WARDEN - A Warden resident questioned officials about removing graffiti around the city.

City officials replied they are working on the issue, when the man spoke at a recent city council meeting.

Arthur Mendez Jr. told the council he wanted to see the city remove graffiti. He spotted graffiti between Second and Ninth Streets between County Road and Harrison Avenue.

"I would like to ask why it's still up there? It's been up there for the last five months," he said. He held up a photo showing gang-related graffiti. "This is along the back of County Road."

Councilmember Roldan Capetillo asked what the property owner said about the graffiti. Mendez questioned why it was the property owner's problem.

"The whole idea behind graffiti is if you leave it on there, it's like their area," Capetillo said. "If you paint it right away, they know they were defeated right away. We've been pushing this for many years."

Mendez showed another example of graffiti, which he said was located near the first picture he showed. He felt like the issue was completely ignored.

"It's gotten so bad it's even going on garbage cans, and also in front of city hall," he said. "Soon enough it will be on the walls of this city hall."

Police Chief Rick Martin said the police were aware of the gang-related graffiti, and they think they have a good idea about what is going on with the gangs in the city. He works with property owners to remove the graffiti, and didn't have a working phone number for the person owning the property Mendez showed to the council.

"We do make a lot of arrests," he said. "I want to get (the graffiti) off right away ... You're right, if we leave it up they're going to tag over it. That's why the council passed the ordinance to get the tagging off right away."

Graffiti does happen a lot, but the city does take the "gang-free community" signs seriously, Martin said.

Capetillo said the sign represents a mentality that residents don't want gangs in the city.

"We're doing our very best to get rid of them," he said. "It's really hard to get rid of them when the law is sometimes not on your side."

Mayor Tony Massa told Martin to start working on the abatement process, so the city could clean the properties.

"One of the only tools we have is to fine the victim, the homeowner, that (has the) graffiti, which is not the best system in the world," he said. "We try to find volunteers to help clean up the property, and we'll start that process, and if it comes down to having to fine the homeowners than that's the process."

The city can't have public works employees paint over the graffiti because the state auditor might consider it a gift of public funds, he said.

Councilmember Mike Leavitt pointed out as unfair as the process seems, it's the property owner's responsibility to take care of their property.

"Which is why we have some of the highest fines in the county," Massa said. "If we catch them doing graffiti, we have some of the highest fines around."