Four shootings, seven wounded - two seriously - in six days.

And when family and friends gather for a candlelight vigil for one gravely injured victim and request periodic police presence to assure safety, they are told no can do because the department doesn’t have the resources.

If what happened in the past six days doesn’t constitute an emergency situation for Manteca, nothing will.

Violence, particularly gang-related, has been ratcheting ever so upward for the past few months. Its timing reflects what happened five years ago with one big exception: Back then bullets rarely hit anyone. Today they’re hitting people including bystanders.

There is a pressing need for more police resources to concentrate on gangs and others that are responsible for most of the crime in this city.

Manteca is still dealing with economic realities when it comes to budgeting. The state can still raid local funds. So what can our city leaders do?

Take a calculated risk and dip into the general fund reserve and hire seven more police officers now and not later.

It can be done without jeopardizing the effort to keep Manteca from deficit spending.

Here’s how:

Since the 1990s Manteca’s general fund reserve designated for emergencies had been stuck at $1,918,000 in good times and in bad times. Last year the city sold two parcels it owned along Moffat Boulevard to the Redevelopment Agency for the purpose of building the transit station that is now under construction.

The $755,525 net realized from the sale was directed by the council to go into the emergency reserve. Staff also kept the $189,477 in interested the emergency reserve funds generated in that account instead of transferring it out for other expenses. The end result is the emergency reserve is projected to sit at $2,729,098 when the current fiscal year ends in 21 days. That’s $811,091 more than has been in the emergency fund for almost 20 years.

Assuming $115,000 per police officer position for salary, benefits, worker’s compensation and equipment Manteca could use that $811,091 to hire seven more officers.

The calculated risk part comes in with sales tax. By this time next year Manteca will be collecting sales tax from Burlington Coat Factory, Big Lots, Dollar General, Banana Republic, and a fifth McDonald’s. Granted, they have to make up for the loss of Best Buy sales tax. But there is also the interest on the $1.9 million to take into consideration.

Yes, if there is an increase in sales tax and property tax at a certain level part of it is committed to going to existing employees who have taken substantial hits. But the rest can go where it is needed. Between the net new sales tax and what is restored by increased consumer spending there could be enough to cover most - if not all - of the $755,525 gap.

If the council is a bit nervous, they could cut the new positions down to six and make the gap to cover with new income closer to $640,000. They could put the $115,000 not spent from the increase in the emergency reserve set aside to pay for a second year’s salary of one of the six officers hired. It could also be cut down to five and make it an even more palatable $525,000 with $230,000 of the “extra” in the reserve set aside next year to cover the salary of two officers for an additional year.

While it is prudent to build up the emergency reserve, it is less prudent to do so when the proverbial house is burning down.

Also, there are more general fund reserves than just that set aside for emergencies.

The general fund expenditures for the current fiscal year are $27 million. There is $4.7 million in growth related PPIP excise taxes being carried over after June 30. In addition operations will have a $2.7 million carryover. Take away the operational reserve, and there is $6.4 million in reserve that isn’t committed to a particular expenditure or roughly 23 percent of the budget.

Granted the excise tax is collected to pay for growth-related costs but it isn’t restricted as straight growth fees are in how they are spent. No one is advocating continuing to tap into this money that was expected to grow by $375,000 in a 12-month period ending June 30 to balance the budget as has happened in the past. But tapping into a couple hundred thousand if need be not in the upcoming fiscal year but in 2013-14 to retain additional cops hired today would not be viewed by most people in this community as reckless spending.

The ball is in the council’s court.

All they need to do is reverse directives made in 2010 and take the emergency reserve down to the same level it was at for nearly two decades and then direct staff to fund seven more officers.

Yes, there is a slight risk.

But the risk is greater not to use the funds to hire more officers.

If you doubt that, go ask people who have seen an increase in gun fire and gang activity in their neighborhoods.





This column is the opinion of managing editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Bulletin or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA.  He can be contacted at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com or 209-249-3519.