Meet your team: Carl Brown, Director of Public Works

This is a series of articles intended to introduce to the community key members of the City’s Team of employees who serve Manteca residents through their respective positions and areas of expertise.

Carl Brown is the City’s Director of Public Works. He came to Manteca in February 2022 from the City of Turlock, where he served as Interim Director of Municipal Services and Utilities Manager; prior to that, he was Public Works Manager of Tax Services with the City of Merced, where he served for 15 years.

“Manteca presents unique opportunities for the Director of Public Works,” Carl explains. “It is a City that is experiencing a great deal of growth. Along with growth comes the challenge of meeting the expectations of Manteca citizens and business owners, both new and existing. What happens now will shape the future,” he observes.

Manteca Public Works Department is a full-service organization, which Carl points out, is rare among cities in the region. All services are provided by in-house staff.

As Director of Public Works, Carl is responsible for the production and distribution of clean safe drinking water, the City’s sanitary sewer collection system and regional wastewater processing, laboratory analysis to ensure both water and wastewater meet all regulatory compliance standards, collection of all residential and commercial solid waste, upkeep and maintenance of over 600 acres of green space that includes an 18-hole municipal golf course; the City’s community facility districts and parks, streetlights, traffic signal operation, signs and markings, curb and sidewalk, environmental compliance, Manteca Transit, and the City’s storm drainage system.

Carl begins his day by touching base with staff to ensure that, “we are firing on all cylinders,” he explains.

Carl prioritizes the Department’s short-term and long-term planning projects, and coordinates with other City Departments as well as with outside agencies. “We constantly work on improving efficiencies and effectiveness of processes and programs and ensure that all services continue to be performed as our citizens and ratepayers expect,” he continues.

When asked to identify the City’s current needs with regard to public works, he said, “The biggest need is an increase of general fund revenue. There are many long-standing items that need to be addresses and staff is poised to address them; but, we need the funding to carry out these efforts.” He points out, further, that it is difficult to add additional projects or programs to the budget, because the general fund budget is lean and does not have the necessary funding available for additional projects and programs without unfunding existing projects and/or programs.