Manteca Mayoral Candidate Ben Cantu Believes Citizens Owe Workers Affordable Housing

Ben Cantu submits his opinion on Workforce (WELFARE) Housing and why the citizens of Manteca need to fix this "segregation housing" (A made up term from liberals) because it's our duty to do so.

Below is my response in the Manteca Bulletin regarding his opinion letter.

I agree with 'more_cops', you certainly have a bias against those who worked hard (something you fail to mention) to achieve their dream of owning a "McMansion" and who by the way pay MORE MONEY IN TAXES for and continue to do so.

You represent a 'belief', and in my opinion your belief should remain personal as the same with being either a Christian or Buddhist. Yes, we have many people living in Manteca that are DECIDING to live here and DECIDING to live on a wage they have chosen. It is NOT our (council) responsibility to help them and is unfair for you to use them as your excuse because they chose to do so. You are a retired city worker and you are treating them as the same, government workers where the citizens should support just like our cops. NO WAY! Your thinking on this is the same as Obama-nomics, costly in the long-run and will cheapen the neighborhoods where these "McMansions" sit thus bringing the values of these properties down and it will eventually suffer the city coffers on those tax revenues. The only way for you to have your dream come true to work would be to bull-doze all those homes down you don't like.

Manteca has chosen and VOTED to have "McMansions" in this city to bring about higher revenue in turn for those who have achieved their success to be able to live in peace, live in a nice neighborhood and live without the crime ridden welfare (Workforce) housing sitting right next to them. They want their children to have a good upbringing less tougher than they did when growing up so they can contribute to society when they become adults, not have to live with the low-life's that chose to live that way and bully them on the streets and tag the streets they live on. Quite frankly, Manteca has gone in the right direction because we know we don't want to become a suburb of Stockton.

Manteca already has enough mixing of housing and plenty of houses already. We also do NOT NEED ANYMORE NEW HOUSING in Manteca. Let's finish the building of what was left and leave it there. The new council should focus on business filling in the vacant lots and buildings just sitting all around town.

It's time for a new Mayor of Manteca and I will not be voting for anyone who has a retirement from this city because your thinking is the same and will remain so, bureaucracy. Your plan also has too much tax remedies in it that will continue to force everyone in Manteca to pay for your big WELFARE HOUSING mistake. That leaves only one other left and as I recall, he too is against this and has mentioned it several times in his 2008 election.

You've had 30 years to bitch about this to the city council and how come you haven't? You're on the Kiwanis club and as a president with Willie, how come you don't have coffee with him about this? If you're that passionate about this, how come you didn't quite your job in protest? There is another city council candidate who has a noise problem with his neighbors and the current city council has done absolutely NOTHING about it and there is a document signed by you that proves you did NOT do your due diligence on it and thus gave a legal document to these people who are conducting an illegal business on their residential property costing the city of Manteca tens of thousands of dollars in tax revenues since your signature on that document June 29, 1993 letter from the City of Manteca signed by Ben Cantu based on unverified information from the lawbreaking owner. http://way2noisy.blogspot.com/2009_02...

Manteca has lost so much money on these people because of this mistake and lazy approach to doing the job right. I'm sure this isn't the last oversight.

A Good Example of Workforce Housing In Manteca

Do you want to see how segregation housing (a liberal made up term) looks like? Go here:

http://www.mantecabulletin.com/news/article/8438/

Yes, at it's finest. The quality of citizens it brings about, the ambiance of culture and character of how one lives and brings about equal living including the scum and blithe who can't even get booked into our jails because of 'over-crowding' even if its TWO FELONY WARRANTS. Yes, this is what Dennis is writing about. This is what Ben Cantu wants to bring about, "Workforce Housing", (another made up term from liberals). It means: WELFARE HOUSING.

