The Voices of Manteca

By Samuel Anderson

Manteca citizens have been ignored too long and they are now hungry for change. The opportunity for a new city council is currently at hand.

I officially started campaigning in March. Since this time I have been in contact with thousands of Manteca citizens. People are telling me about their lives and more importantly the trend of our current city council. The top five complaints are:

1. Too high taxes. We are the highest taxed city in the county.
2. Reckless spending. The council spends more money than we have and on meaningless items. Downtown is one of them.
3. Too many sweetheart deals to developers. The developers lavishly reward the council with tens of thousands of dollars for their across the line votes. Foreclosures are at a record high.
4. The council is out of touch. No one speaks to the people. No one listens to the people.
5. Gangs and Crime. Youth criminals are on the rise.

Our community is telling me they have had enough of the current politics as usual and you can only find this out by going to the people. We need a new council with better ideas and someone who can actually go out there and hit the pavement.

In my 2006 election I warned our city that if we don't stop the spending and start to save we will be falling into debt and our ability to pay bills will diminish drastically. My suggestions were ignored. This could be one of the reasons why our city is currently in debt in the millions.

Projected revenue of Measure M was a dismal disappointing fact of less money in the coffers for police and fire. This meant we could not hire the amount of officers and fire fighters we had initially planned for. Why is this? People are headed out of town to pay less due to higher taxes and the businesses are being hurt (penalized) for not enough business.

Manteca sits between Highway 5, Highway 99 with a 120 Bypass freeway with 205 nearby. All roads lead to Manteca. Our city has prime real estate and yet we are giving it away at sweetheart deals. We need to better compete with our land to developers and ensure an overall benefit for everyone.

Studies taken show major developments would be ripe for Manteca sound nice, but must be taken seriously enough to ensure we don't send the wrong signal that we are desperate for retail. The ERA study shows Manteca has the opportunity to drastically grow. However, several retails businesses on this study have closed down recently due to the current economy. This is something that seems to be overlooked frequently.

We need to slow it down and reclaim our vision for a proper expansion of our city in regards to retail space. Not all businesses survive on "if you build it they will come".

Currently 95%+ housing construction is at a halt. Home Builders are going bankrupt and people are loosing their homes in record numbers. We are in a serious disaster of disasters in the housing market. There was more credit than money in reserves. Manteca has a less credit rating and the Family City has families in crisis and disarray with uncertainty as their future.

The city is not being run fiscally and taxes are the highest they have ever been and spending is out of control.

We have an opportunity to shake things up and I will be that person to do it. I will continue to earn your vote by speaking to many neighbors across our city. There needs to be a voice for the people and I will be that voice and will hold the council accountable as your next councilman.