Jacob Naven is calling for a general fund hiring freeze until such time Manteca can grow its police ranks to 90 officers.
Naven, who is running against Mayor Gary Singh in the Nov. 3 election, said the city needs to put public safety first even if it requires dropping events such as the Park Palooza and relying more on non-profits to cover 100 percent of staging events such as police manpower for the Memorial Weekend Commemoration.
He believes between avoiding a number of smaller reoccurring city costs in areas such as parks and recreation, the hiring freeze coupled with sales tax growth from new businesses, will eventually free up enough money to hire 7 more police officers.
Singh disagrees of the need for a hiring freeze to bolster public safety noting the city has added more public safety personnel including 9 firefighters and 5 police officers over the past two years.
“Parks and recreational activities help build (a sense of) community,” Singh said. “It’s not just hiring a bunch of cops.”
The mayor said “public safety has also been a priority” for the current council that he stressed has made investments in new equipment, additional personnel, and facilities while being fiscally responsible.
“The city is not one dimensional,” Singh said.
$200,000 a year to cover
police officer payroll costs
It requires roughly $200,000 per position annually to hire an additional officer once salary and other payroll related costs are taken into account.
That would be $1.4 million in annual reoccurring costs.
Manteca Parks and Recreation has two less staff positions than in 2010 when budget cuts were made during the Great Recession.
By cutting out the $250,000 parks and recreation events budget as well as eliminating the $30,000 programming budget for the senior center, it would yield enough to almost support 1.5 additional police officers.
The events budget helps pay for city events such as Music on Malpe, Christmas at the Center, Trunk or Treat, Movies at the Parks and costs the city incurs when non-profits stage events such as holiday parades.
Naven stressed the city needs to make public safety a priority over “fun activities” until such time the city increases police staffing to 90 officers.
Manteca has 83 officers
Manteca currently has 83 officers with four out for an indefinite period of time due to work-related injuries and issues.
Another six are on limited duty as they fully recover from injuries.
Naven said that has led to officers having an inordinate amount of overtime and being stretched thin to cover the department’s five patrol beats.
“Last weekend alone we had two major crashes and an OD in Manteca,” Naven said in noting growth pressures are just as problematic for police to maintain service levels as for firefighters.
Manteca recently increased the firefighting ranks by 20 percent by adding a nine-man engine company.
Manteca, in the past two years, has added five police officer positions.
In addition, three out-of-budget officers will be on the street by this summer after the City Council concurred with City Manager Toni Lundgren’s recommendation to hire them to backfill the sidelined officers and reduce overtime.
Tracy has 109 officers
Naven noted Tracy, a city of just several thousand more residents, has 109 police officers.
The mayoral hopeful said he understands Tracy is bolstered significantly from sales tax collected from their multiple Amazon retail distribution centers.
That said, he believes public safety needs in Manteca — including not having officers routinely working four 10-hour shifts with significant overtime attached on a weekly basis that could lead to fatigue issues — would best be served by what would be an 8 percent increase in police officers.
Naven noted one officer recently incurred 54 hours of overtime in a pay period.
(Police Chief Stephen Schluer explains the departments overtime and fatigue prevention polices in a separate story that starts on the front page below this story.)
Naven envisions a hiring freeze that would not involve the wastewater, water, and solid waste divisions.
The three departments are enterprise accounts that means ratepayers pay monthly amounts for the services they use.
By law, the money can’t be used for other purposes plus the positrons funded are addressing basic public health needs.
The current City Council has adopted a long-term solution designed to expand police and fire personnel staffing.
It is three-pronged.
*The imposition of a perpetual community facility district on new neighborhoods to augment frontline public safety hiring. Given it is still early on, the first hires likely won’t happen for several years.
*Aggressively pursuing retail and development of other sales tax sources such as dining to generate more annual sales tax receipts that exceed inflation and will allow more officers and firefighters to be hired. That strategy will also increase Measure M public safety funds to hire frontline officers.
*Securing more equitable tax splits with the county when land is annexed for development.
Naven is not advocating using the 20-year Measure Q sales tax to fund reoccurring police positions.
It will take roughly half of the sales tax it will generate through 2045 to pay for the new $92 million police station breaking ground on South Main Street this fall.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
