Gabe Galletta, Regina Lackey, and Judy Blumhorst are the three names on the ballot for the Area 2 Manteca City Council race.
But there are two names with significantly higher name recognition that have a proverbial dog in the fight that ends at 8 p.m. on Nov. 5 when the polls close a week from now — Atherton Homes and Raymus Homes.
It is clear that Lackey is Toni Raymus’ preferred candidate.
And it is clear Blumhorst is Mike Atherton’s choice.
Not only did Raymus host a fundraising event at her home, but Raymus Homes also has strong representation on the Building Industry Association of the Great Valley that — with an in-kind donation for campaign texting — has now contributed a record $8,469.90 to Lackey’s race via its political action committee.
As for Blumhorst, she paid for a mailer featuring a letter of support from Atherton.
Then there was the mail hit piece by a PAC out of Hilmar with a history of working with developers that claimed Lackey was a “lackey” of developers.
Raymus and Atherton were part of a partnership seeking to develop within closer proximity of the Delicato Vineyards winery.
The winery, headed by CEO Chris Indelicato secured enough signatures in July of 2023 to qualify a ballot referendum to block the city’s updated general plan that included housing they believed could eventually compromise their ability to effectively do business.
The so-called “Delicato Settlement” — brokered by Mayor Gary Singh and then Vice Mayor Mike Morowit sitting down with Indelicato and his brother Jay Indelicato who serves as the chief operating and unanimously approved by the current Manteca City Council — led to the referendum not being placed on the Nov. 5 ballot.
The terms of that settlement — that basically reduced housing while increasing industrial zoning and adding a 50-acre community park near the winery — created a rift in the development partnership.
Raymus was less than pleased with it and Atherton was less than pleased that Raymus fought it.
The settlement was a precursor to Atherton pulling out of the development partnership.
Raymus Homes President Ryan Gerding is secretary/treasurer of the Greater Valley BIA while Toni Raymus serves on the board of directors.
Area 2 race has seen
a lot of Manteca firsts
It is against that background the Area 2 seat City Council race has resulted in a number of firsts for Manteca political campaigns.
*It’s the first time developers have openly split their support of council candidates.
*It’s the first time the winery has been involved in a Manteca election with Delicato Vineyards’ $2,000 contribution to the Blumhorst campaign.
*It has set a record for funding from one source for a candidate, the $8,469.90 via the BIA political action committee has funneled into Lackey’s campaign in the form of a $5,500 outright cash contribution and paying for texting to promote Lackey’s election.
Prior to the support of Lackey, the largest contributions in the history of Manteca municipal politics were a pair of $5,000 checks written in the 2018 mayoral election.
One was a $5,000 donation to Steve DeBrum’s re-election campaign by the Punjabi-American Association of Manteca (PAAM).
The other $5,000 donation was made to Cantu by Eliberto Cantu of Texas.
The next largest donation on record was $4,000 made by PAAM. It went to Debby Moorhead in 2010 in her unsuccessful effort to unseat then Mayor Willie Weatherford.
Atherton, Raymus &
Indelicato have deep
ties to Manteca
The Atherton-Raymus-Delicato dynamic involves long-term ties to the community.
The Raymus family led by the late Antone Raymus and the Indelicato family led by the late Gaspare Indelicato planted the roots of today’s enterprises in the 1920s.
That’s when Antone Raymus and Gapsare Indelicato immigrated to America and ended up settling in the Manteca area.
The Raymus family’s philanthropic handprints are all over Manteca in the form of significant financial backing to help launch everything from key the Boys & Girls Club and Give Every Child a Chance to the HOPE Family Shelters and the Thomas Toy Community Center that primarily serves teens.
Raymus was also the first developer to essentially go beyond the minimum required expenditure for neighborhood parks to increase amenity offerings.
Mike Atherton often credits Antone Raymus for providing him with insight when he built his first subdivision, Springtime Estates, in Manteca in the 1980s.
It was advice on how to operate in a manner that allows builders to ride out economic downturns.
Atheron was behind the $1 deal that “sold” 50 acres to the city for Woodward Park and then pushed the city to charge his projects — and other new developments in the city — higher park fees so Manteca could afford to develop the park.
Various partnerships he has been involved with put together the land deal that brought Bass Pro Shops and Orchard Valley to Manteca. They also were instrumental in a 1,401-home Del Webb community being built in Manteca.
Atherton has been a major champion of bonus bucks growth fees without strings attached — for the city to use as it sees fit.
Bonus bucks — shorthand for committing funds to tie up sewer allocations — that were the brainchild of Ron Cheek.
Cheek was part of the Atherton Kirk Filos partnership that transformed a shuttered sugar beet refinery into Spreckels Park development that in turn allowed the development agency to make Big League Dreams, the Stadium Retail Center, and Great Wolf Resort possible.
The bonus bucks were seen as a way to prevent 13 developers in the late 1990s from suing each other in a bid to secure limited sewer allocations needed to obtain funding to develop subdivisions.
When all the other developers wanted to do away with bonus bucks once sewer capacity was no longer an issue, Atheron championed employing them again.
At one point in 2015 after committing $5,000 in bonus bucks for the 361 homes in Woodward Park I and II phases nestled up against Atherton Drive, Atherton upped the commitment to $7,500 per home during a public exchange on the development agreement at a council meeting.
Atheron and Raymus disagree sharply on the concept of bonus bucks,
Raymus believes it adds an unjustified cost to new housing making it less affordable for those working locally to be able to buy new homes.
Raymus and her brother Bob, just like their father did, takes pride in consistently being the developer that offers the lowest priced new home in the Manteca market.
Atherton views the bonus bucks as essentially a way to help the city fund ways to improve the overall quality of life with additional community amenities for existing residents and newcomers alike.
As irony would have it, Area 2 is where the two arterial streets Raymus Parkway and Atherton Drive will intersect — complete with a roundabout — within the next few years.
Raymus Parkway was named in honor of Antone Raymus, who, as late as 1990, could take credit for having built 1 out of every 5 homes in Manteca existing at time via Raymus Development & Sales, the predecessor to the firm Raymus Homes owned by his children, Toni and Bob Raymus.
Atherton Drive — just like Atherton Auditorium at Delta College — was named after Warren Atherton.
He was Atherton’s grandfather who was credited with authoring the frame work of what was to become the GI Bill of Rights.
Complaint asserts BIA PAC
broke state campaign laws
The $8,469 donation by the Great Valley BIA has resulted in a complaint being filed with the California Fair Political Practices Commission in Sacramento.
It points out the $8,469 from the BIA political action committee appears to have violated a state limit of overall donations from an individual, business entity, or PAC that is $5,500 as established by state law on Jan. 1, 2021.
The state limit is the default maximum unless the local jurisdiction where an election takes place adopted their own limits that would override the state limit.
Manteca did not do that meaning the limit on campaign donations from one source is $5,500.
Area 2 includes Woodward Park that is part of Manteca south and east of the 120 Bypass and Union Road as well as the city east of Highway 99 except for The Collective neighborhood.
Candidates, as well as registered voters that cast votes for them, must reside in Area 2.
Area 2 has 12,888 registered voters.
As of Friday, 16 percent of the ballots — 2,024 — had been returned.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
