ISLETON OFFICIALS IN DARK ABOUT POT-FARM INQUIRY

The first day of grand jury hearings investigating the Sacramento
County town of Isleton's deal with a company building a medical
marijuana farm came and went Wednesday with little to indicate what
the probe is all about.

Sources close to the investigation said one area being explored is the
possibility that kickback payments were made to city officials in
return for allowing Delta Allied Growers to construct a
4,000-square-foot spread of greenhouses on the eastern edge of
Isleton. But several who were summoned to a Sacramento courtroom to
testify said they were still in the dark about investigators' focus.

Every elected leader and manager in Isleton, a sleepy delta town of
800 about 15 miles north of Antioch, was subpoenaed by Sacramento
County District Attorney Jan Scully to testify Wednesday about the
pot-farm deal.

The deal, which the Isleton City Council approved in October, allows
Delta Allied to build the farm in exchange for annual payments of
$25,000 or 3 percent of gross receipts, whichever is more.

The district attorney's office would not comment on the probe or
reveal how many subpoenas were issued, but city officials say they
went out to at least a dozen people associated with the project. A
dozen showed up Wednesday at the Sacramento Superior Courthouse, and
three had been called into the grand jury chamber by late afternoon.

"There are all sorts of rumors, and the grand jury is telling everyone
not to talk, but the latest is that the chief of police and I took
bribes," said City Manager Bruce Pope, who showed up but was not
brought into the grand jury chamber.

"Did I take bribes? No," Pope said.

"If I did, I wouldn't be here - I'd be in Bora Bora with my wife and
these people could all drop dead," he quipped. "Seriously, we can't
tell where this investigation is going, or where it began, so what's
driving it is either sheer stupidity or politics."

Irked by the unspecific nature of the probe, Pope said the city brass
intended to invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions.

Pope said he had sent all documentation about the pot-farm deal to the
district attorney's office. "We offered to make any corrections to the
agreement if they could show us what parts violated the law, but they
wouldn't tell us," Pope said.

City Councilman Robert Jankovitz also spent much of the day at the
courthouse but was not called in.

"All I did here today was burn $20 in gas, $9 in parking, and I had to
buy lunch in the courthouse cafeteria," he said. "Not a good day."

The hearings are expected to last through Friday.