Lomita OKs Plan to Pay for Graffiti Removal

The Lomita City Council last week unanimously approved picking up the costs for removing graffiti from residents’ fences or outdoor walls.

Mayor Pete Rossick said the program will be available to all residents but will be especially helpful to the elderly and to people who are unable to remove graffiti on perimeter walls because of financial or physical hardships.

City officials said the council’s vote Tuesday was also a response to recent increases in graffiti.

Sheriff’s deputies have said that “taggers,” vandals who spray their names on public and private property, have increasingly struck Lomita in the last several months.

The most widely publicized incident involved white supremacist graffiti sprayed on the home of an Orthodox Jewish couple on Feb.1. The couple, Dr. Shlomo and Janis Elspas, complained that a form letter sent by the city asking for swift removal of the graffiti was insensitive.

As a result, Rossick said, the city revised the letter, which its code enforcement officer sends to resi dents who have been targets of graffiti.

“We’re putting out a little more lenient letter that tells residents . . . that we’re sorry about what happened,” Rossick said. The letter also says that if residents are unable to remove the graffiti, they can contact the city.

City Administrator Walker Ritter said it is unclear how much the program will cost the city.