to sell naming rights to some municipal parks and facilities is dead — killed by legal issues raised by the state's anti-billboard law.

The Outdoor Circle worked to enact the law decades ago and has long championed the effort to keep Hawai'i free of the big outdoor ads.

In April, Dela Cruz introduced a bill aimed at raising money for the city at a time when the council was looking to raise a number of fees and taxes. He acknowledged the proposal was "thinking outside the box" but figured it was worth exploring if a sports company or another business was willing to pay to include that brand name in the title.

He saw it as a way to not have to raise so many taxes and fees. Dela Cruz said he thought the idea might work after seeing Mainland cities succeed by selling naming rights to sports facilities in major metropolitan areas.

But Bob Loy, director of environmental programs for the Outdoor Circle, said following the Mainland example this time would have been a step backward for the state.

"Renaming our public facilities just to make a few bucks is the kind of sellout that the people of Hawai'i don't want," Loy said.

Dela Cruz cited a letter he received from the city's top civil attorney that raised legal issues.

Corporation Counsel Carrie Okinaga told Dela Cruz that the proposed ordinance could be interpreted as violating state law banning advertising that occurs away from the place of business.

Okinaga wrote that the Outdoor Circle, which already is challenging the validity of the proposed ordinance, "could argue that the bill is illegal because it circumvents one of the purposes and intent of the outdoor advertising law, which was to limit the subject matter of outdoor advertising to the activity conducted on the premises."

Dela Cruz said he talked with Outdoor Circle representatives about their concerns.

"We tried to limit the scope to address the state law," he said, but couldn't find a way to make it work.

The administration of Mayor Mufi Hannemann also opposed the measure.

That's good news to Hale'iwa resident Frank DeSilva, who is working as a civilian employee of the military in Japan.

DeSilva keeps up with Hawai'i news via honoluluadvertiser.com and sometimes e-mails his concerns.

Yesterday, he said he was glad to hear that the proposal to sell naming rights to city facilities is dead.

"The last thing we need is commercial advertising associated in any way with public property," DeSilva said.

He said that commercial advertising now shows up many places where it wasn't found in the past. "I recall recently seeing a lady who agreed to have a commercial logo tattooed on her forehead for money," he said. "Hawai'i is very fortunate to have laws against billboards, something that Mr. Dela Cruz failed to grasp when he pushed his idea for sponsoring parks."

Dela Cruz said some of his other proposals to raise money for the city have become law. One ordinance allows the city to charge companies to place antennas for cell phones on city property. Another increased the park fees that the film industry pays to the city.

Loy said his organization believed that selling names of facilities could head the council down "the slippery slope of commercialism."

He praised the council for killing the bill. "It's a bad idea, that was, I think, spawned by good intentions," he said. "If outdoor advertising is allowed in any form, it breeds more inappropriate illegal outdoor advertising."