Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886

City aims to stop graffiti

Council also talks about updating sign ordinance

Taggers have vandalized Shelton Mayor Eric Onisko's Texaco station with paint three times in the past month.

"The graffiti's gotten pretty crazy lately, all over town," Onisko said during the Shelton City Council's work session March 8.

Other council members agreed.

"I've definitely seen an uptick of this in the community, not just downtown," said Joe Schmit.

"You drive by an alley and 'boom,' and it wasn't there yesterday," said Kathy McDowell. "When did they do it?"

City Manager Jeff Niten told the council the city has no ordinances regarding graffiti. The word "graffiti" appears only once in the city code, and it is the section regarding signs, Niten said.

The draft of a proposed ordinance defines graffiti as "any unauthorized inscription, letter, words, numbers, figures, pictures, designs, regardless of content, which is drawn or painted on any surface on public or property that is visible from any public right of way."

Under the draft ordinance, violators could be charged with malicious mischief.

The owner of the vandalized property would be responsible for the cleanup. But the council can consider a proposed plan by former Shelton Police Chief Darrin Moody that calls for the city to offer to either pay for the materials for the vandalism cleanup or provide the labor, perhaps by people performing community service, Niten said.

"It's in the city's interest to see that cleaned up as soon as possible," Niten said.

At the work session, the council also talked about tweaking the city's sign ordinances. The current ordinances were created in 1995, with some updates in 2002, Niten said.

The current ordinance is more than 9,000 words and is "lengthy and complicated," Niten said. The proposed new code is about half the size "and makes it more clear, easier to understand for everybody, and much simpler to implement," he said.

Niten said he's received several calls asking about "offensive" signs or flags on display and at demonstrations.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that signs can be removed only if they are "obscene" or are "an incitement to violence," Niten said.

"As the government, we have to respect the First Amendment and allow people to express themselves, in a way that they choose," Niten said. "It's a reasonableness test: what a contemporary person in a reasonable society would see. If you think that's pretty vague, you're right, it is."

Author Bio

Gordon Weeks, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald

 

Reader Comments(0)