Manteca Councilman Dave Breitenbucher is a frequent volunteer at the Inner City Action’s emergency homeless shelter that is operated with funding from the city.

And before that, he was active with his church with the Turlock Gospel Rescue Mission when they were operating a similar shelter at 555 Industrial Park Drive.

Breitenbucher is also a critic of the city’s pick for a permanent homeless shelter and navigation center location on 8 acres on South Main Street that Manteca needs to purchase for around $1.58 million. That’s because Breitenbucher believes the city can do the same thing more cost effective at existing municipal facilities along Wetmore Street closer to downtown.

Breitenbucher has been on the losing end of 4-1 votes on council motions to move toward the site the city has yet to purchase.

That said he has never given any indication that he would do nothing but fight the South Main location.

Breitenbucher — along with fellow council members Charlie Halford and Gary Singh — indicated in advance of Tuesday’s special council meeting where the agenda called for Manteca Mayor Ben Cantu to nominate two council members to serve to an ad hoc homeless subcommittee that he wanted to be on it.

Cantu, who under council rules nominates committee and commission members that must be approved by the council majority, nominated Halford and himself.

When the vote came it was a 2-2 deadlock as Councilman Jose Nuño was absent from the 1 p.m. special meeting. Cantu’s nominations were supported by himself and Singh while Halford and Breitenbucher voted against it.

Instead of submitting a different combination, Cantu opted to wait until the July 20 meeting when there might be a full council present to have Nuño break the deadlock.

Breitenbucher, who is mulling taking on Cantu in the 2022 mayoral election, addressed the mayor after the vote. Breitenbucher delineated his first-hand knowledge of the homeless situation from his volunteer work at the shelter. He also pointed out that Cantu had passed over him for a previous ad hoc committee dealing with the city finances when he was among the two people who volunteered.

Halford on Wednesday explained why he voted against himself, noting Breitenbucher “has the most working knowledge” of day-to-day efforts among council members when it came to efforts to with the homeless.

While Halford would still like to serve on a committee, he would favor Breitenbucher serving on the committee before he does due to his high level of personal involvement.

Meanwhile others have questioned whether Cantu would have a conflict because an adult daughter has been homeless from time-to-time and may currently be so.

The issue has never been raised in previous council decisions involving spending municipal resources on working to get the homeless off the streets. And given Cantu would not have appear to have a direct monetary benefit, it wouldn’t seem likely to reach the level of a conflict of interest to require him to recuse himself.

This is happening against a backdrop over the past two plus years of Cantu, when he is running council meetings, often forgetting to call on Breitenbucher when it comes to council comments on issues before the council. There have not been any signs of malice when it has happened and the council as a whole often jokes and laughs the mayor’s forgetfulness off.

The fact it has continued, however, has irked Breitenbucher.

That said the strident opinions many residents have in dealing with the homeless makes it a major political issue in the community.  The homeless has been a top priority for City Councils six years running after Manteca dodged potentially large monetary damages by settling a class action lawsuit brought against the city by three homeless individuals

The fact the city is now likely to move forward with a multi-million dollar homeless action plan — that if state and federal grants can be secured will have a minimal impact on city finances — will occur just as the races for the mayor’s post and two council seats start means it could become extremely contentious.

That is because the council Tuesday declared a shelter crisis in Manteca. Under state law that will now allow the city manager to put solutions in place that can work around city regulations and even the environmental impact process to get emergency shelters in place.

The ad hoc committee, which has no power to act unilaterally but can function legally out of the public’s eye, will recommend action to the city council.

That is a critical advantage for staff as it means they would potentially have two of five votes lined up before bringing homeless related solutions before the council for approval.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, mail dwyatt@mantecabulletin