Azusa Vows to Get Tough as Graffiti Stain Widens

The writing’s on the wall in Azusa and city officials are tired of it.

Last week, the City Council instructed staff members to come up with a get-tough program to combat a recent surge in graffiti.

City officials say graffiti outbreaks have worsened over the past year. In 1985, the city had one worker spending a few hours, as needed, on graffiti removal each day. Today, a full-time maintenance worker does nothing but paint over graffiti and others are assigned periodically.

Councilman Bruce Latta, noting actions taken in March by South Gate to stem its graffiti problem, suggested that Azusa adopt a similar policy.

“Let’s not let it get a foothold at all,” Latta said. “We need to improve upon what we’re doing to clean it up.”

But the South Gate ordinance isn’t much different from the one Azusa already has in place, said Robert DeLoach, public works director.

Azusa, like South Gate, offers a $500 reward to anyone informing on a graffiti vandals, and the law permits the recovery of removal costs from the parents of graffiti-spraying minors.

Thus far, no rewards have been paid and no money recovered from parents, Azusa officials said.

Azusa’s policy fails to address the fact that the city must bear most of the removal costs and liability when its crews go onto private property, DeLoach said.

“We enter their property, sometimes without notice, and we incur liability,” he said. “If somebody gets hurt, we can be sued.”

The city spends an estimated $80,000 annually in manpower and resources to paint over graffiti, DeLoach estimated. In some weeks, city workers respond to more than 80 calls.

Increasingly, he said, property owners are relying on the city to foot the bill for the removal.

“There are a couple of cases in town where the property owners will call and tell us, ‘Hey, they hit my building, come take it off,’ ” he said.

A better solution, DeLoach said, may be found in a San Juan Capistrano ordinance, which places the onus of graffiti removal on property owners. The owner is notified that the graffiti is a public nuisance. If after a specified period the owner has not cleaned the walls, the city removes the offending scrawls and bills the owner, he said.

DeLoach said he is circulating a draft of an ordinance among council members and the city attorney that would include this approach. A key to the success of such an ordinance, DeLoach said, would be how quickly the city could act if the property owner does not. The San Juan Capistrano ordinance allows seven days.

Much of the graffiti comes from the city’s Latino gangs, Police Chief Lloyd J. Wood said. However, an influx of “wanna-bes,” claiming affiliation with Los Angeles’ black gangs and “skinhead” groups, has added more, he said.

Wood said police catch about six graffiti markers a year “if we’re lucky.” “Periodically, there might be a call from a resident, but by the time we roll in, they have split,” he said.

In his proposal, Latta also suggested that the city double its reward to $1,000 in hopes of encouraging more calls to police. Wood said the $500 award instituted by the city last year has done little to stimulate informants.

“Obviously, when you inject money into a system, it becomes a catalyst,” Wood said. “Maybe a larger reward would encourage people to get stronger with it.”