Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

After reading your column today, it is apparent that Mr. Ben Cantu is bound and determined to spend as much of the city’s money as he possibly can, without actually being the mayor.

Mr. Cantu devoted a great deal of time promoting his “pumpkin tower” to the tune of over $150,000, and now he is willing to require the city to spend $207,000 or more on a wasteful and completely unnecessary recall election because his ridiculous water tower paint job proposal was turned down by Mayor Willie Weatherford and the city council members that he now has in his sights.

I applaud the mayor and the city council for rejecting Mr. Cantu’s “great pumpkin”, especially light of the current gang violence that the city has been experiencing, as you pointed out in a recent column.  I would rather see more police on our streets than Mr.Cantu’s pumpkin in the sky.  Of course, if a person did catch a stray bullet during a drive-by, he would have something nice to look up at as he lay bleeding to death on the sidewalk.

If Mr. Cantu’s ambitions are successful, and he manages to win the vote for the position of mayor after a recall election, and is able to realize his pumpkin tower vision, at the cost to the taxpayers of close to $400,000 combined, then I think the citizens of Manteca should hold him to his promise of coming up with the first $100, a “generous” offer indeed.

Perhaps it would be more appropriate for Mr. Cantu to forget about painting the water tower to look like a pumpkin, and have it painted to look like a bunch of sour grapes instead.

Stephen Breacain
Manteca
May 4, 2012