HUNTINGTON BEACH : Anti-Graffiti Funds to Be Asked of City

Dirk Voss said he will ask his fellow Huntington Beach Union High School District trustees to push the City Council to spend redevelopment money for removing graffiti at local campuses.

Voss said an outbreak of graffiti is threatening to blight the schools and that redevelopment funds would be an ideal way to pay for cleanup costs because, under state law, eliminating blight is a goal of redevelopment.

Vandals who spray paint graffiti or etch their nicknames and monikers on windows are expected by the end of the school year to have caused nearly $90,000 in damage at school sites in the district, according to officials.

Schools are being forced to use general fund revenue to clean graffiti, money that should go for books and academic programs, according to Voss.

Voss said he’ll also ask his high school district colleagues to request that the city send police officers to campuses at times when the threat of graffiti strikes is greatest, and to enact stiff graffiti laws making offenders or their parents responsible for restitution.

Edison High School Principal Brian Garland acknowledged that graffiti and glass etching have hit an all-time high at his campus.

Earlier in the year, a flurry of glass etching left 25 tempered glass windows defaced.

“It’s ugly and we hate it but we can’t afford to replace it,” he said.

Fountain Valley High School leads seven other campuses with $13,530 in graffiti removal costs for the 41-week school year, according to a survey.

Edison, Huntington Beach and Westminster came next, all having a price tag of more than $11,000 for graffiti cleanup.

Westminster tops the list in glass etching damage with $5,775. Edison and Huntington Beach also face more than $5,000 in losses in that category.

A city official, responding to Voss’ request for redevelopment money for school graffiti cleanup costs, said the city is generally prohibited from spending redevelopment funds in areas outside a redevelopment project area.

And none of the high schools is believed to be in a project area, city business development specialist Michael J. Gifford said.