Manteca City Council candidate Gary Singh is the winner of the Secretary of State’s random lottery for how names will be listed on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.
The letter “S” was spit out of the lottery draw in the No. 6 position. And since the letter “S” had the lowest number among the six candidates that qualified, his name goes on top of the ballot with the description “Small Business Owner” under it.
Some political consultants over the years have contended being first of the ballot gives whoever is listed an edge. The figure claimed is as high as 20 percent. That, of course, is in elections where voters don’t recognize any of the names and essentially are just voting to vote. That aside, post-election surveys have shown a few people — primarily in the single digits — will opt to vote for the first name if they can’t make up their mind between several people they’ve narrowed it down to or it they treat the ballot as if they are tossing a dart at a target.
The rest of the ballot order for the Manteca council election is as follows along with a description of who they are limited to three words that they picked:
uEric Hayes — Manteca Planning Commissioner
uJeff Zellner — Manteca Business Owner
uDavid Cushman — Culinary Worker
uBenjamin Cantu — Retired City Planner
uDebby Moorhead — Manteca City Councilwoman

It was a powerful
season in 1986 for
Tubbs & Sons Electric
No one can accuse John Tubbs of not having a sense of self-effacing humor.
Tubbs and other members of the Tubbs & Sons Electric team that claimed the 1986 American Softball Fast Pitch Championship were being honored Tuesday by the Manteca City Council on the 30th anniversary of their triumph.
The team is being honored Saturday, Sept. 3, by the Stockton Ports game at the Banner Island ballpark at 404 Fremont St. in Stockton. Part of the event is pre-game recognition that includes throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.
Tubbs joked that none of the players today could probably even reach home plate. He added that he might have his son John Tubbs II or his 91-year-old father Willard Tubbs do the honors.
His son was the bat boy for the championship team. He went on to play football and baseball for Manteca High before walking on as a player for the Washington Huskies football team. John Tubbs II is now a prosecutor in the Los Angeles area.
His father was the man sponsoring the team and started the electrician service business that John Tubbs runs and owns today.
Tubbs noted that the team played ball six months annually for the 20 years it existed. That translated into 175 games a year and 3,500 plus games over two decades.
Tubbs & Sons Electric won the national title over Labor Day weekend 30 years ago in Minot, N.D. They qualified for the tournament as an at-large team. They ended up defeating the tournament favorite — Raymax of Burbank 6-2 to claim the title.
But because they had lost in an earlier round, they first had to force the “if needed” game that would need to give Raymax — that was undefeated in tournament play at that point — a loss to force the extra game.
Tubbs & Sons Electric trailed 3-0 in the early going of that first game before rallying in the seventh inning to tie the score. Seven innings later, the Manteca team prevailed 5-4 to force the extra game. The 14-inning playoff game still stands as a record for extra innings in American Softball Association Men’s “A” Fast Pitch National Tournament play.
Peter Duenas (also the tournament’s most valuable player) and pitcher Bob Dugo of Tubbs & Sons Electric were selected to the ASA First All-American Team at the tournament’s conclusion. Steve Ruiz, Ski Angle, and Bruce King of the Manteca squad made the Second All-American Team. Third baseman Glenn Noble was winner of the tournament’s best defensive player award, Ralph Oden and David Ortega earned the top catcher/outfielder honors, and Brett Chamberlain landed outfielder honors
The Minot Daily News on the front page of its Sept. 2, 1986 edition carried a photo of a smiling team manager John Tubbs accepting the national trophy. On the front page of the inside sports section, was a picture of Manteca catcher Frank Teicheira taking a hard cut at a pitch while wearing the signature aviator-style sunglasses of the day.
Other team members were Lee Jones, Dean Uecker, Galen Smalley, and Steve Ruiz.
The team in 1986 received a rare “key to the city” from then Mayor Jack Snyder.
For more information on the Stockton Ports festivities contact Tubbs at 239.1397 or 239.3737.

City of Manteca
pays $77,389.17
in back taxes it owes
The delinquent property tax roll has just gotten smaller.
The Manteca City Council on Tuesday authorized a budget transfer to cover a $77,389.17 tax bill they owe for back property taxes on the animal shelter and corporation yard vehicle maintenance buildings.
The payment of back taxes on both parcels covered the tax years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. It avoided what could eventually have led to a rather embarrassing courthouse steps sale of the two parcels for back taxes.
The two projects involved land lease agreements with Norman and Rebecca Swan as well as Mark and Rhonda Walker for the two parcels on either side of Wetmore Street on the east side of South Main Street. The animal shelter is located where a former building supply yard was once in business while the vehicle maintenance building land was last used as a consignment car sales lot.
The terms of the lease agreements calls for the city to be responsible for all taxes, assessments and utilities.
Apparently the property tax notices had been mailed for years to the wrong address.
Mayor Steve DeBrum— wanting to make sure the issue would not come up again — asked if the matter had been resolved. City Manager Elena Reyes assured the mayor the county now has the right address and that staff is aware that taxes are due on a twice-a-year basis.
By not buying the land while building and owning the improvements, the city reduced upfront costs as well as reduced the expense of using the improvements over the useful life of the buildings.