Two of San Joaquin County’s eight city managers have now come from the parks and recreation operations.

Christina Jaromay was elected Friday by the Lodi City Council to serve as acting city manager of the community of 67,000.

Ton Lundgren was hired as Manteca’s permanent city manager in May of 2023. She had been appointed acting city manager on Feb. 9, 2022.

When Lundgren was first appointed critic argued she lacked experience because her background was parks and recreation.

However, she had worked with other department in addition to budgeting and such.

Prior to her elevation to city manager, Manteca had gone though seven city managers in five years.

Lundgren was tapped to oversee the finance department senior staff departed. It was after she took over that the city first learned there were multitude of issues with how the city was tracking funds.

Among California’s 482 cities, about have a dozen have city managers that developed most of their experience with parks and recreation.

Lundgren received her Bachelors of Science from Sacramento State University in 2003. In 2021, Ms. Lundgren received her Masters of Public Administration from Long Beach State University.

She began her government career with the City of Escalon in 2003, serving as a recreation director for two years, before working as a recreation supervisor for the City of Elk Grove from 2005-2006.

 In 2007, Lundgren joined the City of Manteca as a Recreation Coordinator, holding that title until 2009. In 2010, she was promoted to Recreation Supervisor — a position she maintained for five years. In 2014, Lundgren was appointed Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation, a position she held until June 2020. During that time period, she also served as the Acting Deputy Director of Finance for four months.

Ine July 2020, Lundgren became the deputy city manager. From June 2021 through September 2021,  Lundgren served as the acting assistant City manager.

The growing Manteca driving

issue: People passing on the right

So far in the past three weeks. Swix readers have emailed, left phone messages, or e-mailed about drivers passing on the right.

We’re not talking on a street with two lanes in each direction or a car stopped to turn left that was passed.

Drivers reported they were going the speed limit when they were passed by someone much faster on the right.

One indicated it happened on Industrial Park Drive west of Van Ryn Avenue, on Center Street near the library, on Center Street just west of the tracks, on Winters Drive near Sierra High, on Moffat Boulevard near Powers Avenue, and on Wawona near Sierra High.

It hasn’t happened to me.

A month ago, however, I was getting ready to turn right into the Hensley Building parking lot where the city placed the entrance/exit on a curve requiring a second sharp turn after entering the lot.

I moved a car width closer to the curb and had turned on my turn right signal after crossing Union Road based on the visibility issues of someone else seeing the driveway where I was turning.

Just as I was starting to turn, someone zipped by on my right that I barely avoided turning into.
Drive Yosemite Avenue through the Powers Avenue intersection long enough, and you will see someone ignore the fact the righthand westbound lane turns right only onto Powers and doesn’t go through.

You’ll find daily red light runners at the intersection.

And if you get lucky — if you can call it that — someone will do so from the right lane while trying to get ahead of another redlight runner.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dqyatt@mantecabulletin.com