The purpose of this chapter is to provide regulations designed to prevent and control the further spread of graffiti in the city and to provide a program for removal of graffiti from walls and structures on both public and private property. The increase of graffiti on both public and private buildings, structures and places is creating a condition of blight within the city which results in a deterioration of property and business values for adjacent and surrounding properties all to the detriment of the city. Government Code Section 53069.3 authorizes the city, under certain circumstances, to provide for the removal of graffiti and other inscribed materials from private as well as public property. The city council finds that graffiti is often used as a method of communication or marking territory between juvenile gangs and that the presence of juvenile gangs in the city is not favored. The city council further finds and determines that graffiti is detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of the community, obnoxious and a public nuisance which serves as an invitation for repeated trespasses and vandalism and therefore must be abated so as to avoid the detrimental impact of such graffiti on the city and to prevent the further spread of graffiti.
(Ord. 89-01 § 1 (part))
For the purposes of this chapter:
A. 
"Graffiti"
means the unauthorized scratching, carving, spraying of paint, or marking of ink, chalk, dye or other similar substances on public and private buildings, structures and places.
B. 
"Unauthorized"
means that the private property owner or city officials have not given their consent to any of the foregoing acts.
(Ord. 89-01 § 1 (part))
It is unlawful for any person to scratch, carve, paint, chalk or otherwise apply graffiti on any public or privately owned personal or real property within the city.
(Ord. 89-01 § 1 (part); Ord. 2007-12, Amended, 08/21/2007)
A. 
The following regulation shall apply to the sale and distribution of pressurized paint cans in the city:
1. 
No person shall sell, exchange, give, or loan, or cause or permit to be sold, exchanged, given, or loaned, any pressurized can(s) containing any substance commonly known as paint or dye to anyone under the age of eighteen years, unless such person is the parent or legal guardian of such minor. No person under the age of eighteen years shall purchase any pressurized can(s) containing paint or dye.
2. 
No person shall have in his or her possession any pressurized can containing any substance commonly known as paint or dye while in a public park, playground, swimming pool, recreational facility in the city. This section shall not apply to authorized employees of the city or an individual or authorized employee of any individual, agency or company under contract with the city.
B. 
All persons offering for sale pressurized containers of paint, indelible or waterproof ink or liquids capable of defacing property, including merchants at the Galt Market, shall restrict access to those items by placing all such items in a locked container, cabinet or other storage facility so that access to them can only be gained by employees, agents or other authorized representatives. All persons offering for sale markers with a marking tip of one quarter (1/4) of an inch or more in width shall keep such markers in a location that is in constant view of the employees, agents or other authorized representatives selling such markers.
(Ord. 89-01 § 1 (part); Ord. 2007-12, Amended, 08/21/2007)
No owner of a lot or parcel of land within the city shall, for a period in excess of forty-eight (48) hours, (A) permit graffiti to remain upon the lot or parcel of land, (B) maintain any structure affixed to such lot or parcel of land with graffiti on such structure or (C) maintain any personal property with graffiti on such lot or parcel of land or on any public owned property, including but not limited to public rights-of-way.
(Ord. 89-01 § 1 (part); Ord. 2007-12, Amended, 08/21/2007)
The city council declares that a violation of Section 8.44.050 is a public nuisance which must be abated. Graffiti may be removed by application of any of the following methods:
A. 
Any person applying graffiti within the city shall have the duty to remove the same within twenty-four hours after notice by the city or the public or private owner of the property involved. Where graffiti is applied by juveniles, the parent or parents shall be responsible for such removal or for the payment therefor.
B. 
Whenever the chief of police or his/her designated representative determines that graffiti is so located on public or privately owned structures on public or privately owned real property within the city so as to be capable of being viewed by a person utilizing any public right-of-way in this city, the police chief, or his/her designated representative, may be authorized, upon city council approval, to provide for the removal of the graffiti solely at the city's expense, without reimbursement from the property owner upon whose property the graffiti has been applied, upon the following conditions:
1. 
In removing the graffiti the painting or repair of a more extensive area shall not be authorized;
2. 
When a structure is owned by a public entity other than this city, the removal of the graffiti may be authorized only after securing the consent of the public entity having jurisdiction over the structure;
3. 
Where a structure is privately owned, the removal of the graffiti by city forces or by a private contractor under the direction of the city, may be authorized only after securing the consent of the owner.
C. 
