TULSA, Okla. — A Tulsa business is out hundreds of dollars after fixing a code violation.
They said the problem is that they didn’t cause the graffiti and don’t want to continue to be responsible for cleaning it up.
So, they sent 2 News an email to investigate the issue. 2 News went to the business and talked to the production manager. Then, 2 News' Naomi Keitt took their concerns to the city.
“My question is, what recourse do we have?,” said Randy Chavous.
Randy Chavous, production manager at Alpha Investment Casting, showed the graffiti they’ve already cleaned up at the business’ north Tulsa property.
“Over here, they’ve used the cleaner, but you can still see kind of an outline faint phantom lines of what used to be up there,” said Chavous.
An employee spent about 12 hours cleaning up the graffiti, even painting over colorful text on a brick wall, but it’s going to take some work to get back to normal. They said it’s time and money away from the business.
“We understand it’s our property,” said Chavous. “We’re responsible. How much control do we have when we leave here? Anybody just walking around with a spray can can just help themselves.”
They got this code violation earlier this month and spent nearly $400 in labor and materials to fix the problem.
In his email to 2 News, Chavous wrote, “We feel it is unfair for a small business to be responsible for a crime we didn’t commit.”
He echoed that during an interview on Oct. 28.
“We’re a small business,” said Chavous. “We watch our bottom dollar, and we think this is money well spent keeping it in the company, giving it to the employees, doing something for them, then having to constantly go over graffiti.”
He said if they get cited again, it could quickly add up.
“If it gets to be something every week, we could be in violation every week, so that’s what I want to do. If we can just find some common ground, we definitely want to work for the city, and we definitely want to do what’s right,” said Chavous.
We took Chavous’ concerns to the city, asking, “Is there a solution that would not require the business to be responsible for the cleanup of graffiti if it happens in the future?”
In a statement, the city said, “Business owners and homeowners are responsible for cleanup on their own property. The data we have collected just from cleaning up graffiti on city property tells us that the quicker the graffiti is addressed, the less likely it is to become an ongoing problem.”
Chavous hopes that’s the case.
“This is something that we don’t want to turn into a weekly or monthly expense,” said Chavous.
The city asks property owners who are victims of vandalism to report it, even if it’sonline to TPD.
They provided additional information on their graffiti process:
“The City of Tulsa does have graffiti crews, but they are solely dedicated to cleaning public properties that the City owns. In circumstances where a complaint comes in through 311 about graffiti on private property, the City works hand-in-hand with the property owner to bring the property into compliance while giving them ample time to clean up the vandalism that has occurred. Any new violations will require a new notice allowing the owner ample time to abate the violation.”
Small businesses located in downtown Tulsa within the IDL can request service from the Downtown Tulsa Partnership to assist in private-property graffiti removal. Information about that process can be found here.
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