Manteca may fill the vacant assistant city manager’s jobCity Manager Karen McLaughlin is against the idea. But at Monday’s budget workshop the City Council unanimously directed staff to develop cost figures so they could look at the feasibility of adding the position to the 2013-14 fiscal year budget that started July 1.The need for an assistant city manager was brought up by Councilman John Harris who called having a second in command who works directly on big deals impacting the city as “having an insurance policy.”“We’re on the brink of significant development,” Harris said as he cited CenterPoint Business Park, Great Wolf Lodge Resort, the 1,050-acre Austin Road Business Park, the 1,600-homeTrails at Manteca and future Pulte projects.Harirs noted Manteca could not afford to miss a beat should McLaughlin become ill or is inundated with too many tasks.Mayor Willie Weatherford — along with Harris — praised McLaughlin’s work ethic and effectiveness but had concerns that she was taking on too much of a load and was going way beyond the call of duty in sacrificing personal time for the city.The mayor noted that McLaughlin has never complained and had argued against filling the assistant city manager’s job at this time. He noted at one point she was doing three jobs — that of city manager, assistant city manager, and parks and recreation director.The assistant city manager besides helping the city manager oversee city operations in the past has been assigned specific tasks such as negotiating development agreements for projects.