There were, for lack of a better word, “misfires” by incumbents and challengers alike during Sunday’s well attended Manteca Interact youth service club forum for city and mayoral candidates in the Nov. 3 election.
All, however, came up short when it came to the “lightning round” designed to illicit quick and succinct answers.
It’s not that any answer was blatantly wrong per se. It was the length that was way off the mark.
A typical lightning strike lasts 0.2 to 0.5 seconds. Almost all responses went on for 30 seconds plus with more than a few exceeding a minute.
The following are four misfires that deserve further clarification:
Downtown family attraction
Lei Ann Larson’s vision for downtown that focused on getting more things that would attract families wasn’t as much a misfire as it didn’t go far enough.
She was clearly on track with her observation that it would be nice to bring amenities such as a water play feature downtown.
But her train of thought never got to a destination that needs to be addressed. It is the issue that could be construed as whether the city is treating the oldest part of Manteca — which is District 3, the seat she is running for — in a similar fashion as newer neighborhoods south of the 120 Bypass.
There is a water play feature downtown at Library Park the city put in place almost 15 years ago but hasn’t been turned on since 2018
The problem stems from a previous council’s decision to save money by not putting in a water treatment facility to reduce water use. It does not comply to state water conservation rules put in place permanently during the last drought.
Yes, there is a cost factor involved in retrofitting the water play feature and it isn’t cheap.
But here’s the problem.
The City Council is treating Library Park as if it functions purely as a way to bolster downtown visions and not as its double duty as a community park and a neighborhood park.
It is much like Woodward Park that serves as a de facto “neighborhood park” for those in the immediate neighborhood.
There is no other park beside Library Park in the older neighborhoods near downtown that doesn’t require kids to cross the heavily used Union Pacific Railroad tracks except for a postage stamp sized park on Elm Avenue with a picnic table and basketball court in the shadow of a PG&E transmission tower.
It’s a legitimate issue: Should Measure Q money be used to make the unique water play feature that incorporates area history, culture, and geology into its one-of-a-kind design functional again?
The original tab for the water play feature was $450,000. It was also the showcase amenity for the $1.2 million Library Park expansion and makeover in 2011.
Several years ago, staff indicated it would cost at least $400,000 to retrofit the water play feature. This year, the city spent $3.2 million on the new water play feature at Woodward Park that included upwards of $1 million in other associated work such as new restrooms and sidewalk work.
The current council did entertain a proposal to convert Library Park into a container (as in semi-truck container) food court similar to one in downtown Las Vegas.
But apparently what happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas as the private sector endeavor fizzled.
Larson’s observation cues up legitimate political questions for the City Council:
uWhy isn’t the city taking steps to make the water play feature in an older part of Manteca functional?
uDoes the City Council see Library Park as a tool only for downtown visions with complete disregard for the needs or wants of families nearby?
Again, Larson didn’t have a misfire as much as not firing enough.
But she does deserve credit for touching on a subject that needs to be explored openly by elected leaders especially given the costly parks master plan did not address possible changes to Library Park.
Youth commission: More
impact, less superficial
The incumbents all fell short on a question that clearly originated with members of the Manteca Interact about the city seeking more input from the city’s youth.
And it was framed to underscore it needed to go beyond being “ceremonial” and viewing youth issues in a box the city has set up via the youth commission which is basically organizing city activities and service projects for youth.
The ranks of the Interact Club includes those that have served on the youth commission or with the community’s marquee youth group that weds community service with helping with ceremonial style activities — Manteca Youth Focus.
District 3 challenger Dani Bettencourt got what the question was aimed at — seeking serious input from the perspective of youth when it comes to not just general citywide issues but more neighborhood orientated concerns.
As such, Bettencourt’s suggestion to revamp the youth commission as the city has the planning as well as parks and recreation commission by council districts to get a better handle on different perspectives that may exist in different parts of the city was the only response from anyone that came close to what they were asking.
At the same time, doing the same with the senior advisory committee and expanding their scope behind the senior center per se is a step toward better communicating of community needs and concerns.
People like Brad Peters that have mobility issues would have a venue where their concerns can be vetted with an advisory board that mulls solutions and makes recommendations to elected leaders.
City Manager Toni Lundgren
isn’t the MUSD superintendent
It is good to have candidates, incumbents and otherwise, that are concerned about schools.
That said, they are running for the Manteca City Council, and not for the Manteca Unified School District board.
The council has no control over the school district whether it is addressing grade level overcrowding or building new school levels.
Rogger Gutierrez, one of the candidates for the District 4 seat, has gotten into the thick of the weeds when it comes to schools and how well they are performing.
His campaign literature references state test scores for fiscal year 2025 that shows 84 percent of students failed to meet math standards at Neil Hafley Elementary School and 75 percent of the students failed to do so as well at New Haven School.
Gutierrez, in his candidate information, promises to establish a family resource center in northern Manteca.
It would offer free after-school programming focused on STEM, early childhood development, structured play activities, and family resources.
If much of that sounds familiar it is because much of that is already offered at New Haven, Neil Hafley, and McParland as well as at other MUSD elementary campuses in seamless after school programs.
As far as early childhood development, that is essentially what transitional kindergarten is all about.
So why didn’t they hire more
police, do more road work sooner
Every challenger, in one form or another, took a swipe at the incumbents for not doing things sooner instead of waiting for the current election year or the last four years.
Specifically, it’s in reference to the hiring of 11 more police officers and nine more firefighters in the last four years as well as the $5 million bump in road work during the last year.
It is a legitimate question given Dave Breitenbucher (District 3) and Mike Morowit (District 4) are seeking their third four-year terms while Mayor Gary Singh has been in office 10 years, four as mayor and six as a council member. Morowit has a gap of several years between his terms.
The answer: They didn’t have the votes with the composition of previous councils nor did they have the money.
In 2016, as Singh pointed out, his bid to establish a blanket overlay community facilities district (CFD) requiring new development to agree to lock future owners of homes into annual taxes to pay for additional police and firefighters as well as upkeep of streets within their neighborhood was swiftly swatted down by the council at the time.
It wasn’t until roughly five years ago such a CFD was finally put in place after being formulated over an 18-month period.
And it wasn’t until earlier this year that enough development the city could legally encumber with the overlay CFD had occurred to generate sufficient funding to hire frontline public safety personnel.
Measure Q didn’t go into effect in terms of the three-quarter cents sales tax being charged on actual purchases until April 1, 2025. The first check from the state for sales tax collected from Measure Q didn’t arrive until last summer,
The council dedicated initial Measure Q revenue to replacement of two fire engines that become unreliable as well as replacing roughly 20 police vehicles that had excessive wear and tear that made them problematic as well.
The equipment cost well over $3.5 million.
Road projects not only require money, but detailed plans and a bidding process.
That’s why the surge in road work didn’t happen earlier and started going crazy 14 months ago.
And yes, the current council deserves blame for putting Measure Q on the ballot and working for its passage just as they deserve credit for how the money the 20-year sales tax is significantly expanding public safety manpower and support expenditures as well as transforming street work and more.
An overall observation
While the forum format needs more fine tuning such as shaving back the initial 20-minute intro and condensing questions, it was arguably one of the best attended — and more effective — municipal election forms of the past 35 years in Manteca.
