Jesus Sillas is the new Manteca Planning Commission alternate.

The Marine veteran who worked as a correctional officer for the Department of Justice will serve in the alternate position though the end of the year.

Typically, an appointment to the alternate position — they step up to serve as a voting commission member whenever one of the five appointees is unable to attend a meeting — wouldn’t generate much attention.

It did this time because the appointee, which by ordinance is done by the sitting mayor, involved Mayor Gary Singh selecting between three applicants that included Jacob Naven who is running for mayor himself in the election in just over 10 months.

The appointment was made during Tuesday’s council meeting.

It is the first time at least since direct election of mayors started in 1980 that a candidate for office in Manteca applied to the City Council to be appointed to a standing municipal commission less than a year before an election.

The Planning Commission is where three out of the last six people to be elected to the City Council served before successfully seeking elected city office.

The three were Mayor Singh, Mike Morowit, and Jose Nuno.

They all served at least four years before successfully seeking office.

The other three were Regina Lackey, Charlie Halford, and former Mayor Ben Cantu.

It should be noted that Canty also had indirect ties to the planning commission as he served for more than 20 years as a municipal planner before running for public office.

Sillas currently serves on the 2006 Measure M Public Safety Sales Tax Citizen Oversight Committee, the San Joaquin County Housing Appeals Board, and the board of the St. Anthony’s School Education Foundation.

Naven, in remarks before the council, noted serving on the planning commission affords one the opportunity to learn about the inner workings of government.
The insurance agent noted how he recently went on a ride along with the Manteca Fire Department where they handled a call to the Oakwood Mobile Home park just outside the city limits adjacent to the west of the gated Oakwood Shores community that is also not within the city limits.

Naven said the responding engine “did everything right” but still arrived to the call in twice the average targeted response time.

He added it was clear Manteca needed the sixth fire station.

The third applicant was Pia Sok.

She is the electric program manager for the City of Santa Clara.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com