Yes, it will bring about JOBS alright! More cops as we see and more probation officers hanging around the neighbor'HOOD's. Yep, more illegal guns in the hands of those who can afford to live in those little affordable "ECONOMIC SEGREGATION" houses because they are economically disadvantaged and shame on all of use who have achieved our success and moved forward with technology and education and labored in the 'WORKFORCE' by embracing it, not blaming it and want to keep our neighborhoods and schools safe.

We have Pinkerton, and I wonder if its going the way of Stockton? We don't want another Stockton in Manteca. A Manteca reader mentioned the areas of Stockton that once were high-end and what the council called, "rich-kid neighborhoods" and they mixed the school districts around to bring about those disadvantaged in order to keep low achievement the standard bar to achieve. This isn't the Special Olympics where everyone is a winner! At least the Special Olympics has a goal in mind, DO YOUR VERY BEST! Not Workforce Housing, it tells everyone, "we want you to feel welcome and understand that your lower standards of achievement are embraced in our community and even if you are a felon, we WANT you to be around us."

It's amazing me how liberals steal and cheat from everyone else in order to get their way. They live in this imagined made up world and fiercely fight everyone in order to bring about this change and actually believe they are right and have first-hand knowledge and experience in do so. It's not only a mental disorder, it's a disease and deceit to the people.

Keep Workforce (WELFARE) Housing out of Manteca. We don't need it! It will bring the criminal elements an opportunity to live in our community.

Another Confusing Article From The Manteca Bulletin

I'm reading today's article 'Newsom’s new edict: Illegals get pass on lack of driver’s license' and it's a very good article, strong, vocal and conservative. Just what I like to read. But here's my problem.

Yesterdays article I commented on about housing segregation is totally the opposite of this article. In that article Dennis is a socialist left-wing liberal nut wacko! Now today's article he's a right-wing conservative genius. What the f***?

San Francisco sure has a problem, their supervisors and mayor. You can't even say they are Democrats anymore, even though they belong to that vile disgusting party, but they are totally something else, not human. They are beyond stupid, they are aiding and abedding in breaking State and Federal laws and it just amazes me how the State police or the Federal government Justice Department never come after them and lock them up?

We have too many illegal aliens living in this State and all their offspring are illegal's, too. This entire situation of 'if you're born here you're a citizen' is wrong. It's not being challenged as it should. The U.S. Constitution states that the family must have a head of the household and that person must be a citizen first in good standing. Why? Because babies can't legally make decisions.

California has a problem with protecting homosexuals and giving them a classification as you would a dog not being a human and protecting if not, encouraging illegals to come here and live. We have plenty of people in this country that can and will pick lettuce and fruits and nuts. This entire excuse of not enough people is a crock of bull. It's being run and controlled by a mafia under the disguise of a union that collects big bucks from their 'members' if you want to work. Yes, go ahead. If you're not Mexican, try and apply, you will NEVER get selected.

Gavin Newsom, whose ex-wife while married to him as mayor constantly used her foul mouth at news conferences and since their divorce Gavin Newsom had an affair with his chief of staff's wife and then an 18 year old girlfriend and hooked on drugs and alcohol. Wow! What a mayor and strong candidate for Governor of California.

Dennis sure gave a good article today, but he went 180 degrees opposite from yesterday's article. Read my post previous to this one. I can't figure out why he did not mention segregation in this article as a rebuff of his own words? I don't know.

Manteca Has No 'Economic Segregation' As Hyped By The Manteca Bulletin

I came across Dennis Wyatt's article today in the Bulletin and we're hearing his personal history story again this time as an example that Manteca can be just like those fine folks he grew up with. Yeah, and Oppie and Aunt Bee and Gomer will come visit us every Thanks Giving, too. This Mayberry attitude needs to stop! Mayberry was a made up town and so is this story and 'Workforce Housing'.

Here's the title: "Manteca should end economic segregation by subdivisions"

This sounds very socialistic to me. And, it's actually WELFARE HOUSING not workforce housing. No such thing ever! This is a made-up word and term and it's used to cover what we all know, you want affordable housing for those who can't afford anything larger than a 1000 square feet of home lined up with all those taco, pizza, burger and donuts joints you failed to mention on those same streets where these people would have a job. It's the same as being able to purchase a Ford Pinto or Mercedes Benz and you use the word and term 'segregation' to get your point across?

