Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s attempt to make a bus advertising plan acceptable to critics is failing to win over the nonprofit group raising the loudest objections.

Caldwell unveiled an amended draft of a bill, making it clear that advertising "shall be restricted to the sides and/or back of city transit buses" and that "bus wraps" or "oversized, multi-sided advertisements" would be excluded. The new version also clearly excludes exterior advertising on transit vehicles, bus stops, benches and stations.

But Marti Townsend, executive director of the Outdoor Circle, still opposes the measure.

"The amendment does not address our basic concerns," she said.

Bill 69 is to be discussed by the City Council Budget Committee at 9 a.m. today.

Caldwell said the plan could net as much as $8 million for the city when it is hurting for additional income. The money would be used for a new, all-day service running between Kapo­lei and Central Oahu, as well as to restore routes cut or reduced because of fiscal restraints, such as the Route E Express! from Ewa Beach to Wai­kiki, he said Thursday.

Townsend said the mayor’s plan "opens the floodgates in Hawaii that nobody wants to see."

The Outdoor Circle disputes the interpretation of city attorneys that state law already allows a company to sell advertising space on its vehicles to other entities as long as that advertising is not their main source of revenue.

"Joe Plumber can’t advertise for Coca-Cola," she said.

Townsend said tour buses and trolleys are running advertising for other companies illegally but that no one is enforcing the law. Selling ads on city buses would only encourage additional and more blatant violations, she said.

"This is a basic weakening and undermining of Hawaii’s sign laws," she said.