Manteca City Manager Karen McLaughlin will discuss the state of the city’s budget, how it was balanced, and what the future holds during the Thursday, April 12, gathering of the Manteca Patriots.

The meeting takes place from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Chez Shari on the second floor of the Manteca Golf Course clubhouse on North Union Road.

McLaughlin will also discuss the loss of the redevelopment agency, her passion for open government, and will answer questions.

McLaughlin was raised in Newport Beach in Southern California where she graduated from Newport Harbor High and studied at Orange Community College. She ended up majoring in journalism at Humboldt State.

She was hired as a reporter at the Oakdale Leader in 1983 before joining the staff of the Manteca Bulletin several years later. Her beat for the Bulletin was covering city hall. Then City Manager Dave Jinkens hired her as an executive analyst in the city administration office in 1987. Two years later she was promoted to assistant to the city manager. She served in that role from 1989 to 1998. From 1998 to 2002 she was the deputy city manager and then served as assistant city manager from 2002 to 2011.

She was selected to take over as City Manager when Steve Pinkerton left on September 1, 2011.