We had the opportunity to speak with each of the three candidates at the Sunrise Kiwanis's Manteca Pumpkin Fair over the weekend of October 1st and 2nd. The conversations were positive in nature, pleasant, and informative. We asked each candidate the same series of questions. Below is a paraphrased summary of their responses.
Question 1: You have a vision and a plan to address some of the biggest issue facing Manteca today. How do you intend to deal with roadblocks and pushback? We've heard campaign promises made before and then seen little to no action on those promises. How will you push through the barriers in order to get things done once in office? Cantu: I have 40 years of connections to the City and the County, I have ways to get things done! Singh: I am constantly out there working on projects with the City and the County, I have a solid background in business and know how to negotiate to get our needs fulfilled. I'm not afraid nor back down when there's legislature or red tape in order to successfully push an initiative through to completion. Larson: Cantu and Singh have done nothing in the last four years. I have 7 principals that I am running on. (Larson pointed to her "Make Manteca a Great Place" literature outlining her 7 fundamentals, which can also be found on her website.) Question 2: How do you intend to deal with Manteca's financial issues. How will you obtain the funds needed to get things done, to make the changes that Manteca needs?
Cantu: The money is just not there, because of previous administrations that we're still paying for, there's no choice but to raise taxes if you want to fund some of these initiatives. Gary wants to negotiate, but once you start doing that you start sacrificing things and deviate from your original initiative. Singh: I'm a numbers man, I believe strongly in the numbers. I have a plan to negotiate with the County, as currently homeowners taxes are split 80% County 20% City. That means if you pay $5,000 a year real estate tax, $4,000 of it goes to the County. That's absurd. Other Cities in other Counties have a 50/50 split. I intend to fight the County to have that adjusted to a 50/50 split. This would immediately fund 9 new full-time Officers without the taxpayer ever seeing any change in their pocketbook. As a contingency plan, looking at the 1/2 cent sales tax increase of Measure M that's been in place since 2006, I would move to increase that another 1/4 of a cent to 3/4 of a cent total. Again I have done the numbers and this would immediately fund 9 new full-time Officers. I have other plans in place as well... (at this point we chose to cut Gary off in the interest of time as we had approached right when his lunch had arrived.) Larson: (Larson did not answer the financial question directly but continued to discuss the lack of success by Cantu and Singh.) Question 3: What are your plans to fill the position for a "permanent" City Manager, as we currently have an "interterm acting" manager? Cantu: Toni is doing a great job, we will go to the regional level and encourage Toni to apply for the "permanent" position. Singh: We need to make our City more attractive to attract the best of the best. We also need to have a stable staff in place. No one highly qualified is going to want to apply before elections when they don't know who they're going to be working with. After the elections, they'll know who they will be working with for the next two years. Toni is doing a great job, but right now we need the best of the best to implement some real change for Manteca. Larson: We are paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $120k for an Assistant City Manager and $240k for an Interim City Manager. (These were Larson's numbers, not referenced, we are unsure the accuracy of those numbers.) We need to eliminate to two positions and combine the salary into one position, and for $360k get someone who can turn this city around. We should find that person at the regional level. (See the below section entitled "Who is Frank...", we have a concern that Lei Ann, if elected, might appoint Mr. Aquila as City Manager.) Again, please bear in mind that only the key points from each candidate's answer is paraphrased above. For further details, we encourage you to attend the candidate's events and ask questions. Please educate and inform yourselves for yourselves Manteca! |
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