Manteca’s most intense city election since the 1983 recall comes to an end on Tuesday when voters decide who will serve as mayor for the next four years.

The choices are:

*Lei Ann Larson, a political neophyte.

*Ben Cantu, the incumbent.

*Gary Singh, a council member.

Mayor Trena Kelley and council members Rick Wentworth and Bob Davis were recalled in 1983 over their decision to terminate then police chief Leonard Taylor. It took the community more than a decade to shed the residual acrimony.

Larson, who initially was part of an effort that was unsuccessful at launching a recall of Cantu, decided to run for mayor after her preferred candidate — Dave Breitenbucher — dropped out of the race.

Larson made the city’s homeless efforts her signature issue. She is particularly unhappy with the city’s decision to locate the homeless navigation center on a parcel across the street from her home.

As the campaign unfolded, Larson has pushed the theme that the city is way off the mark in providing needed municipal services and that the best way to make money available for more officers is to cut elsewhere in the budget.

She also has hammered hard on her belief the city is out-of-touch with the community and has fallen flat on issues such as increasing the number of police officers.

Cantu, who had more than 20 years as a municipal planner before retiring and who was elected mayor after falling short four different times to get elected to the council, has framed his campaign in terms of setting Manteca up for the future.

He points to how he was the driving force behind efforts to secure an outside look at the city’s finances. That led to the sloppy bookkeeping that prevented the city from knowing  exactly how much money they had on hand  to put toward projects.

Much of his four-year term has been spent with the city correcting those issues.

Cantu also has hit hard on the city’s insufficient funding needed to deliver more services and favors exploring more taxes that require a vote of the people.

Singh is in his sixth year on the council. He is part of the small business community.

Singh has pushed hard on a number of issue discommoding securing funding for the 120 Bypass improvements breaking ground next year and the $16 million state grant to build the homeless navigation center. In both cases the funding is coming from essentially non-local sources

Singh agrees with Cantu that the city needs more revenue.

But he prefers a more measured approach that is tied to locking in specific spending. Specifically, he wants the voters to consider a quarter cent increase in the Measure M public safety tax that would end after 20 years just as the Great Wolf revenue sharing agreement ends.

That  would allow 9 more police officers and 9 more firefighters to be hired. Then after 20 years the tax would go away and the replacement funding would flow in from the Greta Wolf deal.

The only contested race in the first round ever of district council elections is for District 4 that consists of all of Manteca north of Louise Avenue and west of Highway 99.

Former council member Mike Morowit is running against Nancy Watson who at one point served as Lathrop’s city clerk.

Breitenbucher’ s name is on the ballot, but only those voting for City Council District 3 seat — basically all of pre-1965 Manteca that includes downtown and Manteca High — can vote for him.

Elected at large four years ago, he is running unopposed for re-election to the newly created District 3 seat.

District 3’s western boundary starts at the 120 Bypass and Union Road, jogs to the east on Wawona Street and then swings north on El Portal for a block before shifting slightly to the northwest onto El Capitan. It then heads east on Nevada Street for a block and then heads north on Walnut Avenue before turning east on Alameda and then heading north along the Tidewater to Louise Avenue,

Returning ballots

The San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters, to make voting by mail more convenient, is providing ballot boxes in Lathrop, Manteca, and Ripon..

Those locations can be found at:

*Lathrop – Lathrop City Hall, 390 Towne Centre Dr., Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. La Reina Supermarket, 1357 E. Louise Ave., daily from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

*Manteca – Manteca City Hall, 1001 W. Center St., Monday through Thursday, from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Cabral Chrysler Jeep, 1145 W. Yosemite Ave., Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

*Ripon – Ripon City Hall, 259 N. Wilma Ave., Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (do not place ballots in the utility box outside of city hall).

Those voting by mail drop are also asked to sign the outside of the envelope.

For more information, log on to www.sjgov.org/department/rov/home

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com

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