2 Glendale Families Avoid Graffiti Cleanup Bill

City officials have agreed to allow two Glendale families to together perform 64 hours of community service rather than pay graffiti cleanup costs.

Council members last week authorized City Atty. Scott H. Howard to file a civil suit if the families failed to pay a $350 graffiti removal bill by July 26.

Officials had sent both families the bill after Glendale police caught a 14-year-old boy from each family marking up a traffic signal pole and a utility box at San Fernando Road and Colorado Street on Feb. 25.

City officials in July decided to pursue possible legal action to recover damage costs, using a longstanding civil code involving defacement of property that allows public property owners to sue minors as well as their parents or guardians.

If a suit were to have been filed, it would have also included a request for a court order barring the youths from graffiti vandalism in the future, officials said.

Instead, the two 14-year-olds and their parents have met with Deputy City Atty. Christina Sansone to work out a community service plan as an alternative to paying the $350.

“None of them, they claimed, can afford to pay,” Sansone said.

The plan calls for a parent and child from each family to volunteer a total of 16 hours in helping the city to remove graffiti. As of Wednesday, only a 14-year-old and his father have served eight hours.

“We’re going to try to get all of the work in (for both families) by the end of the month,” Sansone said.