You may have seen the Facebook or Instagram videos on the City of Manteca’ accounts that feature Mayor Gary Singh extolling new places to eat and shop or giving an update on municipal projects.

As far as Ben Cantu — who Singh beat in a three-way race for mayor in 2022 — is concerned, those that click city social media videos should see less of Singh and more department heads and others as the face of the city.

Cantu is not on the ballot on Nov. 3.

But he has made it clear Manteca’s future, as he hopes to mold it, is.

Cantu is not just openly supporting Singh’s challenger Jacob Naven, but is stressing the 2026 election should be approached as a two-step approach with 2028 balloting as a way voters can change Manteca’s direction.

Cantu has already declared he is making a public office comeback bid in 2028 to run for the District 1 Council seat. Incumbent Charlie Halford has indicated he is not seeking a third term.

Cantu says voters electing Naven — of whom Cantu said he encouraged to run while adding the caveat that “Jacob and I do see eye to eye on a lot of things” — and then himself to the District 1 seat, would create two votes that Cantu characterized as “not being rubber stamps.”

Cantu, 75, on Friday shared his road map for changing Manteca’s direction.

As far as Singh is concerned, Cantu stated:

*“Gary is riding my coattails” in terms of the projects moving forward in Manteca today.

*in response to whether Singh deserves any credit for major initiatives currently moving forward, emphatically said “no” not just once but twice.

*Singh “has created his own cult”-like following with video postings he is featured in on the City of Manteca’s Facebook and Instagram social media accounts.

The claim Singh is riding Cantu’s coattails is based on the former mayor’s contention it was his actions that basically got rid of top management team members at city hall that he believed weren’t either pulling their weight or being innovated enough. He added Singh followed through on ideas that Cantu said he was the first to advance.

Cantu, as an example, noted he was the first elected official in Manteca ever to openly push for an unrestricted sales tax.

That sales tax — Measure Z — was for one cent in 2020. It garnered 16,091 yes votes against 17,467 no voters as 52.05 percent of the voters rejected it. The 2020 sales tax would have been permanent, and not restricted to 20 years as Singh pushed for before in the wording before the measure was placed on the ballot.

Measure Q passed in 2024 with a 20-year sunset as a three-quarter cent sales tax with a vote that was almost a perfect flip.

The Q tax received 16,608 yes votes and 16,119 no votes as 52.62 percent of voters supported it.

Cantu made it clear that he was “alright” with the Measure Q tax even though he favored a more robust sales tax without a time limit.

As to why he didn’t run for mayor again, Cantu said it was because he is basically shy .

He sees being a council member as being in less of a limelight that would allow him to devote more energy to getting Manteca to go in what he sees as the right direction.

Cantu said getting elected in 2028 will give him the opportunity to finish what he started for Manteca.

“I lost the last two years when I was mayor due to COVID,” Cantu stressed.

Cantu also accused Singh as being ambitious in terms of running for another office.

“If (former Lathrop Mayor) Sonny Dhaliwal hadn’t ran four county supervisor, Gary would have,” Cantu said of Singh who has served on the Manteca council as mayor or council member for 10 years.

Cantu insisted he is not a “politician like Gary” and is only interested in making Manteca better.

“Gary is a good politician and that is not a good thing,” Cantu said.

Cantu illustrated his remarks by pointing to state and federal grants Singh has secured for Manteca including the $16 million homeless grant from Sacramento.

Cantu said Singh secured those for Manteca essentially because of “the good old boy network” working with people he built relationships with such as Congressman Josh Harder and former State Senator Susan Eggman.

Cantu said the grants are proof positive the city’s long term financial issues haven’t been addressed and that a change is needed at city hall.

“They are basically handouts because Manteca doesn’t have the money,” Cantu said of the homeless grants plus the federal ones for everything from helping expand the animal shelter to seed money for a new community center.

Cantu pointed to the FEMA grant that put a sixth nine-member fire engine company on Manteca’s street in May as more evidence on how poorly the city is situated to effectively take care of its own basic needs.

Cantu noted Manteca beat out other cities applying for the grant because it was in a more dire situation of not being able to staff public safety to meet community needs.

He said that things haven’t changed since 1971 when he got hired as a city planner via a federal employment grant Manteca applied for back then.

The city received federal assistance to hire a police officer, planner, and a parks maintenance worker with Cantu noting the officer was Black, he was Hispanic, and the parks worker Asian.

Cantu added one of his goals is to set term limits and campaign spending limits in local elections.

“No one should have to spend $150,000 to get elected mayor,” Cantu said in reference to what Singh spent to defeat him in 2022.

In that election, Singh got 49.3 of the vote (10.866 votes) while Cantu finished third at 24.53 percent (5,348 votes) behind Lei Ann Larson who edged Cantu with 25.55 percent (5,740 votes).

Cantu wants to limit the number of terms a person can serve on the council to two and a number of terms they could serve as mayor to two as well.

That means someone could serve 8 years as a council member and 8 years as mayor.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com