Budget cuts hurt efforts to clean up graffiti in Lodi
By Andrew Adams
News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Only about a year ago, Lodi city workers could usually paint over graffiti within an hour or so of receiving a complaint.

Now, because of budget cuts, it usually takes about 24 hours before a city worker gets to cleaning up graffiti, the city's street superintendent, George Bradley, said.

And with his staff stretched to the limit, Bradley said the city is falling behind on keeping Lodi's graffiti covered.

"We have a reduction in service across the board and we're trying to address the priority issues first," he said.

This time of year that's paving work. And with workers out because of injuries and the citywide hiring freeze, Bradley said he doesn't have the staff to aggressively go after graffiti like the city has in the past.

The city has reduce the abatement position from a full-time to half-time.

Last year, the city budgeted about $68,000 for graffiti abatement and this year it received just over $43,000.

"When we assign a guy to do graffiti at the end of the day he still has some sites to abate the next day," Bradley said. "We're not staying on top of it. We're falling behind."

The city cleaned up 414 graffiti sites in the 2004-05 fiscal year, which runs from July 1 to June 30.

This year, since July, Bradley said his staff have been able to clean up 86.

City workers will clean up any graffiti on private property that's visible from public areas after obtaining a release from the property owner.

Fran Forkas, a member of the Lodi Improvement Committee, said was not glad to hear the city had cut funding for the problem.

"My concern now would be if they cut it to half-time that we would see the graffiti return and a half-time person I doubt would be able to keep up with it," he said.

Forkas said graffiti has been a growing problem in Lodi for some time, and he would like to see if that funding couldn't be added back in to the public works budget to make sure the problem doesn't become substantially worse.

Budget cuts have also changed how the city approaches its graffiti problems. In the past, Bradley said crews would clean up a site and then return the next day to a make sure it stayed clean overnight.

Now, he said, city crews can only paint over the graffiti and then move on to the next site. Bradley added his staff can no longer patrol around the city looking for graffiti, but rather only respond to reports.

He said his department hasn't received any complaints about graffiti, but has received several about the reductions in landscaping maintenance -- another service that received the budget ax.

"That really is a service we're used to having," he said. "We still have the pride in our city, we just don't have the ability."

Bradley said he's tried to keep costs down, using a paint sprayer that's so old its about to "blow up" and a natural gas powered van that he was able to buy off another city at a reduced price.

In Galt, a team of local volunteers fights that city's growing graffiti problem.

Galt City Councilwoman Barbara Payne who helps lead the "I love my town" committee that focuses on keeping Galt looking as attractive as it can.

She said volunteers will clean up graffiti after the city's police department has photographed the graffiti to make a record of it.

Volunteers contribute most of the materials needed for the program, but she said the city has helped support some of the cleanup costs.

A growing gang presence has led to more graffiti in the city, Payne said.

"The problem is there's almost a competition," she said. "We'll clean it up and the next day it's tagged again."