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Tracy City Attorney’s Power Trip Hands Manteca $Millions
We’re only a few months into the New Year, and already we’re learning of disarray in Tracy City Hall, this time out of the City Attorney’s office. The word on the street and from City Hall insiders is that Bijal Patel, our City Attorney of less than a year, is on a mission to search for problems not solutions and has pumped the breaks to stop the orderly processing of plain vanilla type construction permits. As a result, construction permits, and other permits have been stopped in their tracks. Her baffling actions have major implications to Tracy residents and our local economy. For example:
Sources close to City Hall are telling us that Patel’s standoff with Prologis has cost the city a new Topgolf project to Manteca, resulting in a loss of significant family wage jobs and millions of dollars sales tax revenue opportunities.
Patel has apparently decided to deal with developers in Tracy on her own, by-passing the more business friendly City Manager. Her strategy involves shutting down discussions with groups such as Prologis, who are trying to bring jobs and business to Tracy. It’s clear Patel believes her experience as a government land use bureaucrat allows her to bully people trying to create economic opportunity and jobs in our community. Minor permits, critical to construction activities, sit on her desk for months or are strangely “lost.” If losing Topgolf is any measurement of how this strategy is going, then it’s fair to say that Tracy is in trouble. Big trouble.
Power-hungry City Attorney, Bijal Patel.
The loss of Topgolf is huge for our community that is longing for public amenities that never come to fruition.
Anyone who has gone to a Topgolf knows that this is a major lost opportunity. These facilities provide hours of fun entertainment. The food and drinks are good. And they are popular. Try going to one on any given evening and you’ll see for yourself. Plus, they are cash cows for cities. The City of El Segundo estimates that total revenue over the terms of the lease will be in excess of $100 million (source here). Now, because of the City Attorney, Manteca and not Tracy will get that revenue. Ouch!
Image Source: Topgolf
Manteca is winning the public amenities race!
In the public amenities race, Manteca is blowing Tracy out of the water. They landed Great Wolf Lodge and its $129 million for the city over 30 years (source here), Big League Dreams and its millions of dollars in annual gross revenue, and now they’ve recently built the Courtside Sports Manteca, a 25,714 indoor sports facility. Manteca clearly understands the benefits of building public amenities for its residents, as well as being a regional draw that generates millions of dollars for the city. Tracy, meanwhile, is still trying to figure it out.
Tracy cannot afford to have another rogue city official like City Attorney Patel!
Our city has suffered enough from past overpaid city officials who commute from the East Bay and run roughshod over the community. We need progress, not the ever-cyclical lost promises and incompetence that has gotten our city nowhere, while a city like Manteca moves forward without issue.
Our elected officials need to get Patel back in line. The City Attorney needs to be reminded she is not in charge, nor is she the voice of the community. If it’s true her actions have cost the city Topgolf, then she needs more than just a reminder. She needs to be fired.