Manteca Mayor Ben Cantu wants funding for two additional police officers in the upcoming budget even if it means further drawing down reserves.

“We’re losing ground,” Cantu said of Manteca Police Department staffing levels.

The mayor believes Manteca is short at least 11 officers using the yardstick of one officer per 1,000 residents.

“That (one officer per 1,000) has been the city’s goal for 20 years and we’ve never reached it,” Cantu said.

Cantu added he is constantly getting feedback from citizens that want stepped up traffic enforcement.

“The community is not comfortable with our police staffing (level),” Cantu asserted.

Cantu, who has heavily drawn on his 30 years of experience as a city planner during his two past years as mayor to take municipal staff to task for what he views are less than stellar growth-related decisions, made his comments during the City Council’s Tuesday workshop on the proposed $173 million citywide operating budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The mayor met resistance to his proposal from council colleague Charlie Halford who happens to have a 31-year history working as a Manteca Police officer including serving as police chief from 1997 until his retirement in 2008.

“Now is not the time,” Halford, who as a candidate stressed the need for the council to make better fiscal decisions as the cornerstone of his campaign, said.

Halford noted the city is drawing down its reserves by $1.7 million to balance the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year after cutting into to the reserves by $4.9 million this year.

Not only does the city not have the $13.9 million in promised federal COVID relief funds in hand yet, but they are still trying to unsnarl bookkeeping issues.

Financial consultant Stephanie Beauchaine has repeatedly explained over the past eight months the city has the money but it hasn’t been used or pigeonholed in the right places based on legal restrictions attached to it. At the same time Manteca has a number of multiple year projects that haven’t been fully or properly funded. That means after the dust settles, the city could likely have accounts that owe other accounts money.

If that occurs reserves that Cantu would want tapped for the two additional officers could take a big hit or they could have money transferred in from enterprise funds such as for sewer and water.

Topping that off, the city is still playing catch-up with its annual fiscal year audits. The 2019 audit hasn’t been completed which means the numbers the proposed budget is being built on haven’t been confirmed as being 100 percent accurate. That audit is not expected to be completed for at least 45 days.

Cantu said he was pleased with the budget as presented and had so much confidence in it he wanted to adopt it Tuesday. However, that wasn’t a legal option as the meeting at the Manteca Transit Center had been billed strictly as a workshop.

The staff expects a full recovery in the coming 13 months from pandemic hits the city experienced in revenue during lockdowns. There is a delay of a number of months, however, between when sales and room taxes are collected and when the city receives them.

While Cantu was comfortable with drawing down the reserves by $200,000 plus to budget for two more police officers now as he sees the city’s proposed spending plan as “ultra conservative”, neither Halford nor Councilman Dave Breitenbucher shared the mayor’s confidence. Council member Jose Nuño was not in attendance while Gary Singh left early to attend his son’s eighth grade promotion ceremonies.

“We’re not there yet,” Breitenbucher said of the city’s revenue picture being clear and accurate.

Interim Police Chief Michael Aguilar indicated he believed the budgeting course the city is taking under the direction of Interim City Manager Michael Harden who retired as Modesto’s police chief is prudent. Aguilar is in the process of recruiting officers to bring the ranks up to the full 76 officers currently allocated in the budget.

Aguilar noted virtually every candidate interviewed that would be coming from another jurisdiction quizzed him about Manteca’s city finances.

Aguilar said they didn’t want to be in a position of being hired and then face the possibility of being laid-off.

The general consensus was for the council to revisit Cantu’s proposal at the mid-year budget review that typically takes places in February.

Before they reached that point the two retired police chiefs — Harden and Halford — explained that judging the effectiveness and capacities of a police department by the one officer per 1,000 residents metric is not necessarily the best measuring stick.

They pointed out response times to higher priority calls — which is within targeted ranges in Manteca — as well as having at least 50 percent of sworn officers in the field on patrol are better measures.

Halford said Manteca easily exceeds the 50 percent threshold for officers committed to patrol as opposed to investigation and administrative duties.

Harden listed other qualifiers for funding additional officers that included whether a city could afford hiring them.

Harden noted Manteca does have lower officer staffing per 1,000 residents compared to comparable and even larger nearby jurisdictions.

Manteca is at 0.93 officers per 1,000 residents while Stockton is at 1.4 and Modesto 1.1.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com