Galt lawn-watering incident was blown out of proportion

During the last week, our public works director, Greg Halladay, has come under fire for a citation that was issued for an illegal water connection in the City of Galt.

Considerable public outcry over the incident seemed to stem from a blatantly misleading article published Tuesday in the Lodi News-Sentinel. The article was nothing more than a tabloid piece meant to sensationalize an issue and sell papers. While this seems to be a common practice at the Lodi News-Sentinel, it was still surprising to see.

Reporter Chris Nichols seemed intent in his article to scare the public into thinking that the City of Galt is assessing $100 fines for neighbors watering the lawns of foreclosed homes in their neighborhood. To the contrary, Galt Public Works staff has yet to issue a citation this year to any homeowner simply watering a neighbor's yard with a sprinkler and a garden hose. The action taken by neighbors to do as much is commendable. Our Public Works staff has followed the direction of the City Council in not writing such citations because we recognize the good work that these concerned homeowners are doing in their neighborhoods.

The incident described by Tuesday's article was much different than merely watering a lawn with a garden hose. By hard piping a hose connection from one home to another, a situation was created that could have resulted in severe property damage inside the abandoned home and could have posed a risk to the entire Galt water supply. In this particular incident, it sounds like care was taken to insure that this would not occur (neighbors walked the home with a real estate agent to insure no faucets inside were left on and that back-flush protections were in place). Had this extra care not been taken, however, a significant risk of liability to a good-intentioned homeowner would have ensued.

I remain deeply disappointed that the isolated incident described in Tuesday's article was sensationalized the way that it was. Even more disappointing, however, has been the negative public feedback directed at our Public Works department. Our public works director, Greg Halladay, has been the recipient of the majority negative feedback, with some residents claiming that he has some vendetta against someone that led him to write the citation. After looking at the facts laid out to Council at Tuesday's meeting (which the Lodi NewsSentinel chose to skip), I believe Greg acted appropriately and am confident that nobody was the target of a deeper conspiracy. Greg is tasked with enforcing the laws of the city and protecting the community as a whole; the citation he hand delivered was consistent with those obligations.

During my time on the council, Greg Halladay has been one of the hardest working employees on our staff. Greg, a salaried employee, often comes to work an hour or more early, and stays late to handle an overwhelming workload brought on by an understaffed department. His dedication to serving the community in an ethical manner should be commended, not dragged through the mud by a misleading and irresponsible article. The City of Galt is lucky to have an employee so dedicated to his job. I hope in the future that the paper will stick to the facts and refrain from sullying the reputation of a commendable man.

Editor's note: We appreciate Galt Mayor Andrew Meredith's feedback. For context, we'd only add that the citation was issued to one of the mayor's council colleagues, Barbara Payne, with whom the mayor has not always agreed. Further, we have received, neither from the mayor nor any other reader, a report of factual inaccuracies in Mr. Nichols' story.
Rich Hanner
Editor.