Delicato billionaires?

That must be news to Indelicato Family members given reality.

“Delicato billionaires” is among the wording on a website dubbed “Manteca Against Special Interests” that popped up as Delicato Family Vineyards started circulating petitions to force an election on the city’s general plan that was updated in July.

The site does not identify who is behind it.

It also is lean in terms of what you can find there.

Besides being able to “sign” a petition to support “your general plan”, a line that states “say no to Delicato special interests” and a warning of “don’t be fooled”, there are only two elements on the website.

One contains the official City of Manteca photos of Mayor Gary Singh as well as council members Mike Morowit, Charlie Halford, Dave Breitenbucher, and Jose Nuno.

The wording with the photos state  “Delicato survey prepares to turn residents against the public officials you elected” as well as “Don’t fall for Delicato’s referendum.”

It’s a reference to a survey that Delicato’s hired polling firm is bombarding voters with via text and phone calls.

It asks whether you trust or are suspicious of the five elected leaders as well as whether you are suspicious of union members, police officers, firefighters, teachers, and small businessmen.

The questions are designed to size up the electorate’s attitudes to laser focus a campaign aimed at working on prejudices, leanings, and perceptions to counter the positions of various groups that may end up coming out and supporting the general plan as the San Joaquin County Builders & Construction Trades has already done.

The answers, of course, will be used to craft strategy for the main event — an actual referendum if there are sufficient validated signatures of 10 percent of the registered voters that reside within the city limits of Manteca obtained on petitions being circulated outside of local stores.

The signatures must be obtained within 30 days under state law, which means the end of this month.

The other element uses a copy of the letter of intent to circulate petitions as the background for the wording “Delicato  billionaires collecting signatures to overturn the General Plan that the community worked on for seven years.”

The basic premise is correct. The referendum at its heart would overturn the general plan update the City Council adopted in July.

And it was a long process — 7½ years actually and not seven.

There were also almost a dozen public meetings, dozens of letters, and even more one-on-one meetings with people representing groups as diverse of the Catholic Charities  Environmental Justice effort, landowners from little guys and developers to Delicato Family Wines, and a website that kept the community abreast of what was going on in meetings and what was being proposed.

And although no one got everything they wanted, almost everyone involved — with the most prominent exception being Delicato — signed off in it.

That includes  a slew of state agencies that are charged with making sure rules and laws are followed regarding air quality, water quality, environmental justice, traffic considerations, housing, protecting archaeological sites, assuring the integrity of airport approaches, and more.

The claim of the

“Delicato billionaires”

Contending the Indelicato family members are “billionaires” is disingenuous for a number of reasons.

First, it should be noted Delicato Family Wines is a privately owned concern.

That means the firm’s net value isn’t exactly  easy to ascertain.

Based on what family member Jay Indelicato indicated during a 2019 tour of the winery provided to the Bulletin, their annual sales that year were more than $500 million.

Various financial sites are all over the road, estimating the winery’s annual global sales as low as $238 million to a high of $458 million according to the guesstimate of Rocket Reach.

It is the same reason estimated employee numbers vary greatly , although every research firm tends to agree it is more than 500 with most working at the Manteca winery.

In the 2019 interview Delicato representatives placed the number at 850 fulltime employees countywide.

And to be clear, those fulltime jobs include many head-of-household jobs Manteca leaders covet.

Market Watch in a Dec. 9, 2021 article indicated the expansion of the Manteca winery was in excess of $100 million.

What everyone agrees on is Delicato is the world’s fifth largest winery.

The family firm’s assets between the winery, vineyards in the Lodi area as well as Napa and Monterey, plus smaller wineries in both Monterey and Napa may indeed come in at around $1 billion.

But as any developer can tell you, that can be deceiving.

Developers, for example have to invest a lot of money into land that they can’t get a return on for years, if ever.

In the case of a winery, their assets for  land to winemaking facilities and warehouses aren’t readily converted to cash.

The bottom line, is the company may have a $1 billion value, but it doesn’t make the third and fourth generations of the Delicato  family individuals billionaires — or even millionaires — by a long shot.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabuletin.com