RALLY 'ROUND STATION'S FLAGS GLENDALE MULLS ACTION AS PATRONS BACK BUSINESSMAN.

Byline: Donna Huffaker Staff Writer

GLENDALE - Leading the flag salute before Tuesday night's Glendale City Council meeting, Councilwoman Ginger Bremberg referred to Old Glory as ``the emblem that represents the greatest nation on earth.''

But that's all that was said. Despite mass e-mails from around the country and a slew of calls to the council office, council members did not address the controversial ordinance that prompted city officials last month to order a businessman to remove multiple American flags flying at his gas station.

``My family came over from Scotland and fought in the Revolutionary War so we could fly the American flag,'' Bremberg said outside council chambers. ``When I see someone doing that, it impresses me.''

However, federal and state law prohibits using the American flag as a form of advertising for a person's business, she said, pointing out that city staff members are reviewing the matter - and that the majority of ``ugly e-mails'' council members have received from around the country have shown that some people don't have all the facts.

Earlier this month, Councilman Sheldon Baker asked city officials to prepare a report about the sign ordinance, the city code that forbids any business from flying or posting more than six signs, pennants or banners without first obtaining a permit. Signs, flags and banners are all ways of advertising the business, the code says.

Shell Gas station owner Kelly Khoury, who has been flying his 20 American flags for 18 years, received a ``notice of violation and order to correct'' on July 26 for flying the flags without approval from the Planning Department.

The order says Khoury had three days to remove the flags or the warning would result in a citation. It also says any violation of the city's Municipal Code is a misdemeanor punishable by a $500 fine or six months in jail.

``A lot of people are coming to my station and getting gas and saying they support me. I just want to fly my flags,'' he said, adding that a World War II veteran who is a customer recently planted an additional flag to fly on Khoury's lot.

Khoury, a naturalized citizen who came to the United States from Jordan 25 years ago, flies the flags every year from the Fourth of July to Labor Day.

He is proud of his country and is expressing his patriotism, Khoury said, denying any intent to illegally advertise.

Making that distinction is the crux of the issue, representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as Councilman Gus Gomez, have said.

ACLU attorneys say they are monitoring the matter and will fight for Khoury's First Amendment rights if the city decides to cite him.

City officials said they are reviewing the ordinance and no enforcement will be taken until a decision is reached. The ordinance might be amended to allow the flags, officials have said.

Bremberg, who said she intends to buy gas from Khoury's Pacific Avenue station, believes the ordinance dates back roughly 10 years.

A council member then, Bremberg said heaps of ugly, bulky signs advertising dealerships along the ``Brand Boulevard of cars'' initiated the ordinance. Flags were not mentioned, because they were not an issue when the original ordinance was passed, but flags fall under the broad interpretation of the sign law, she explained.

Glendale resident Ann Donnelly said she came to the council meeting Tuesday because any ordinance that orders people to take down their American flag defies the very foundation on which this country was built.

Donnelly, 63, once visited the former Soviet Union when Russia was still a communist country and was asked to take off her American flag pin and put it in her pocket. The experience made her think about her freedom.

``People died for that flag. Whatever it takes to keep them up, I say, fight for it,'' she said after the meeting.