We're all getting tired of hearing you support Ben Cantu and this welfare housing project because this is a very socialistic endeavor and creating articles that are designed to give a history lesson of your past to inform us because of your upbringing in some town far away, it will do the same in Manteca. Get a life! You're taking advantage of your editorial position to pass this theory and idea on to the citizens of Manteca. We're not fooled. It's WELFARE plain and simple and we can read right through this mask. And, we are not hearing the crowds of wannabe home purchasers trying to get into Manteca complaining about segregation. I have news for you, that word went out in 1964! Again, another socialistic term using segregation.

Socialists have used the words 'community', work (now workforce), 'segregation' and 'responsibility' to get their points across. Having a mixing pot of very low income to high income and don't forget to include what will come with that, drug dealers, gangs and other kinds of people we don't want in this city or in our schools. Mixing does not work well, it never has.

We're a Family City, not a WELFARE (Workforce) CITY. Everyone has to work, so this blasts your 'workforce' word out the door. I'd rather have the educated experienced doers who have achieved to purchase their nice homes and neighborhoods, not the under achievers we will eventually here from you and Ben say, "now we need to HELP them".

Regardless of the waste treatment plant, we're being fed a lot of Bullshit from the Manteca Bulletin on this one and it needs to be flushed down the toilet. I have never seen anyone attend our city council meetings or even send in thousands of petitions to the council regarding their unfair treatment of being economically disadvantaged. This is an Obama tactic of the far left liberals who are not achievers, they lie, cheat and steal as we all know.

Save California - Who will stand up for morality?

I recently posted a press release from Save California, a family non-profit organization that promotes the health and happiness of families not just in California, but all over the country. I was happy to do it. In fact, I got mad, really mad because of it, too.

Why did I get mad?

Because there aren't any good men left in this State who will stand up and fight. The pastors we have here are sissified and girly-girl. All they care about is their image in the community and hope to one day build a legacy of their fruits so they can retire some day. Pastors have failed us. They have taken to the culture of the Saddle-back Church's Rick Warren and the mantra of "yes, we ALL can get along, including and especially homosexuals who are my friends and whom I call friends." Are you confused? I am. What the heck is Rick Warren doing?

Well, his friends have just passed a law to indoctrinate all our children with the filth and vile lifestyle of those who are so perverted and sick, I have no other words left to describe them. Harvey Milk day in our schools. What more are we going to let go by? Where are all these pastors? What are they doing? The ONLY Milk we should have in our schools is the one served in the cafeteria. Gives a whole new meaning to, "Got Milk"?

In all actuality, not many of them stood up for Proposition 8, the Mormons had to for the most part and they are getting all the flack and fall-out from the liberal homosexual left. Some Catholic churches did, too. But where were all these Protestants that make up the second half of our population? Where were all these other denominations that call themselves Christians and preach every Sunday in their churches?

I'm so sick and tired of pastors calling themselves pastors and preachers and whatever else in the name of God, Jesus Christ His Son. Rick Warren, let's talk more about him. I just don't have enough words to say about him. I mean, the words that one would use to slam him hard. I'll just have to leave that up to God.

Pastors have forgotten what they are supposed to do. They have failed the first test that was shot their way. Separation of church and state and then the second, prayer out of our schools and then the third, the Holy Bible. All the while we are being taught the Koran in our public schools while the Bible is outright banned and from a nation that is Judeo Christian. Once the pastors knew about the rulings, they took them out of their curriculum to save money. WOW! To save money! And they preach that God will and does provide?

