Making their mark

Edmonds’ anti-graffiti efforts took an important step forward this week, as officials continued their efforts to combat the city’s second most common property crime.

At a public hearing Aug. 28, the council fine-tuned an ordinance which specifically targets graffiti crimes, and now seems likely to pass in coming weeks.

The council unanimously stripped the ordinance of its most controversial provision when it removed all language that would have attempted to control the display and sale of “graffiti implements,” such as cans of spray paint and large Sharpie markers.

But, council members voted 4-3 to retain a system of fines that could penalize property owners victimized by graffiti who do not quickly clean their property. A new maximum daily penalty for delinquent cleaners could be as much as $250.

“It is tough telling people who are victims (that they must clean up), but unfortunately that is part of being a property owner and taking care of your property,” development services director Duane Bowman said at the council meeting.

Councilmembers also expressed support for the ordinance’s other provisions, which would outlaw the possession of graffiti implements with intent to do damage, and which would upgrade the crime from malicious mischief to a gross misdemeanor. Gross misdemeanors carry maximum one year jail sentences and maximum $5,000 fines.

However, councilmembers and citizens spent most of Monday’s debate on the issue of the fines for property owners.

“How can somebody be a victim and then become a victim again?” longtime citizen Swan Seaberg asked the council during citizen comments.

“I’m really upset by that,” said Seaberg, whose neighbors have been hit by graffiti recently. “For a retirement community, I think there should be a system to help property owners. I just cannot see a victim being punished again.”

The city can already fine property owners who do not clean up their property after multiple formal requests, development services director Bowman said. But, the new ordinance would raise the maximum daily fine from $100 to $250. The council can still change the amount of the fine, or the system that would impose them.

In Bowman’s time with Edmonds, the city has never fined any property owner in recent memory for failing to clean up graffiti, Bowman said.

Because fines haven’t been necessary, some council members lobbied to remove them from the new ordinance.

“At present times, a letter is sufficient. So, I’d like to see how (the new ordinance) works without fines,” said Councilmember Michael Plunkett, who led the charge to remove the fines. “I do not want to victimize the victim.”

Councilmembers Dave Orvis and Mauri Moore joined Plunkett in voting against establishing fines as part of the new ordinance.

But, the chair of the council’s public safety committee Councilmember Deanna Dawson, who is helping lead anti-graffiti efforts throughout Snohomish County for Executive Aaron Reardon strongly defended the city’s system of fines. If Edmonds were to take fines away, they would be weakening their anti-graffiti arsenal just as they tried to strengthen it, Dawson said.

According to organizations like the National Crime Prevention Council, diligent clean up is the most effective graffiti prevention tool that cities have.

According to Dawson’s research, if a community cleans up a graffiti incident in one location three times within the first 24-hours of being hit, that graffiti will almost never reoccur, she said this week.

“We want to let people know that graffiti is not something we want them to take care of next year. This is something we want them to take care of promptly,” Dawson said. “We know it is important.”

Edmonds is suffering a spike in graffiti crimes, interim police chief Al Compaan confirmed this week.

Although data is not available for 2006, there have been 120 graffiti crimes in Edmonds this year, and police “think we are noticing an increase in graffiti,” Compaan said Monday night.

Fighting graffiti will take a coordination on the part of the whole community, he said. Because vandalism is committed so quickly, education and civil sanctions will be just as important as criminal enforcement, he said.

As most of the people committing graffiti in Edmonds are teenagers, it will take a coordinated effort to educate those kids and their parents on the harm graffiti causes, he said.

“No ordinance is going to stop (graffiti). No amount of police attention is going to stop this,” Compaan said. “The schools have to be involved, the parents have to be involved and the community has to be involved.”