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Watsonville council weighs change in graffiti cleanup policy

 

WATSONVILLE -- Property owners would be more responsible for graffiti cleanup under a proposed ordinance considered by the City Council on Tuesday.

 

Consideration of the new rules comes as the city tires of spending tens of thousands of dollars annually to paint out graffiti and after a police crackdown that led to the arrest of 40 adults of juveniles accused of committing more than 900 acts of vandalism.

 

The proposed rules would limit city cleanup of graffiti on private properties to three times before the property owner would have to take care of the vandalism. "Especially in these budget times, we have to stop the drain of money to keep up with a problem we can't keep up with," said Councilman Manuel Bersamin.

 

Bob Geyer of the Public Works Department said the city had returned to some properties over and over again, more than a dozen times in some instances, and 23 times to one property, in the last year.

 

Geyer said the idea is to transfer some of the responsibility from the city to the property owner, who could do more to prevent it in the first place. Geyer showed, as an example, a retaining wall at the Home Depot on Green Valley Road that had been repeatedly tagged. Planting along the wall could make it less of an "attractive nuisance," Geyer said.

 

State law has toughened penalties against taggers themselves. Fines can range from $1,000 to $50,000, and convicted vandals can be made to perform up to 240 hours of graffiti cleanup.

 

District Attorney Bob Lee told the council sentencing convicted taggers to keep specific areas clean would help prevent graffiti.

 

"They'll say Don't use this wall because this is the wall I'm responsible for,'" Lee said.

 

Superior Court Judge Heather Morse said courts also are taking the issue seriously. Adults convicted of misdemeanor vandalism on a first offense are being sentenced to 30 days in jail unless they show real proof of remorse, such as cleaning up the graffiti, she said.

 

A decision on the ordinance had not been made late Tuesday.

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