In my humble opinion, pastors these days are making it difficult on everyone. They are the ones that are making these days seem like the 'end times'. And, a great many preach that if you don't give some money for God to bless you, the end times are getting more nearer. You see the scam? You can preach about the end times, but preach it as teaching it, not INFORMING EVERYONE that it's here already and to get ready because the second coming of Jesus is very near. These scare tactics are exactly what they are, scare tactics to force you to go to church, to submit and to commit to giving your money. Please do not confuse this with tithing. You should give the the Lord what is His. Amen. But this entire scare tactic is causing Gods people to become lazy and scared to do anything and they don't get involved with their duty to service which includes protecting their community.

This is a fact. Human beings are the MOST INTELLIGENT breathing beings on earth. Why? Because they will follow by not following what is needed. They will allow themselves to follow the ways of the pastors and become lazy. Back in the olden days, pastors had a strong word and presence in their communities. The people would hear the ideas of the city council and mayors and then they would say, "we're going to ask pastor what he thinks of this." What happened?

That said, Randy Thomasson is the ONLY man in this State that gives all that he has. He gives and gives and gives and gives and gives and he must have a tired soul because I know that his body must hurt at times from all this. In fact, he probable has a strict regiment of sleep, diet and exercise in order to keep up with what he has to do. In fact, I believe he does more as one person than 1000 pastors in this State of California alone.

WHERE ARE OUR BOLD PASTORS? WHERE ARE THEY? These are times where they more than ever can populate their churches and have about five services just on Sunday mornings alone if they got involved and spoke out at council meetings, school districts and INFORMED the politicians that they are being watched and spoken about, not just being prayed over. If a council were to make a bad decision about prayer or Jesus' name being spoken or the Ten Commandments being in the public square as a nuisance or a school board making a bad decision to allow Harvey (child pervert will rape your children) Milk day in schools, the pastors should be there to inform them of what they are doing is wrong and to make it very clear that they will take every effort to either get rid of them or back them up for the right thing for our communities.

ARE THERE ANY PASTORS WITH A PAIR OF 'NUTS' WORTHY OF THEIR CALLING?

I have not seen any yet, but do know of a few. Unfortunately they are not in California. I'm afraid to say that California has sissified our pastors and clergy to the point where they have to include everyone. Which brings me to my next and last comment. I found out about a story in Manteca about the Manteca Pastors Association where years ago they were approached about the gay marriage happening in California and when they were presented the information about it and a request went out to get their involvement, they turned away and said, "let God take care of it, He is in control." Yep, let God take care of it. That is the lame ole excuse that is always used when a pastor thinks he is in control and not God. Basically, when a difficult item comes his way, and he does not want to do it, he makes himself believe that God will do it and this is the way God wants it. HYPOCRITES!!! Why do we need you?

My final word is, I support the efforts of Randy Thomasson, Campaign for Children and Families and Save California (www.savecalifornia.com) and so should you. He is the last man standing and a true warrior for the cause. It's a damn shame that his fighting back is mostly due to the lack of support and ignorance of the church and its pastors. Shame on all of you. A man of God and follower of Jesus and the cause for our lives hereafter. Bold, able and willing to stand on the landmines of the opposition and continue to move forward with a zest for life and Marine Corps blood in his veins. I say Marines because they are the first to go and get into the thick of it and never afraid.

I would like to see what would it be like if we were to pass a law that allowed everyone with NO CHILDREN have to pay taxes for others children to go to school. What would this do?

1. Save many tax payers money.
2. The school board would really have to buckle down and do what is right because they would be working on very limited funds.
3. Children would be forced to learn, not do what they do now, don't give a hoot about their education. Not everyone, but the majority.
4. Illegals would NOT BE IN OUR SCHOOLS, that's for sure. Can't afford it. I believe an education should be available to everyone, but not a right. It's a privilege and family requirement to do so. Give them tax credits and other credits but not everyone to pay for it all.
5. Teachers, it would give them more money to teach what is needed and required. This means, we all pay a tax for teachers salaries, not to the unions.

That's my top five.

