Medical Marijuana:

CITY LEADERS SUBPOENAED OVER FARM

Isleton, Sacramento County -- Folks in this dusty little delta town
have never shied away from a fight.

They've got a doozy on their hands right now.

Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully has subpoenaed the
entire city brass, from the police chief, mayor and city manager on
down to former planning commissioners, to testify today before a
grand jury - or possibly face jailing.

The reason? Isleton's leaders are being summoned because they
approved a medical marijuana farm on the edge of town that Scully
thinks in some way could violate state law, which would in essence
make them a bunch of dope dealers.

At least that's how the city brass is reading the subpoenas.

This is a city that last drew headlines for liberally issuing
concealed-weapons permits to anyone who asked. Over the past 16
years, it has also managed to rebuff seven scathing grand jury
reports, including one in 2008 that called for the city to disband on
the grounds that it was in "a state of perpetual crisis."

The district attorney's latest insinuations have residents spitting mad.

"I guess you couldn't print the kinds of words some people are using
around here, but let's just say I have never seen anything like how
the district attorney is treating us - it's over the top, downright
hostile," said City Manager Bruce Pope. "We're not going to just take
it lying down."

He said he and the other dozen people ordered to testify today in
Sacramento intend to refuse to talk.

Taking the Fifth

"Oh, we'll show up because we legally have to, but we are going to
plead the Fifth," Pope said, referring to the Constitution's Fifth
Amendment, which protects citizens from testifying on matters that
incriminate themselves. "If the district attorney has a problem with
medical marijuana, maybe she should just arrest herself, because the
county already has dispensaries it's collecting money on, and the
county pays her salary."

Scully's spokeswoman, Shelly Orio, said her office has no comment.
But a curt letter to the City Council that preceded the April 13
subpoenas said Isleton's decision to establish the pot farm probably
"violates state and federal statutes" and could lead to charges
against all local officials associated with it.

Orio wouldn't say how many subpoenas were issued, but townsfolk guess
at least a dozen went out.

'We Want to Remain a Town'

The flap is the biggest thing in years to hit this low-income city of
800 people.

Isleton - about 15 miles northeast of Antioch, alongside the
Sacramento River - is happily known for its annual crawdad/Cajun
festival, great striped bass fishing, Old West Chinese heritage, and
a quaint main street of 1920s-era buildings, several of which used to
be whorehouses and gambling halls. But it's also drawn an outsize
number of headlines, considering the city's size, for unpleasantries,
including five recall elections and the grand jury probes for
everything from the weapons permits to financial irregularities at City Hall.

The city's budget is balanced today only because Pope - hired four
years ago to clean up the sloppy books that led to the '08 probe -
laid off nine people, which was most of the municipal staff. That
brought the City Hall workforce to five full-time employees, including Pope.

One of those is the city's lone police officer, hired last week. The
Fire Department is all volunteer. Two-thirds of the businesses on
Main Street are shuttered.

"We are one of the smallest towns left, and we want to remain a town,
so we need this money from that marijuana farm," said lifelong
resident Christine Lubner, 45. "We've all asked around, and nobody
can tell me what the problem is.

"We are anything but dull here, sure, but why can't they leave us alone?"

4,000-Square-Foot Farm

Isleton's pot farm is being built by Delta Allied Growers, co-owned
by Michael Brubeck, nephew of jazz pianist Dave Brubeck. It is
eventually to include 14 greenhouses encompassing 4,000 square feet.
Under the city contract approved in October, Delta Allied will pay
Isleton at least $25,000 a month in fees, or 3 percent of gross
receipts, whichever is higher, for the right to operate the pot farm.

That annual stream of $300,000 into Isleton's $1.3 million city
budget is the most significant source of revenue since the late
1990s, when the then-police chief grabbed national attention by
issuing the concealed-weapons permits. Before he was fired and the
state shut down the practice, the permits brought in as much as
$400,000 annually.

Scott Hawkins, spokesman for Delta Allied Growers, would not
speculate on any motives the district attorney may have for examining
the agreement.

"This is a small-scale, secure, R&D-focused facility operating under
a legal permit from the city of Isleton," he said.

Under state law, medical marijuana being grown has to be either used
by a patient or dedicated to specific cannabis dispensaries. Delta
Allied's agreement with the city directs that the pot be sold to
certified dispensaries and that no cannabis or money change hands
within the city limits.

The farm sits at the eastern edge of town in a field alongside 18
brightly painted houses that fell into foreclosure when the city's
last big revenue plan, a 350-unit housing development, went belly-up
in 2008. Five of Delta Allied's 14 planned greenhouses are almost
finished, and the operation is surrounded by two stands of barbed-wire fence.

The farm is to begin growing pot this summer.

Hoping for the Best

Meanwhile, it's hard to find anyone who thinks the farm and its cash
are a bad idea.

"Times are hard here, and that money would put this city back on its
legs," said Bill Cox, a retired planning commissioner who was
subpoenaed because he was in office last year when the pot farm was
approved. "Maybe the D.A. thinks she'll find the Mafia is behind this
plan or something like that. Who knows?

"It's ridiculous."