Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

It is too bad that people can write whatever they want about a candidate and make people think they are stating facts. This is an “opinion” article, which is dangerous enough. Some people have recently stated their opinions along with what they consider facts without even checking into their statements. 

Recently I read about Ben Cantu’s idea for the golf course as being “ridiculous.” Knowing Ben, I know that if he has an idea, there is a reason behind it. I did a simple search on my computer for golf course in the Manteca Bulletin. There it was in black and white. On July 8, Dennis Wyatt’s article titled, “Vote eliminates $1.4 M in golf course debt”, explained that the golf course has not paid for itself or its maintenance and now will fall short by $13,000 by June 2015. It also states that the general fund is making $155,000 payment to the golf course each year to offset the cost of reduced and free golf for youth and seniors.  D. Nielson would have us believe the course has paid for itself since 1966 all from fees paid by golfers. It is strange that there was a study’s finding to support the golf course, which is very hard to find, yet there was no effort to look at the financial side of their argument.

I’m not sure if Ben’s idea scares people who just believe we have been saved by the incumbents from financial ruin, but I hope they remember that those incumbents, along with the golf course debt, also forgave a huge amount of builders’ fees and now have big contributions into their political funds. I won’t say that these builders are contributing to these election funds as a payoff, because that would be the same as saying that the golf course is funding itself.  I like to use facts when stating them as such, and opinions and ideas to be presented as what they are. Please remember when deciding who to vote for that nothing beats fact checking for yourself and hopefully you will see that we need a candidate that isn’t in the political ring to better their career, but is actually trying to do what is best for the city, even if it ruffles some feathers. I will be voting for Ben Cantu because we need to have ideas that are outside the box. Because the box is only helping the people in it!

Philip Ftacek

Manteca