The acronym for Greater Golden Hill’s clean, green and safe program, MAD (Maintenance Assessment District) was extremely fitting when council representative Diana Jurado-Sainz, from Ben Hueso’s office, addressed the community at the Greater Golden Hill Planning Committee on May 14th. The moment Jurado-Sainz announced the eighth district had hired a Graffiti-Buster there was a flood of unexpected objections from some board members as well as from some people in the audience.

“What, are we just wasting our time at these meetings?” Asked one audience member and board member of MAD.

“I’d like to say that every other community is happy we hired someone to remove the graffiti. I’m not sure why this is not a good thing.” Jurado-Sainz said in response.

Greater Golden Hill’s MAD program provides additional neighborhood services such as, graffiti removal, canyon cleanups and sidewalk repairs for the neighborhoods of Golden Hill and South Park. Funding for the program is raised through a local tax on property owners in the community levied earlier in the year.

There were several questions in regards to how the Graffiti-Buster would be paid and how much time they would devote to the Golden Hill and South Park area. The concerned residents were also upset the task force wasn’t notified earlier about the decision.

“When were we going to be told this was happening and why weren’t we involved in the hiring process?” A member of the board said in response to Jurado-Sainz’s announcement.

On May 19th, the MAD board will discuss Councilman Hueso’s decision to hire a Graffiti-Buster when they hold their monthly meeting at the Balboa Golf Course Clubhouse at 6:30 pm.