T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Members of the Marshalltown city council discussed a potential ordinance to restrict spray paint sales during Monday night’s meeting but ultimately took no action.

Citing a desire among residents to address the problem of graffiti in the downtown area — and the recent tagging of fellow Councilor Gary Thompson’s van — Mayor Pro Tem Mike Ladehoff brought a discussion item about the potential to enact restrictions on spray paint sales in Marshalltown to Monday night’s city council meeting.

“It’s turned into somewhat of a problem,” Ladehoff said. “What I’m hoping that we can do is get a communitywide discussion going, having parents talk to their kids, that type of thing. Graffiti, as a whole, makes our town look somewhat tacky.”

Although he admitted he wasn’t “in love” with it, Ladehoff’s idea was to ban spray paint sales to minors unless they are accompanied by an adult and ban the possession of over six ounces of spray paint.

“Most cities that I’ve looked into, they fine really heavily for people doing this. It’s not a step that I take lightly, but we’re talking about cleaning up our town,” he said. “We just had our Arts and Culture Master Plan, and this is not art by any stretch of the imagination.”

He added that he hoped the proposal could give the police department a tool to crack down on the practice and cited the expense of cleaning up graffiti, which was estimated at thousands of dollars per year.

Councilor Jeff Schneider immediately came out against the ban and said individuals who wished to obtain spray paint could still do so either online or in nearby communities.

“I just don’t think it’s going to prevent anything, (but) I am fine with increased penalties, though,” Schneider said.

Thompson told Ladehoff he understood the intent of the plan but ultimately felt it would be difficult to enforce.

“I think the police have better things to do than this one,” he said.

Instead, Thompson suggested using Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) funds to assist businesses and homeowners with putting in cameras that could identify taggers in the act. After Ladehoff lightly ribbed Thompson by noting that until the recent incident, he wasn’t sure anything could make his van look worse, Councilor Dex Walker asked Police Chief Mike Tupper about available data on the number of graffiti incidents.

“It’s always been a trend with certain groups of people that, when they want to be destructive, that’s how they do it,” Walker said. “Honest question, is it genuinely worse out there or not?”

Tupper came to the podium and said the graffiti issue has “ebbed and flowed” over the years, but he acknowledged that many incidents simply aren’t reported.

“I would tell you that my sense is, over the last year, it’s been a little bit worse than in past years,” he said. “But it’s an issue that ebbs and flows, and I suspect that there’s a small group of people — maybe just one or two individuals — that are our problems, and eventually we’re gonna catch them. I promise you we’re working on that, but I wouldn’t describe this as something that’s keeping me up at night. It’s not our worst issue that we’re dealing with.”

Referencing the prior presentation from Arts and Culture Alliance Director Amber Danielson on the Arts and Culture Master Plan, Tupper noted that communities with more public art tend to see less graffiti. He also mentioned a few other cities in Iowa with ordinances in place, and the police chiefs in Muscatine and Sioux City both called them “useful tools” to deal with both tagging and the dangers associated with ingesting or “huffing” spray paint.

Tupper told the council he didn’t believe the ordinance would be enforced often, but he did call it a potentially useful tool and said he would be in favor of enacting it. He encouraged those in attendance and watching the meeting remotely to file police reports when they notice graffiti in Marshalltown.

Councilor Barry Kell called the conversation “the right one” to be having and stressed the need to devise a strategy to address the problem rather than just hoping it stops. According to Ladehoff, the ordinance would also put an onus on businesses that sell spray paint, and those found not to be in compliance could face fines.

“It’s a pretty heavy hammer if we want to do this,” Ladehoff said. “It depends on how we want to handle this because this does need to be handled.”

Schneider reiterated his contention that stopping minors from obtaining spray paint would be all but impossible in the modern economy, and he asked Tupper if the police department routinely sends detectives to stores to ask if anyone suspicious had been seen buying it. The chief said he had not, citing the department’s caseload of over 800 calls for service per week and again encouraging residents to file police reports.

The floor was opened to public comments, and Linda Clark was the only resident to step forward. She contended that the ordinance would not be enforceable and wondered if many residents would even understand it because of the wide variety of languages spoken within Marshalltown.

“You’re not going to make an ordinance to make people be using common sense and doing what is right,” she said. “And this isn’t going to work, because they can get paint anywhere.”

Acknowledging a lack of consensus on moving forward with an ordinance, Ladehoff nonetheless thanked the council for the discussion and asked anyone with ideas to bring them forward to city officials and the police department. No official action was taken.

Tupper then reminded those in attendance of the Marshall County Crime Stoppers line, (641) 753-1234, and the potential for rewards if the information they provide leads to an arrest.

“We are concerned about this issue and continue to work on it. We ask the public just to help us out by just reporting these crimes,” Tupper said.

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