Dennis Wyatt on (fill in the blank)

Karen Pearsall said it LOUD AND CLEAR! Dennis is writing crap that is trying to confuse everyone. One day he prints the fact that the city council has allowed the city manager Steve Pinkerton (image to the left) that he is in violation of the law, an ordinance the city passed in order for you to work in this city as the manger, you have to live within the city limits. It was big news. "“Council violated Manteca law.”"And, shame on the council for not following up on this. And, he gets comments from the council about this.

Then, Dennis gets emails from several managers and past managers from around the country and State that read the story and offered their perspective on it by showing him the California Constitution “makes it illegal for local jurisdictions to make a requirement that any local government employee...reside within the boundaries of the agency or district.” saying this city requirement is illegal, as if he knew this and then prints it as if it's nothing. What he should have done was given an extraction of his previous editorial story and apologized to the community for his stupidity. I say stupid now because he won't do it and he has already done the damage.

I think it was a desperation of finding something to write about and to keep the level of newspapers selling and online traffic. It appeared that some sort of media manipulation was used to start something.

THE LAW

• CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION ARTICLE 11 LOCAL GOVERNMENT: SEC. 10. (b) A city or county, including any chartered city or chartered county, or public district, may not require that its employees be residents of such city, county, or district; except that such employees may be required to reside within a reasonable and specific distance of their place of employment or other designated location.
• (CALIFORNIA) GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 50083: No local agency or district shall require that its employees be residents of such local agency or district.

School boycott launched against "Harvey Milk Day"‏

Parents, keep your children home on Harvey Milk Day
SaveCalifornia.com calls for boycott of sexual indoctrination in K-12 schools

Sacramento -- SaveCalifornia.com, the West Coast pro-family, pro-child organization that led the statewide battle against "Harvey Milk Day," which Governor Schwarzenegger signed on Oct. 12, is calling on every California parent with children in K-12 government schools to keep their sons and daughters home on this day of in-your-face, homosexual-bisexual-transsexual indoctrination.

"Fathers and mothers are angry about Harvey Milk Day pushing this extreme, perverse role model upon their kids," said SaveCalifornia.com President Randy Thomasson. "Children belong to parents, not to the state! Since SB 572 has no opt-out, boycotting Harvey Milk Day and pulling their children out of the imploding government school system is the only way for parents to protect their girls and boys."

The boycott will also send a strong message to school districts that they should not use classroom time to celebrate Harvey Milk Day or risk losing average daily attendance funds.

The blatant sexual indoctrination of Harvey Milk Day is a clear and present danger for parents. Even school districts in conservative areas are allowing teachers to promote the notorious Harvey Milk:

"If it happens to be in a literature class or a social studies class, it can be included as long as it's related to the topic," [Santa Clarita's William S. Hart Union High School District Spokeswoman Pat] Willett said about teachers including Harvey Milk Day in the curriculum. The bill calls for the day to be observed by public schools as a day of special significance. Teachers will be encouraged to conduct exercises recalling Milk's life and contributions to the state. Willett imagines teachers could include Milk in a discussion of civil rights. Source: Santa Clarita Signal, Oct. 14

Meanwhile, Equality California, California's largest homosexual-bisexual-transsexual political activism group, is planning to develop curriculum to promote Harvey Milk's values in every public school:

The measure was backed by Equality California, the largest gay-rights organization in the state. Geoff Kors, executive director of the group, said it would develop curriculum for schools and teachers to use on Milk's birthday. Source: San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 13

In response to this blatant attack upon family values and the open promotion of the homosexual-bisexual-transsexual agenda to impressionable children as young as five years old, SaveCalifornia.com is providing the means for parents to take courageous action to rescue their sons and daughters.

"A widespread boycott of Harvey Milk Day will motivate some school boards to create policies prohibiting teachers from commemorating Harvey Milk Day unless first approved by the school district, which is vested with the authority to decide curriculum for local schools," Thomasson said.

