MANTECA ― The City of Manteca has withdrawn from merger talks with the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District, Tracy Fire Department and Tracy Rural Fire District that sought to band the four entities together under a common chief and board of directors.

“This is not the time for any mergers,” Mayor Willie Weatherford told the City Council Monday, April 7. “The economics of it doesn’t really pencil out.”

Weatherford and Councilman Steve DeBrum have represented the city since last July on a committee formed to discuss the merger. The council agreed with Weatherford’s recommendation and voted 4-0, with DeBrum absent, to pull from the talks.

A merger, or Joint Powers Authority, has been promoted by Lathrop-Manteca Fire District leaders as an answer to a “duplication of services” between city and county fire departments ― and possibly to the district’s shrinking influence and tax base as well.

Between mutual aid agreements ― promises between fire entities to help one another with large fires ― and the district’s irregular boundaries after annexations zig-zag through county land, Lathrop-Manteca firefighters are left to cover a huge area with little financial return, district leaders have said.

District officials say a merger would benefit all entities involved, allowing them to save money by combining training, prevention programs and other activities.

But a merger is not in Manteca's best interest now, Weatherford said this week. Joining a Joint Powers Authority would strip Manteca of control over its fire protection, he said, and a merger with Tracy, specifically, would do nothing to help Mantecans.

“Our discussion was to see if there was a way of working with the rural fire district around us (the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District) to see if there was a way to improve services to residents around Manteca,” Weatherford said Wednesday, April 9. “All of a sudden the meetings included Tracy, and we didn’t intend that.”

The merger raised other issues as well, Manteca Interim Fire Chief Chris Haas said.

The level of consolidation proposed by the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District would require drastic changes, such as aligning pay scales between the four entities ― problematic, Haas said, because Lathrop-Manteca firefighters earn 35 percent less than their Tracy and Manteca city counterparts.

Service would not necessarily improve either, Haas added, pointing to a 1999 merger between the Tracy Fire Department and Tracy Rural Fire District. Haas said the resulting South County Fire Authority has fallen short of benchmarks since the merge.

“It’s not in our best interest to be put in a position where, one, we are subsidizing another fire department, or two, we are reducing our levels of service,” Haas said. “That’s just unacceptable.”

Lathrop-Manteca Fire District Chairman Bennie Gatto said district officials are still working on a merger with the Tracy fire departments and the City of Lathrop. He said he is optimistic about the outcomes of those talks.
Tracy Fire Chief Chris Bosh could not be reached for comment as of press time.

Fred Manding, Interim Chief of the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District, was quick to point out that there is no ill will between the Manteca and Lathrop departments, who work side by side every day.

“I told Chris (Haas), ‘You will always need us and we will always need you,’” Manding said. “We’ll let our policymakers make our decisions and their policymakers make their decisions … Our job is to protect the taxpayers in the community. That’s the bottom line.”