What ails government today?Take a ride out to Woodward Avenue and Atherton Drive and you can find a clue.On the northwest corner is a parcel of land donated to the city nearly 15 years ago by Atherton Homes to build a fire station.A couple hundred feet to the east as you near Moffat Boulevard is a parcel where several members of the current Manteca City Council want to see a combined police and fire training facility built.Whoever said talk is cheap never saw a politician at work.The training center would have a price tag in excess of $3 million. The fire station — which would provide vital lifesaving service and property protection for thousands of Manteca residents now outside of a critical 5 minute response window — carries a cost of $2.6 million.The City of Manteca has grown a fondness for spending money on design work for a project yet not clearly identifying how they are going to finance the construction. They did exactly that this week for downtown alley improvements.