Manteca Mayor Gary Singh made it clear.

There is no “I” in Team Manteca.

Singh doubled down on the moniker he helped coin before the pandemic as he delivered his State of the City message on Thursday at Great Wolf.

In doing so, he made it clear Manteca’s success isn’t because of him but everyone on the “team” from street crews and IT staff to senior management and each council member working together.

Singh made it a point to stress at least one behind-the-scenes effort of his fellow elected council members that most of the public never sees.

That included:

*Dave Breitenbucher for his weekly hands-on effort to make the emergency homeless shelter works. He has played a key role in keeping efforts moving forward to improve homeless issues.

*Charlie Halford for his work to get a new police facility. Singh noted the existing facility was built in the 1970s when Manteca had 30,000 residents, a third of its current population.

*Jose Nuno for lending his extensive knowledge to help the city pursue new affordable housing projects.

*Mike Moroit in going door-to-door in downtown to secure support for an effort to take the central district to the next level.

Singh also repeatedly stressed how city staff — almost 500 fulltime employee equivalent strong — has been stepping up Manteca’s game.

“They are Team Manteca,” Singh said.

And while Singh rolled off a long list of city achievements from cleaning up the financial bookkeeping mess the current council inherited to establishing an in-house program to address a backlog of street pavement issues, there was one that he didn’t verbalize.

And that is a distinct change in culture at city hall.

But then again, the selection of the theme for the State of the City event hosted by the Manteca Chamber of Commerce said it all — “Level Up”, inspired by Ciara’s 2017 song of the same name.

Ciara wrote the song to celebrate empowerment and growth.

The city’s accomplishments — as well as major endeavors that have been put in motion that will come to fruition in  the next few years — are the result of municipal staff being empowered.

Team Manteca has essentially almost completely dug out from under the collateral damage of burning  through four city managers in 3 years and 3 months.

Singh will tell you it’s the result of dedicated employees being empowered to do their best, elected leaders that don’t allow differences to get in the way of “doing the right thing for the city”, and everyone working together as a team

Toss in the city’s growth and “Level Up” could be adopted as an official city song.

“Manteca remains on the move,” Singh said, “and we are leveling up.”

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com