"No child is safe from this sky-is-the-limit sexual indoctrination if they are left in the government school system," Thomasson said. "They'll be hit with Harvey Milk Day in May, endure the pro-'LGBT' 'Day of Silence' in April, and, due to pre-existing sexual indoctrination laws, be pressured to support anything-goes heterosexual-homosexual-bisexual-transsexual behavior in health, literature, and social studies."

Before SB 572, "Harvey Milk Day," sexual indoctrination laws have already in been in place, including:

• AB 537, signed by Gov. Gray Davis in 1999, permits teachers and students to openly proclaim and display their homosexuality, bisexuality or transsexuality, even permitting cross-dressing teachers, school employees and student on campus, in classrooms, and in rest rooms.
• SB 71, signed by Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and implemented in 2008 through the new "sexual health" standards approved by appointees of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, teaches children as young as 5th grade that any consensual sexual behavior is "safe" as long as you "protect" yourself with a condom, and teaches children that homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality is "normal."
• SB 777, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007, prohibits all public school instruction and every school activity from "promoting a discriminatory bias" against (effectively requiring positive depictions of) transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality to schoolchildren as young as five years old. SB 777 means children will be taught their "gender" is a matter of choice. When fully implemented, SB 777 will affect everything on campus -- classroom instruction, instructional materials, textbooks, guest speakers, handouts, videos, sex education, drama, music, school assemblies, sports teams, homecoming games, school proms, school clubs, etc. There is no "opt out" for parents.
• AB 394, signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2007, effectively promotes transsexual, bisexual, and homosexual indoctrination of students, parents, and teachers via "anti-harassment" and "anti-discrimination" materials, to be publicized in classrooms and assemblies, posted on walls, incorporated into curricula on school websites, and distributed in handouts to take home.
• What's more, beyond these school sexual indoctrination laws, there is no California statute prohibiting public school teachers from promoting any legal sexual lifestyle or sexual practice; schools can hold pro-"lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT)" "diversity days" or a "diversity week"; schools can permit the pro-"LGBT" "Day of Silence" in April; and school districts must permit "Gay-Straight Alliance" clubs on high school and junior high campuses.

"This is a red alert for parents" said Thomasson. "Your child will be sexually indoctrinated if left in the government-school system. Parents are waking up to the fact that to protect their kids from being sexually brainwashed, they must not only keep them home on Harvey Milk Day, but they must rescue their children by placing them in homeschooling or a solid church school." SaveCalifornia.com has created RescueYourChild.org, which, since January 2008, has been helping parents to exit the imploding government-school system.

For documentation of Harvey Milk taken from the Milk's undisputed biography, The Mayor of Castro Street, by Randy Shilts, and further analysis of SB 572, "Harvey Milk Day," see http://savecalifornia.com/oppose-harvey-milk-gay-day-sb-572.html

-- end --

SaveCalifornia.com is a leading West Coast nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing children and families. We stand for marriage and family, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, financial freedom, and back-to-basics education.

SaveCalifornia.com
Randy Thomasson, President
P.O. Box 511, Sacramento, CA 95812
(916) 265-5650
www.savecalifornia.com
www.saveamerica.com

Liberals are Liars! Cheats and Cons!

They can't do anything in the polling booth, they have to steal it. They can't even get things through Congress, they have to use methods that are for constitutional budgets such as cloture.

They have to hide and steal money to buy elections and use the media as a State run entity to lie to the American public. They have to keep forcing homosexual agendas down our throats and make them a protected class of citizens while indoctrinating our children.

They have to use foreign money to win elections and hide the money where it came from but yet if any American citizen has a foreign bank account, you are considered a criminal.

They consider Palestine a people and nation and Hezbollah and Hamas kindred brothers and sisters in need of their rightful homeland allowing them to murder innocent people to do it and letting them get away with it while in fact they are not even a nation or a people, they are left-overs of Jordan and Egypt and those people did not even want them back after the war they started with Israel. There is no legitimate claim whatsoever for these people. There can be NO STATE for Palestine.

