Alan Thomas’ critics will likely never give him his due.Long before Big League Dreams was part of the Manteca political vernacular, Thomas and the City of Manteca had built a solid track record of what an effective public-private sector partnership can accomplish.Thomas has been Manteca’ contracted golf pro for decades. It is a role he’ll continue in until Dec. 31, 2017 when the current contract expires.No matter how you do the accounting, the Manteca course has fared better than the 13 other public golf courses in the region. And while golf play overall is dropping nationally in a large part due to the recession, Manteca has been tops in rounds played among the 14 Northern San Joaquin Valley courses beating the closest competitor by 8,00 rounds a year.Thomas is Exhibit A in making the case for private-public partnerships in instances where a service essentially needs to be marketed.Unlike sewer or garbage services that are both essential and mandatory, there is no automatic guaranteed audience to play golf or softball.