City council cuts Lodi art board, puts off vote on water rates

Vote to abolish Senior Commission tabled

The Lodi City Council unanimously voted to abolish the Art Advisory Board and tabled the decision to abolish the Lodi Senior Commission to a future council meeting during its meeting Wednesday night in Carnegie Forum. The council also continued the public hearing on water rate increases until Jan. 17, 2018 due to the absence of two council members.

Absent from the meeting were Councilwoman JoAnne Mounce and Councilman Bob Johnson.

The responsibilities of the Art Advisory Board, which oversees the Art in Public Places program, will be shifted to the Lodi Arts Commission.

That commission will now be made up of seven at-large members appointed by city council who are registered voters within the city. It will also have two ex officio members with voting rights selected from the Planning Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission and SPARC.

In addition to the art advisory board, Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Director Jeff Hood recommended that the council abolish the Senior Commission and rely on a combination of the LOEL Center, Parks and Recreation Commission, the Lodi Improvement Committee and Community Block Grant funding to provide services to seniors.

The council ultimately decided to tabled a decision on the Senior Commission until they could get more information and more council members were in attendance.

Hood said the city no longer has a

senior center and there is no connection between the senior commission and the parks department. The commission has had difficulty filling vacancies, he said, and their meetings have been short with little variation in agendas or public participation. The needs identified in the commission’s recent survey include affordable housing, transportation needs, and access to medical care — things that Hood said the parks department isn’t equipped to handle.

According to Hood, a decline in full-time staff has made it harder for the department to manage the boards and commissions it oversees. The department currently has just one recreation manager, Jennifer Winn, who is the liaison for all of those boards and commissions. Winn has also recently taken over responsibility of the department’s year-round aquatics program, taking more of her time, Hood said.

During public comment, Senior Commission members Terri Whitmire and Julie Whiteley both spoke on the commission’s importance to seniors in the community and requested the council table its decision. The delay, they said, would give them the opportunity to talk with the council and city staff about the

matter.

Pat Patrick, president of the Lodi Chamber of Commerce said that he agreed that there was no longer a connection between the parks and recreation department and the Senior Commission and was sympathetic to the challenges facing the department.

He pointed out that seniors make up 30 percent of Lodi’s population, and said that there was a need for resources, services and advocacy in that community. He suggested that the council move the Senior Commission out of the parks department’s responsibility and have a council member work with them.

Lodi resident Spencer Dayton said that he stood in solidarity with the Senior Commission. He said that if council decided to cut the senior

commission, they would have to cut the youth commission as well. It would not be fair to have one group represented and not the other, he said.

Lodi resident Mike Lusk, who sits on the board for the Hospice of San Joaquin, suggested a partnership with the Senior Commission to coordinate referrals.

City Manager Steve Schwabauer asked the public not to equate the city’s dedication to the Senior Commission to its commitment to the needs of seniors.

Also on Wednesday night, the Lodi Citizens in Action presented the Lodi Police Foundation with a check for $9,077 which was raised at their Heroes Behind the Badge fundraising event.