Merchants Are Ignoring Strict Anti-Graffiti Ordinance : Moorpark: City has not begun enforcing law that says paints, etching materials and marking pens must be kept out of the public’s reach. “This was overkill,” one official says.

When the Moorpark City Council decided late last year to pass a tough new anti-graffiti law, Councilman Scott Montgomery warned his colleagues that they were getting far too tough.

“I said that this ordinance may very well put a store out of business in the city of Moorpark,” Montgomery recalled. “Just because we want to make a political statement, we’re going to put them out of business.”

Among other restrictions, the local law required stores to keep paints, etching materials and nearly all indelible marking pens out of the reach of the public.

Montgomery and Chamber of Commerce President Francis Okyere cautioned against forcing merchants to lock away a wide array of felt-tipped markers. But other council members disagreed and declared that all pens with tips 1/8-inch or greater--even fluorescent highlighters--must be removed from store shelves.

“This was overkill,” Okyere said. “We don’t see liquor under lock and key, and it’s a lot more lethal than a pen.”

It is still too early to gauge the ordinance’s impact on Moorpark merchants. More than a month after the ordinance went into effect, many businesses that sell indelible marking pens are operating in violation of the law. And, at least one has openly vowed not to comply.

“We’ve got over $12,000 in markers; it would be very difficult to lock that away and we haven’t locked it away,” said Susan Weatherstone, co-owner of Moorpark Stationers. “If the Sheriff’s Department comes in and tells us to lock the markers down, we’ll show them our inventory and ask, ‘How do you expect us to lock this all away?’ ”

But the showdown over loose marking pens has not happened yet because the city has not begun to enforce restrictions that even supporters of the law now concede may have gone too far.

So far, the city has only sent letters to Moorpark businesses reminding them that the graffiti ordinance went into effect Dec. 3 and asking them to comply. The letter went out Dec. 28.

“This isn’t a political statement; it’s an attempt to solve a problem,” Mayor Paul Lawrason said. “We knew this wasn’t perfect when we put it into place and we need to work with the merchants. . . . We’re not out there to shove this thing down anybody’s throat.”

But Montgomery disagrees.

“That’s exactly what they did, shove this down everybody’s throat,” said Montgomery, the only council member to oppose the ordinance. “The reality is that we could have written this thing reasonably to begin with, but there was no desire to be reasonable. Now, out of embarrassment, it seems that they have to be reasonable.”

Lawrason said this week that the city has intentionally not enforced the law to give businesses time to adapt to the new requirements. He added that the ordinance could be changed if it is found to be burdensome.

“If you’re not proactive, you’re never going to contribute to solving the problem,” Lawrason said. “So we’re moving ahead, we’re proactive and if we have a situation now that has created some sideline problems, then we need to work (on) it.”

Montgomery characterized Lawrason’s flexibility--and the city’s unwillingness to enforce its own law--as an admission that new policies are unworkable. “Maybe the whole ordinance was for show,” Montgomery said.

“We’re now four weeks after the ordinance is effective and we directed staff to write a letter. That’s not the way we usually enforce ordinances.”

Specifically, the law requires that marking pens, spray-paint cans and other potential tools for graffiti implements be kept away from the public and only sold with the assistance of a store employee. Customers 18 years of age and under are not allowed to purchase markers, spray paints or etching tools except when accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

Merchants around the city say they do not object to the age restrictions and have told employees to check the identification of customers who look to be under 18 and are shopping alone.

But observing the new rules on where markers can be stored is a more complicated and costly matter, business owners say.

“What does City Hall want, business here or no business here?” asked Iain Weatherstone, co-owner of Moorpark Stationers. “I think people in City Hall should think about these things. They’re not in business for themselves, and it’s easy to say these things, but it’s not so easy to implement them.”

Bob Bosch, manager of the newly openmart store on Los Angeles Avenue, has responded to the new law by locking all dark, wide-tipped markers in a glass case.

But Bosch said he has only recently understood the wide scope of the law, and many other brands of markers that are technically included under the ordinance are still available on his store’s shelves.

“If you’re going to lock up all the highlighters, you’re going to basically have to lock up your entire stationery department,” he said.

Bosch said he is willing to do that, and will comply with the law if the city informs him that he is in violation. But he said he worries that further isolating his stock will reduce sales in an already recessionary environment.

“As soon as we lock something up, we can cut our sales by half; that’s just the way it is,” Bosch said. “If somebody comes in and they say, ‘I think I need to buy a felt-tip marker,’ and they don’t see somebody around with a key to unlock the case and give it to them, they’ll say, ‘Oh, I really don’t need that now. I’ll get it later.’ ”

Other stores with a more limited supply of markers have been able to comply with the law more easily by putting the markers they sell behind the counter and making them available only when a customer asks.

Thrifty Drug Store on Los Angeles Avenue has taken this approach, as has Discount Medicine Man pharmacy.

“We really never had a problem with kids coming in; we sell mainly to adults,” said Ellen Ford, a pharmacy tech at Discount Medicine Man, which has stashed all of its markers in a box inaccessible to customers.

But Montgomery and Okyere said they are particularly concerned about stationery stores and other businesses that, under the law, are required to put away a wide array of pens and markers.

Okyere in October wrote a letter to the council suggesting that merchants merely check the ages of customers who want to buy markers rather than stash away their inventory.

The response at the time, he said, was that even having the items on the shelves would add to the city’s graffiti problem because vandals would simply steal them.

“Every product in a merchant’s store is important to them and if anything is going to be shoplifted, they’re going to be very aware of that,” Okyere said. “The other argument I heard was that very few stores here will be impacted by this (ordinance). But my reaction was that you are putting on the books a law that is going to haunt businesses in Moorpark for years to come.”