PLACENTIA : City Adds Funds to Its War on Graffiti

The writing on the wall is becoming clearer here. And gaudier. And more expensive to remove.

Graffiti, from hastily scrawled slogans to territorial markings, is appearing increasingly throughout the city and costing more to remove, according to Geoffrey H. Cobbett, maintenance services superintendent.

The city also began using a professional service for graffiti removal last year but the amount of work to be done was simply underestimated, Cobbett said. Therefore, the City Council recently voted to supplement the current budget of $15,000 for graffiti removal with an additional $10,000.

“There’s much more that needs to be done than we thought,” said Cobbett. “We assumed that once the program was started, graffiti would be on a decline, but as soon as we take it off, they put it on again.”

Before hiring Graffiti Removal Inc. of Los Angeles, the city relied on volunteer groups and an in-house program to remove graffiti, Cobbett said. Paint also was available to anyone who wanted to clean up their own property.

“We never really had a good program,” Cobbett said. “We saw this program (Graffiti Removal Inc.) working in other cities and decided to go that route.”

A list of areas to be repainted is compiled weekly by the city staff, residents and the removal company, which has workers in the city about every two weeks. Profane graffiti, however, is usually removed within 48 hours, Cobbett said.

Councilwoman Maria Moreno, while supporting the additional funding, suggested using youths for a graffiti removal summer program, as had been done before, rather than continuing to increase funds.

But until a way can be found to take it off and keep it off, the city must continue to paint over it, officials said.

“We’ll keep after it,” Cobbett added. “Maybe if we keep it up, people will get tired of redoing it.”