Call it  a victory dance.

Manteca Mayor Gary Singh and council colleagues Charlie Halford, Mike Morowit, and Regina Lackey showed their moves to the hip hop hit “Elevate” on Thursday morning at the house Great Wolf built. 

They wore futuristic-looking “celebration” glasses as they danced their way to the stage.

It was done in business attire although the mayor was a tad flashier given his jacket was far from being off the rack at JC Penney or Bass Pro Shops.

It was clear he was on a mission to celebrate.

And celebrate Singh should.

He was about to share the State of the City to the sold-out crowd of 240.

Selecting the song by DJ Kahlil from the soundtrack “Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse” for the grand entrance was apropos.

It’s a song celebrating the concept of stepping out of one’s zone to better one’s self and in turn bettering others.

The words such as “I gotta go high, I gotta elevate” could easily be adapted with slight alterations as a theme song, if you will, for the City of Manteca.

In words that were to follow — both in a video and live — as he removed glasses that weren’t rosy but were as clear as can be, Singh was ready to tell a story of a city that has navigated challenges and adversity, built on the foundation laid by those who have gone before, and has queued up the future.

So what is the State of the City that was California’s fastest growing in 2023 among cities over 30,000 people and is on track to cruise past the 100,000 population mark in 2028?

*It has gotten its financial house in order, bringing all annual audits current after being plunged into bookkeeping turmoil by a city hall era of revolving doors.

*Speaking of revolving doors, the management team has gone from a chaotic in and out passing of key personnel that plagued the city for five years to three years and counting of stability and chipping away at shortcomings in city services.

*Growth has helped swell the median household income to $120,000, a jump of almost $50,000 since 2017.

*Conducted an unprecedented outreach of more than 100 town hall style meetings to help secure voter support of a 20-year three-quarter of a cent sales tax. The tax will not just assure service levels won’t drop but to expand them as well while providing the foundational funding means for amenities and to literally make the road to the future smoother.

*Downtown concerns, after half a dozen failed attempts over 50 years, agreed to establish a vehicle and taxing mechanism. The goal is to establish a path forward to enhance the future viability of the district as an entertainment, dining, and specialty shopping hub.

*A cohesive game plan has been developed and is being implemented to deal with homeless issues. It includes using the community resource officer approach being adopted by other jurisdictions to get homeless off the streets, stepped up illegal camping enforcement, establishing 50 emergency shelter beds being expanded to 75 this spring, and includes moving toward groundbreaking of a navigation center.

*Steps are being taken to build a new police station and a sixth fire station while making sure public safety has essential vehicles and equipment, as well as working on frontline staffing needs.

*Stepping up traffic safety efforts with red light camera systems.

And that is just for starters.

There are also two major initiatives that Singh shared that will likely play an oversized role in elevating Manteca’s future.

*The family entertainment zone.

*The city’s “new attitude” toward developers.

The family entertainment zone — on the acronym FEZ — is something that Singh told those gathered to get used to hearing.

It is 150 acres of city-owned land, much of which is development ready, that the city is in the process of planning and marketing to secure stepped up retail, more sit-down dining options, family sports style recreation, entertainment, and hotels.

The FEZ — bookended by Great Wolf Lodge and the Big League Dreams sports complex set to undergo significant renovations — will weave within its boundaries a series of small playgrounds and outdoor entertainment/concert stages.

The goal is to develop a family entertainment destination with regional and local drawing power.

“It’s not just so you don’t have to go to the Bay, but the Bay will be spending money here,” Singh said.

Actually, they already are given the runaway success of the 500-room Great Wolf indoor water park resort at Big League Dreams that brought 1.5 million visitors to Manteca last year. 

Singh, however, wants more Bay Area dollars to fuel economic growth with private sector jobs and having the disposable income of Bay Area residents paying room and sales taxes to fund municipal services for Manteca residents.

The next addition to the FEZ, by the way, is the Loma Brewing Co. opening this summer on Milo Candini Drive at Daniels Street.

The new attitude toward developers?

“If it does not benefit the community, we don’t want it,” Singh said of development.

Clearly, California state law does not allow a community to stop houses from being built — unless there is inadequate water or sewerage — or even impede housing growth with unreasonable obstacles.

But cities can maximize various state created mechanisms to make sure services are adequately funded.

The city can also ask for concessions from developers wanting to secure Manteca’s blessing that is necessary to secure community facilities development bonding for project infrastructure.

That has led Manteca to implement CFD taxes for new development being processed to help pay for additional firefighters and police.

The same CFD is being used to cover future upkeep of the streets in the new neighborhoods to take pressure off the city’s general fund that underwrites day to-day services such as police and fire protection.

To secure the CFD infrastructure financing developers have agreed to buy everything from a new fire engine to new solid waste truck.

The developer of 818 housing units on the northeast corner of Main Street and Atherton Drive is putting a quasi-community park complete with an interactive water play feature.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com