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02-15-1994 - Painting of Walls Adjacent to Arterial StreetsCity of West Covina Memorandum To: From: .Subj ect: City Manager city council Environmental Services Director Painting of Walls Adjacent to Arterial Streets AGENDA ITEM NO. F-3 DATE . 2-IS-94 @PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER SUMMARY: This is a report on the implementation of the recommendation from the Zero Tolerance Anti -Graf f iti Task Force to. adopt four basic colors to be used on walls adjacent to the City's arterial streets and have a weekend community paint -out to paint all such walls with one of these four basic colors. The objective is to eliminate the, patchwork app ' earance and facilitate subsequent removal of graffiti. In June 1993, the City Counc i 1 -appointed -Zero Tolerance Anti - Graffiti Task Force (Task Forte) presented to ' the City Council a comprehensive report on recommen ded actions to improve the City's anti -graffiti efforts. Two of the recommendations related to the painting of all walls adjacent to the City's arterial streets to one of four basic colors in a . relatively short period of time. The objective is to eliminate the patchwork appearance of such walls and facilitate the subsequent removal of graffiti. Staf f has determined that approximately 194,000 square feet of walls would be included in this project. The cost to paint the walls would range from $10, 00.0,- (paint, materials and volunteers) up to an estimate of $67,000 (paint, I materials and a contractor). Staff�recommends the City Council refer this item to the 1994-95. budget process for further consideration. The Zero Tolerance Anti -Graffiti Task Force made two recommendations regarding the walls adjacent to the City's arterial streets. These recommendations were: "West Covina adopt four basic colors to be used when painting over graffiti. The four colors suggested were; Beige, Pink, Gray and- Navajo White. This program will eliminate the unsightly patchwork look so much of our community has now." "Have a weekend 'COMMUNITY PAINT -OUT', at which time the four basic paint colors to be adopted by the City would be utilized and all walls would be fresh and clean at the same time to start the four color program forfuture,graffiti removal.." Basic -colors -for -walls Program The City staff has reviewed the recommendation to have four basic colors used in the graffiti removal program. The st ' aff has concluded that there,should be three basic colors for the walls in the City. These colors would be Beige, Gray and Pink. It was our thought that the Navajo White was not a very I prevalent color in the field today and would be a very light color that would show dirt more so than the other colors. We also felt the fewer colors would better reach I the objectives of the Task Force recommendations. The use of the basic colors makes a lot of, sense. Setting the painting of all the walls aside, the fewer the colors the City and its graffiti removal contractor have to stock, the more cost- effective we will be able to remove graffiti. It will also make it easier to supply residents who want �to paint out, graffiti as a community project. one issue we will need to examine is the matching of the colors in subsequent removals of graffiti. This may arise as a result of slight variations in ­ the same color (Beige) depending on the brand used,, e.g. Sinclair or Dunn Edwards. This can be overcome by specifying the composition of the requested paint in our purchase specifications. .-Painting of Walls As indicated above, the Task Force has indicated they wanted to paint all of the walls with the basic colors during a weekend "COMMUNITY PAINT -OUT". This would imply that there would be a weekend where the walls would be painted over one weekend. This citywide approach may be difficult�to achieve. It i-s probably more likely that this paint-out.occurs over several weekends in a two - month period. The staff and volunteer resources and work party organization would probably lend, themselves to several weekends instead of one weekend. If the City Council decides this is a worthy,program, the details of how -it can be developed and reported to the City Council at a later meeting - The Staff has surveyed all of the walls adjacent -to the arterial streets'in the City. The survey results are as follows: Wall Area Wall Color Paint Needed 1361590 sq. ft. Beige 683 gallons 41,240 sq.,.ft. Gray 206 gallons 15,960 sa. ft. Pink 80 gallons 193,790'sq. ft. 969 gallons The cost toTrovide the paint would be about $5,600. Another approach to the immediate painting all of the walls in a short period of,time is to use a contractor. This approach could cost up to $67, 000 including the, paint and all supplies. While this could -be a faster method.to achieve the desired appearance, there'is one element missing: community involvement. One of the desired goals of the Task Force recommendation was to organize neighborhoods into work parties to do the painting. This could lead to some, if, not all, of the participants, being willing to, paint out the graffiti when it reappears. This would relieve the, City and graffiti removal contractor from doing the work. Such work parties could also be a way to bring neighbors together just as Neighborhood Watch has,done. In the final analysis, the "COMMUNITY. PAINT -OUT" approach is the preferred method to paint the walls. Jf. this. is done over.a 60-90 day period,- resources could be available to organize the program and supervise its completion. If the -community approach is not successful, the City can always turn'to A contractor to complete the work., Itshould be clear that any work done by the community will avoid�the contracto r's cost that every resident will have to finance. Graffiti Removal Status The occurances of graffiti in the City has declined over the last several months. While there are variations from month to,month, there has been a steady downward trend.. Attached is the summary of activity� f or the last three years, listing the graf f iti sites cleaned by month. Based on the field auditing by - Staff of the. graffiti removal contract, graffiti is being removed within' the 48 hour limits specified in the contract and is qu ' ite often removed within 12 to .24 hours of reporting of thesites., The covering of graffiti has been complete and the match is,acceptable. 2 Staff has noticed some locations where the coverage Is not complete and or the match is less than adequate. We have determined that there are some individuals doing this work. We are attempting to determine who these people may be so we can maybe provide some assistance. Certainlyf if the walls were already in one of the basic.colors, the efforts o I f these people would be more effective. Funding The funding of this program could be through the Citywide Lighting and Landscape Maintenance District. Recent changes in the Sta ' te law allos a city, to finance graffiti removal through such a, district. The costs of this program be they $5,600 (volunteers) to $67,000 (contractor) would be eligible expenditures in the City's district., Staff is recommending that the financing be referred to the 1994-95,budget process if the City Council agrees with the wall painting program. In that process, the potential impacts on the residents and businesses in the city can be computed, and subsequently reviewed by the City Council for approval consideration. Summary Staff supports the Task Force recommendation on the painting of the walls to remove the patchwork appearance. We -agree that the use of three basic colors will simplify the graffiti removal process in the futureand may,result in some saving to the community. Staff also supports the community, paint -out approach to achieve the desired goals expressed by the Task Force. Staff believes the best funding source is the Citywide Lighting.land LandscapeMaintenance District. Recommendation it is recommended the City Council support.the recommendations of the Zero Tolerance,Anti-Graffiti Task Force by:' a. Adopting three basic colors (Beige, Gray and Pink) for the walls adjacent to -the -arterial -streets in the City. b. staff to work with the Task Force to design a citywide community paint -out program.that will complete the painting of the walls over a 90-day period of time. c. Refer the funding of this program to the 1994-95 budget process for the Citywide Lighting and Landscape Maintenance -District. 3 GRAFFITI SITES CALENDAR YEARS.1991-1993 1991 1992 1993 JANUARY 354 426 .474 FEBRUARY 330 270 550 MARCH 364 799 APRIL 367 304 651 MAY 420 360 �551 JUNE 335 309 412 JULY 302 381 AUGUST 212 265 295 SEPTEMBER 238 301 OCTOBER 266 377 303 NOVEMBER 424 255 ,DECEMBER 279 473' 367 TOTAL 3,817 4,255 5,339 2/3/94