Mark Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026 on your calendar.

It is when Manteca voters will pass judgment on the majority of the City Council.

Mayor Gary Singh will be up for re-election citywide. Two of his council colleagues, if they choose to run again, will face area elections — Mike Morowit and Dave Breitenbucher.

That judgment should be based on whether they can refrain from being scared of their own shadows on big spending commitments — a malaise that has plagued previous councils as they dropped ball after ball on major municipal facility needs.

The Measure Q tax is the final piece of the puzzle we’ve been hearing about for the past six years.

You know the one.

It’s the strategy to make the city not just whole but even better.

It requires three things: 

Pressuring developers to deliver more to the community by leveling the maximum growth frees  allowed by state law.

Leveraging those same developers to encumber forever the buyers of new homes that are now selling for $700,000 to $950,000 for community facility district fees to augment police and fire services and cover future road maintenance in new neighborhoods.

Existing residents to tax themselves — and future residents — in some manner that not just gives the city the coin needed to keep up with inflation and growth, but covers the existing population’s share of needed replacement and/or new facilities and amenities.

Incoming council member Regina Lackey disagreed with the need for the 20-year Measure Q sales tax.

As such, there is a high expectation that she would be the loudest and most persistent elected official to make sure promises, implied and otherwise, are kept.

That is not to say Singh and the three other existing council members that will remain on the council after Lackey takes the Area 2 seat tonight aren’t heavily invested in delivering.

It’s just that Manteca has a checkered history of channeling Lucy  — as in pulling the football away when Charlie Brown goes to put it in play — on commitments to multiple year funding for new facilities and such.

As City Manager Toni Lundgren noted, actions speaks louder than words.

It is why one must be encouraged by Lackey’s promise during the campaign to press developers for more.

The city, after years of not leveraging everything they can, finally has required concessions from developers in exchange for “SCIP” financing.

It is the acronym for a state program that allows developers to avoid massive upfront infrastructure investments by using a state allowed community facilities district to shift the cost to an annual fee on homebuyers for 30 years to pay for sewer, streets, water, and other infrastructure such as sidewalks in new neighborhoods.

The state made the option available to encourage more housing construction.

But to do so a developer — in order to use it — must get the blessing of the local jurisdiction to do so.

The city is now requiring a minimum of all new developments using SCIP financing to also agree to the perpetual CFD for police, fire, and streets.

The city has also been effective at making new development wanting to use SCIP financing to toss in one-time expenditures such as a new fire engine or a new solid waste collection truck.

In some developments, the city will be getting both plus more.

This has caused some developers to play the affordable housing card in a bid to try and get the council to ease up on their demand to give the community something in exchange for SCIP financing.

That’s rich, given the fact they happily encumber their future homeowners with a 30-year bill that covers infrastructure so they don’t have to risk their own money to cover that part of the tab of building a new home.

Let’s review where Manteca will be at on June 30, 2025.

They will have in hand the first quarterly payment of the new temporary  three-quarter cent sales tax projected to raise $13 million annually.

The city’s government facilities growth fee account is projected to be at $32.3 million.

The community park growth fee account is expected to be at $16.3 million.

Sewer and water fees will either have been increased significantly or will about to be imposed.

The fourth point may seem disconnected but it isn’t. 

Between the solid waste fee increases already approved over the next three years plus what is needed for sewer and water, the odds are high by this time next year a typical Manteca household could easily be sending $25 more a month to the city.

The utility enterprise accounts are independent of the general fund, haven’t been increased in 13 years, and have significant deficits that need to pay off.

Rest assured, the bottom-line for residents will be the fact it is costing more to live in Manteca.

Manteca’s needs didn’t just happen overnight. 

And it will take a little bit of time to address many, but obviously, not all of them.

But that said it is reasonable to expect when Jan. 1, 2026 rolls around Manteca will: 

be breaking ground or about to do so on a play splash pad at Woodward Park, a community garden, and  skate park related improvements that has federal COVID relief pass through funds set aside to partially cover the cost.

have purchased at least 50 acres for a second community park on the southeast corner of Lovelace Road and Union Road, as the city committed to do as part of the Delicato settlement that derailed a referendum on Manteca’s growth from appearing on the Nov. 5 ballot.

break ground on a homeless navigation center given the city has physically had the actual $16 million state grant in hand for more than a year.

be either starting construction, or about to on a new police station.

be in the process of adding firefighters — and a new frontline fire engine for a sixth engine company stationed at Union Road, while efforts are made to build a fire station to serve southwest Manteca.

Adding firefighters can be done over three years by hiring personnel for one shift each year until the engine company is fully staffed 24/7. Waiting until the station is almost built runs the risk of “other priorities” side tracking it.

There are clearly other things, such as streets the council will need to start stepping up the city’s game in the coming months.

But it is clear what is mentioned above has either been committed to in some form, or inferred it has been.

Again, Manteca’s past 30 plus years are littered with abandoned projects — as an example twice for a police station and twice for a library — elected leaders were committed to until it actually came to putting them out to bid and awarding a contract.

If the council that will be starting tonight can’t deliver on most or all of the endeavors listed above in a meaningful measurable degree within the next 400 days especially after voters approved the last piece of the puzzle in passing Measure Q, then there needs to be a grassroots movement.

And that movement needs to start soon enough and be focused enough so that there is no squandering the opportunity Manteca voters —  as well as new home buyers — have agreed to underwrite.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com