Politicians, they say, are wise to know the lay of the land.It is advice the Manteca City Council needs to take to heart to prevent municipal staff from inadvertently steering them down a path that fails to protect the community’s groundwater — that accounts for roughly half of the city’s needs — to the fullest.Manteca along with all other California cities and counties need to join or form an authority to start the task of regulating groundwater by next year or else the state will move in and do the job for them.There are several options for the council. They could join a basin-wide authority from Lodi to Ripon and the San Joaquin River to the foothills being pursued by the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors, partner with Lathrop to create an urban authority, join the South San Joaquin Irrigation District along with Ripon and Escalon, or go it alone.Staff stressed the need to put Manteca in a position of strength and argued they had the expertise on staff to handle legal matters, engineering needs and ancillary issues that go with essentially creating another layer of government mandated by the state. And to emphasis this isn’t just any old layer of government, staff astutely pointed out the groundwater agency would essentially have the power to tell people — including the city — whether they need to turn off their well pumps or whether they can sink new wells.After that, staff’s advice started becoming counterproductive.