They consider Iran a friendly nation with the right to produce a nuclear bomb dead set on destroying Israel as just the beginning of their current and future agendas of mass destruction.

They continue to set themselves aside as the elite and never listen to the people and turn on our nation and call it shit and shame on all of us for being the best.

They continue to weaken our nation, undermine our troops and cause our dollar and economy to become non-existent and while causing millions and millions to loose their jobs and having caused the housing market on purpose to take advantage of a catastrophe.

They caused our national debt to spiral out of control and in just one month outspent the entire nation as a whole since inception.

Now they have tried to fool us again with this Norwegian Nobel Peace prize giving it to a moron who has NEVER done a single thing in his pathetic life who refuses to produce a document called a birth certificate as President of the United States when not even a crossing guard for a school can do their job unless they produce one.

Lies, lies, lies, lies and more lies. How much more can we handle?

What is wrong with this picture?

It's called the Democratic National Committee, the DNC, all of them are traitors and thieves and racist bigots.

Where has the real America gone?

Today, the United States was given a preempted strike by liberals in Europe to silence us and make a person with no credentials accept a million dollar paycheck while George W. Bush freed over 80 million Muslims worldwide and protected them and gave them the vote. We just got a black eye from idiots who see the world as a domination they must control and take over our lives by lying again giving this prize away to someone in office for only 11 days.

When Russia decides to invade Europe, let them have it. Let them take it all. Let Europe fight their own wars from now on.

When some dictator invades some oil rich Kingdom, let him. Let him kill everyone and take over the oil. That way, we can go back in and take over the country ourselves and keep the oil. May the spoils go to the victor.

What an embarrassment to our country America!

Richard Behling First Candidate Forward To Run For Manteca City Council

In an effort to break the current monopoly of developer funded councils and business as usual status quo, Richard Behling has stepped into the ring as the first candidate and very qualified to run for Manteca City Council.

Below is his official press release:

I moved to Manteca in August of 2006. For fifteen years prior to that, I commuted from elsewhere to my employment in Lathrop. During those years I became familiar with the Manteca area, which appeared prosperous and growth-oriented, and I purchased a home in early 2007. Everyone knows the story of what happened next in the economy.

The City of Manteca, too, is hurting financially and functionally. Its woes are compounded by an absence of ethics in its leaders and lackeys, a total lack of transparency in the conduct of the public’s business, and no general public knowledge of the truth regarding the City’s financial position.

The things I can offer to Manteca voters and their dependants are these:

An accounting career and background which will help me get to the truth behind the smoke and mirrors of governmental fund accounting. I will communicate those realities as simply as possible to as wide an audience of citizens as is possible. As a member of this City’s council, I will not take the place of the City’s Finance Director nor the City’s outside financial auditors, but will hold them accountable for simple, understandable, and current information regarding money flowing into and out of the City’s stewardship. Relatively inexpensive technology can make both summary information and detailed transactions available to tax payers, rate payers, fee payers, the press, and the individual.

A commitment to open up the processes, discussions and decisions regarding the public’s business. The work product of public employees is public record, with rights of full access by any citizen, constrained only by privacy rights. If that openness winnows out certain public employees, so much the better. Again, digital technologies can deliver that information access and assist in raising - beforehand - the important issues that get smothered by the eye-glazing boilerplate items and staff recommendations in public meetings. The only way to have every city council motion carried with 5 ayes and 0 noes is if the decisions are made BEFORE the city council meeting discussions, which is contrary to state law and the common good.

An abiding aversion to manipulation and corruption, including moral bankruptcy. The citizen’s council is supposed to represent the majority will of the citizens, not the few. It is time to break the stranglehold of the unseen money and influence networks that view Manteca as their personal SimCity (click here for a description of the popular computer game). I am not beholden to any person or any special interest in this community, and I will make public any back room deals, bribes, threats, coercions, or self-servings that come to my attention. The expensive monument-building by politicians must end in order for Manteca to become the livable, family friendly community it should.