Editor, Manteca Bulletin, 

I would encourage the Mayor and the City Council, rather than spending a fortune on a special election, to appoint Vince Hernandez to fill Steve DeBrum’s position for the remaining two years. Mr. Hernandez held the office and is obviously well qualified. He also ran for that office to retain his seat, unlike other individuals whose names have been floated to take his place. Furthermore, his years of experience are an asset that can only help the new council members who have no direct experience on that body.

The notion held by some that the voters have spoken and have chosen to ‘throw the bums out’ doesn’t really hold up when you look at the numbers. According to the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters, only 17,921 of the over 75,000 citizens of our fair city bothered to vote for city council candidates in the last election. Even fewer, 12,592, cast their votes for the mayoral hopefuls. In the mayor’s contest, Steve DeBrum beat the pants off Benjamin Cantu, 7,749 votes and 61.54%, compared to Mr. Cantu’s 4,774 votes and 37.91% of votes cast.

Of the 17,921 votes for city council candidates, Vince Hernandez received 5,276 votes and 29.44%, losing to Rich Silverman by 611 votes and 3.41%, but Mike Morowit beat Silverman by 808 votes and 4.51%, hardly a landslide in any case. I realize that all it takes is one vote to win an election, but the idea that Morowit and Silverman were handed a mandate by the voters of Manteca and that Hernandez should be cast out into darkness is nonsense.

Ben Cantu may be a very nice person and well qualified, but he chose to run for mayor, not city councilman. He lost that race by a mile, 23.63%. It wasn’t even close, so the contention by some that he is the people’s favorite and entitled to fill Mr. Debrum’s former seat on the council by default just doesn’t cut it. Mr. Cantu received only 4,774 votes in the mayor’s race, whereas Vince Hernandez received 5,276 votes in the city council race, leading me to wonder why some individuals insist that Mr. Cantu is the favorite and the obvious heir apparent to that open council seat simply because he lost. 

There will be elections, and I believe that Mr. Cantu has stated that he has his eye on the mayor’s office in the future, and perhaps Mr. Hernandez will feel inclined to run again as well, and good luck to both of them, but whatever the outcome of the current situation, spending a lot of money to fill a vacant city council seat for a couple of years just doesn’t make a lot of sense. 

Stephen Breacain

Manteca