Mission Viejo Takes Emergency Action to Head Off Graffiti

Never mind that Mission Viejo had not experienced graffiti until last month, when a group of local high school students peppered the master-planned community with it for a week.

The Mission Viejo City Council has deemed the graffiti problem so potentially serious that it took emergency steps Monday.

First, it ordered the city staff to immediately set up a 24-hour “anti-graffiti” hot line. Then it commissioned the writing of an anti-graffiti ordinance that would, among other things, establish a list of volunteers and contractors to be called in case graffiti are spotted and city work crews aren’t immediately available. The ordinance will be considered for approval in March.

Cost Estimated at $15,000

The annual cost of the anti-graffiti program is estimated at $15,000. City Councilwoman Victoria Jaffe said tough measures are needed to send a message to anyone who would deface the well-heeled community.

“We won’t stand for any hoodlum activity,” Jaffe said. “We’re not going to allow our city to be marred in some careless manner by graffiti. We don’t want to wait until the problems blows out of control.”

Law enforcement officials in Orange and Los Angeles counties, both of which have some graffiti-ridden neighborhoods, lauded Mission Viejo’s action as a sound preemptive measure.

Said Lt. Bill Salveson, with the Carson station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department: “It sounds like a minor thing at first, but it’s like the broken window theory. You leave one broken window and then you have two, three and, before you know it, the area gets run down.

“If I lived in Mission Viejo,” Salveson added, “I’d certainly be a sponsor of something like that (ordinance), if for no other reason than to keep a problem out. Graffiti is a problem. It is the language of the gangs. And people are killed over graffiti.”

Orange County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Doug Storm called the anti-graffiti ordinance “an excellent idea” because it gives Mission Viejo a vehicle to get rid of graffiti as soon as it goes up. If graffiti is left up, Storm added, “it just encourages more.”

The Sheriff’s Department was asked to investigate when vandals at the beginning of the year spray-painted graffiti on sound walls, bus benches and utility boxes all over Mission Viejo and neighboring Aegean Hills.

The investigation dispelled fears that Los Angeles gangs were moving in to stake out new turf. Instead, eight local high school students were believed responsible. They could not be arrested, Storm said, because they were not caught in the act.

While relieved to hear gangs apparently were not moving in, Mission Viejo city officials continued to express concern that “copycat” vandals would damage the community so much that property values might fall.

In a report to his colleagues last month, City Planning Commissioner Craig Galbraith warned: “The negative economic impact could conservatively run into hundreds of millions of dollars.”

After reviewing Galbraith’s report, the Planning Commission examined anti-graffiti programs in cities including Stanton, Carson, West Covina and even Beverly Hills. It then recommended that the city:

- Establish a hot line for quick response to tips.

- Remove graffiti as quickly as possible, preferably within 3 hours after it is discovered.

- Coordinate all removal efforts through the city, instead of through the fragmented efforts of homeowner associations, utilities and any other public agencies having jurisdiction over a parcel of land.

- Send notice of the anti-graffiti program to public and private agencies, homeowner associations and shopping center management companies.