To the taggers, city workers are "buffers" or "busters," representatives of the authority they are trying to subvert.

City workers, on the other hand, say taggers are a "waste of artistic talent," disrespectful of private and public property.

But they can't live without each other. Each provides the other a canvas; taggers need fresh spots to paint and city workers need spray paint and markers to remove.

"It's frustrating," said Joaquin Ortiz, a temporary city worker whose paint jobs usually last a day or two. "Then again, it provides me with a job the next day."

Ortiz, 19, is the newest member of the city's graffiti removal crew, which consists of two full-time workers, two part-timers, three trucks and a fourth vehicle they scavenge from another city crew, said Ernie Marino, operations and maintenance supervisor.

Armed with paint, pressure hoses and chemicals such as "Taginator," the city workers patrol Modesto, responding to daily calls of graffiti on fences, buildings, canals and sound walls.

In November, the crew painted 40,361 square feet with 383 gallons of beige, white, off-white, Navajo red and "ugly brown," said Marino. And the numbers grow every month. In November 2002, the crew painted only 12,029 square feet with 88 gallons.

"We can hardly keep up with it," said Marino. "And when they have a gang war, look out."

Ortiz, on the job since June, said most of the graffiti is done by tagging crews, not gangs.

"It's a big group of wasted artistic talent," said Ortiz, rolling a coat of beige over a fence near Mark Twain School on Thursday. "They could open an airbrush shop and make a lot of money."

Part of the high of tagging is defying authority.

Some leave notes for city workers.

"They'll write, 'Hey, buffer, how ya' doin'?'" Ortiz said.

Others are more brazen.

Ortiz recalled driving by a tagger at work on a wall near Blue Gum and Morse avenues.

He drove by three times in the graffiti truck, looking the tagger in the eye, but he kept painting.

"They've got guts," said Ortiz.

Some taggers are known for acrobatic feats.

The more nimble among them paint water towers and highway overpasses. Ortiz recalled a tag on the Highway 99 overpass at Woodland Avenue.

"I had to call up Caltrans to take care of that one," he said.

Nonetheless, Ortiz and the city workers are determined to keep the city clean. And they've got an advantage with the city's power to buy paint in bulk.

Bee staff writer Todd Milbourn can be reached at 578-2339 or at tmilbourn@modbee.com.

At A Glance

JOB: Graffiti technician, or, as taggers prefer, "buffers" or "busters."

WHAT THEY DO: Patrol regions of Modesto, painting over graffiti-ridden fences, sound walls, canals and buildings. Their work usually lasts a day or two before it's tagged again.

PAY: Full-time graffiti crew members make $16 to $18 an hour, said supervisor Ernie Marino. Temporary workers make about $8.50 an hour.

WHAT THEY USE: Workers use rollers to paint over tags. To loosen paint, they also use an assortment of chemicals with names like Erase, So Safe and Taginator.

WHAT'S THE LARGEST TAG YOU'VE SEEN?: "It must have been 2,300 feet on a sound wall on Standiford. It was spray paint and they did it all over one weekend," said Joaquin Ortiz, graffiti remover.