Alternatively, graffiti located on privately owned structures on privately owned real property within the city so as to be capable of being viewed by a person utilizing any public right-of-way in this city may be removed by the city at the owner's expense as a public nuisance pursuant to the following provisions:
1. 
Whenever the chief of police or his/her designated representative is apprised of the presence of graffiti located on privately owned real property within the city, the chief of police or his/her designated representative may cause a written notice to be served upon the owner of the affected premises as such owner's name and address appears on the last equalized assessment roll by depositing a copy of the notice in the U.S. Postal Service enclosed in a sealed envelope and with the postage thereon fully prepaid. The mail shall be registered or certified and addressed to the owner at the last known address of the owner, and if there is no known address, then in care of the property address. The service is complete at the time of such deposit. "Owner," as used in this chapter, means any person in possession and also any person having or claiming to have any legal or equitable interest in the premises as described by a preliminary title search from any accredited title company. The failure of any person to receive such notice shall not affect the validity of any proceeding hereunder. The property owner shall have seven days after the date of the notice to remove the graffiti or be subject to city removal of the graffiti and assessment of the costs of such removal as a lien on the subject property.
The notice shall be substantially in the following form:
NOTICE OF INTENT TO REMOVE GRAFFITI
Date:
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that you are required at your expense to remove or paint over that graffiti located on the property commonly known as ___________, Galt, California, which is visible to public view within seven (7) days after the date of this notice; or if you fail to do so, then City employees or private City contractors will enter upon your property and abate the public nuisance by removal or painting over of the graffiti. The cost of the abatement by the City employees or its private contractors will be assessed upon your property and such costs will constitute a lien upon the land until paid.
All persons having any objection to, or interest in said matters are hereby notified to submit any objections or comments to the Chief of Police for the City of Galt or his/her designated representative within seven (7) days from the date of this notice. At the conclusion of this seven (7) day period the City may proceed with the abatement of the graffiti inscribed on your property at your expense without further notice.
The service of this notice shall be made on the day the notice is dated and by affidavit filed with the city clerk.
2. 
A like notice shall also be posted at the conspicuous place on the premises upon which graffiti is inscribed. The posting of this notice shall be made on the day the notice is dated and by affidavit filed with the city clerk.
3. 
If the owner fails to remove or cause the graffiti to be removed by the designated date, or such continued date thereafter as the chief of police or his/her designated representative approves, then the chief of police or his/her designated representative shall so notify the city manager and the city manager shall cause the graffiti to be abated by city forces or private contract, and the city or its private contractor is expressly authorized to enter upon the premises for such purpose.
4. 
Should the city be required to abate the graffiti as a public nuisance it shall follow the lien procedures set forth in Section 21.01.100. However, the notice of lien for purposes of this chapter shall be in form substantially as follows:
NOTICE OF LIEN
(Claim of City of Galt)
Pursuant to the authority vested by the provisions of Section 8.44.060 of the Galt Municipal Code, the City Manager of the City of Galt did on or about the _____ day of ______, 20__ cause the painting over or removal of graffiti at the premises hereinafter described in order to abate a public nuisance on said real property; and the City Manager of the City of Galt did on the _____ day of ______, 20__ assess the cost of such abatement upon the real property hereinafter described; and the same has not been paid nor any part hereof; and that said City of Galt does hereby claim a lien on such costs of abatement in the amount of said assessment, to wit: the sum of ______ dollars; and the same shall be a lien upon said real property until the same has been paid in full and discharged of record.
The real property hereinbefore mentioned, and upon which a lien is claimed, is that certain parcel of land lying and being in the City of Galt, County of Sacramento, State of California and particularly described as follows:
(Described)
DATED this _____ day of ________, 20__.
City Manager of the
City of Galt, California
(Ord. 89-01 § 1 (part); Ord. 2006-07, Amended, 06/06/2006)
Nothing in this Chapter shall be deemed to prevent the City Council from ordering the City Attorney to commence a civil or criminal proceeding to abate a public nuisance under applicable California Civil or Penal Code provisions, or from proceeding to abate the public nuisance pursuant to Chapter 21.01 of Title 21 as an alternative to the proceedings set forth in this Chapter.
(Ord. 89-01 § 1 (part); Ord. 2006-07, Amended, 06/06/2006)
Any violation of section 8.44.030 shall be punishable under section 21.01.050 as a misdemeanor. All other violations of this Chapter shall be punishable as an infraction pursuant to section 21.01.040.
(Ord. 2007-12, Repealed and Replaced, 08/21/2007)