FULLERTON : Council Passes Tough Graffiti Ordinance

The City Council on Tuesday passed a tough ordinance that sets $1,000 fines and six-month jail sentences for those convicted of spraying graffiti on public and private property.

In addition, parents of graffiti vandals will be held responsible for damages.

Placing adhesive stickers on another person’s property is also considered a type of graffiti under the new ordinance.

City maintenance workers have said they are overwhelmed by the work of the so-called “taggers,” vandals who paint or mark their name in as many places as possible.

Graffiti has recently appeared all over the city--on freeway signs, railroad overpasses, cars, storefronts, schools, park walls and houses.

Residents who do not want city crews to remove graffiti on their property--a free service--will be required to remove it themselves within seven days unless they are too poor or have a regular program for graffiti removal. If a wall or building has been defaced by graffiti five times within a year, the owner could have to pay up to $500 for a fence or other way to protect the surface.

City Manager James L. Armstrong said the city will go after property owners who will neither remove the graffiti themselves nor allow the city to do it. For example, the city could place a lien on the property.

The city spent $134,000 in 1992 to remove graffiti, using two maintenance crews. Robert Savage, director of maintenance services, said he has received many more calls for service in the first seven weeks of this year than in the same period last year.

About 200 residents attended a council hearing on graffiti earlier this month, with some calling for the public beating of vandals who are caught.

The ordinance establishes a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest of a graffiti vandal. People who see someone in the act of vandalism and call the police on their car telephone will be reimbursed for the cost of the call.

Savage said the city will continue to remove graffiti from both public and private property. The city also is organizing community groups to paint over graffiti, and the Police Department will buy surveillance equipment to photograph vandals.