When Steve Macias stepped in front of the Lathrop City Council as the leader of “Keep Lathrop Safe” – lobbying against the Pilot/Flying J Truck Stop that was ultimately approved on Roth Road – he didn’t know at the time that he would eventually be running for mayor.
But after seeing what he feels is a disconnect between Lathrop’s elected officials and the constituents that they represent, the political novice felt that he needed to try and do something that can bridge that gap and point Lathrop in a direction that he thinks will better suit their future.
And while the truck stop issue was at the core of his decision to run, Macias said that he is not a part of the well-financed group that hired a lawyer and a political consultant in an attempt to circulate a petition – which ultimately failed – that would force the council to reexamine its decision or bring it back to the voters and allow them to decide.
“I think that’s an important distinction that needs to be made – I organized Keep Lathrop Safe because I care about my community, my neighborhood and my two kids,” Macias said. “I don’t have any connection to the political action committee that is involved, and I’ve made no financial contributions to their effort to circulate the petition. It’s two different factions of the community that oppose the truck stop – one led by me, and another by Mr. Sandhu and the Sikh and Punjabi community that tried to put up their own candidate for Mayor (Sandhu) but he didn’t end up qualifying.
“What this shows me is that while Flying J is the example at the moment, the problem is that there are really strong emotions against the current city leadership and my followers are bucking against it as well, and I’ve never heard or seen a scenario here in Lathrop where multiple factions appear to oppose the current Mayor.”
While Macias could have gone the traditional route and ran for one of the three seats up for grabs on the Lathrop City Council, he said he felt that he could make the biggest impact from the Mayoral seat – noting that it wasn’t an egotistical decision to run for the city’s top elected position, but rather a chance to step into a leadership position and enact the sorts of changes that he feels aren’t being pursued by current Mayor Sonny Dhaliwal.
One of the changes that he’d like to see is intense lobbying for Bay Area companies, like Tesla, to come to Lathrop and the Central Valley, and to create an environment that’s as business-friendly as possible.

Says Lathrop needs
to cut red tape
for businesses
“I think that Lathrop is the perfect place for Bay Area workers because the majority of our Lathrop community commutes more than an hour to get to work. The reality is that Lathrop people are already working in the Bay Area because they’re offering higher paying jobs, and we need to be looking at how to bring their employer closer to come,” Macias said. “We need to be encouraging businesses to come to Lathrop by cutting the red tape that goes along with opening a business here.
“I was talking to a gentleman about what it takes to open a business and he told me that it costs just as much money to do so in San Jose as it does in Lathrop, so we need to be making those partnerships and looking at things like tax rates and permit fees and having a real dialogue with these corporations that I don’t believe our current council has.”
The truck stop issue might have been his introduction to the council and politics in general, but Macias said that it was the things that the issue exposed for him that really motivated him to look into running and declaring his candidacy for the seat that Dhaliwal has held since 2012.
Even though he isn’t involved with the well-organized and well-funded group that he says is being led by Balwant Singh Sandhu, who was one signature short of qualifying for the ballot, Macias said that he has plenty of local supporters who are upset with the lack of transparency on behalf of the council when dealing with this issue – noting what he sees as eroding trust in those who are elected to represent the citizens of Lathrop.
“When it comes to the Flying J Truck Stop, I don’t oppose the idea of bringing a truck top to town, but I oppose one being so close to residential homes with very little outreach to residents,” Macias said. “I think that’s a very poor standard of transparency. They’re saying that this is going to be a job creator, but I think that it’s going in completely wrong direction.
“I believe that Lathrop is the gateway to the Silicon Valley, and we need to be attracting the highest quality employers to our community and I don’t feel that Flying J is in that tier of high-paying employers.”

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.