0:06

In the beginning, all

0:08

this was underwater. Then,

0:11

about a hundred million years ago,

0:14

the water receded and these 56

0:16

square miles of desert land appeared.

0:21

Eventually,

0:21

humans appeared too. A

0:24

Native American tribe called the Van

0:27

Yoon. They discovered

0:29

this part of the Mojave River Valley and

0:31

they called it home.

0:34

Then, a period of violence

0:36

and conflict.

0:39

In 1542, the

0:41

Spaniards showed up and claimed authority

0:44

over the land and its people. But

0:47

as you will soon see, when

0:49

it comes to this place, things

0:52

don't often turn out the way people expect

0:54

them to. Other Europeans

0:57

showed up and told the Spaniards that

0:59

this land was theirs. They

1:02

said it was God's will, of

1:03

course. Blood

1:06

was shed. Treaties were made

1:08

and broken. Borders were drawn

1:11

and redrawn. More violence.

1:13

Eventually, the

1:15

dust settled and these 56 square

1:18

miles were nestled inside a much

1:20

bigger piece of land with a new name.

1:24

California. Then,

1:32

in

1:32

the early 1900s, a new plan. An

1:35

American inventor by the name of E.H.

1:38

Richardson purchased the land with the money

1:40

he'd made from one of his inventions, an

1:42

electric clothes iron. He'd

1:45

come up with a whole bunch of gadgets. He

1:47

called them the L-series. L

1:49

was short for electric. The L-perco

1:52

was an electric coffee pot. The

1:54

L-toasto a toaster. The L-ego...

1:57

it was an egg cooker.

2:02

When the inventor first stood on his new land,

2:05

he gazed upon a sea of Joshua

2:07

trees and crayosote bushes ringed

2:09

by mountains and envisioned a remarkable

2:13

city unlike any other. He

2:15

would build it from scratch.

2:16

He knew exactly

2:19

who should live there. All the poor

2:21

soldiers were turning from the Great War. He

2:24

figured he could sell one-acre plots

2:26

to these men whose lungs had been ravaged

2:29

by mustard gas on the front lines.

2:32

Wide open spaces and dry desert

2:34

air was just what they needed to heal.

2:42

Curious thing though, Richardson's

2:45

dreams never came true. Turns

2:47

out soldiers didn't want to live in the middle

2:50

of nowhere. So

2:52

despite his big plans, Richardson didn't

2:54

leave much of a legacy in this desert.

2:58

Nobody did give his new home

3:00

a new name. Adelanto.

3:04

That's

3:04

a Spanish word that means progress.

3:08

But Adelanto didn't see much of

3:10

that. About 50 years

3:12

later, in 1970, the

3:15

population had only grown to

3:17

about 2,000 people. Still

3:20

these people had new dreams for this place they

3:23

called home. They wanted to

3:25

make it an official, bona fide city.

3:28

Even though the organization in charge of all that kind

3:30

of stuff told Adelanto they shouldn't

3:33

become a city at all.

3:34

They went

3:36

ahead and made themselves into a city anyway.

3:39

Now some might

3:41

say that was a foolish thing to do. But

3:45

the citizens of Adelanto looked at this

3:47

place and went all in on a bet

3:49

with terrible odds. Things

3:52

went as you might expect.

3:54

That bet didn't pay out. People

3:57

never could pay its bills.

4:00

By 2014, things got real bad. There

4:04

was even talk of ending Adelanto's

4:06

short life as a city. But

4:10

then a new man

4:11

showed up with a big

4:13

idea how to save the town. I

4:17

suppose that's where our story begins. From

4:23

Crooked Media, this is Dream

4:26

Town, the story of

4:28

Adelanto.

4:29

I'm David Weinberg. Chapter 1,

4:33

Bugs Plan. Adelanto,

4:37

California, a small city in the high

4:39

desert, is split down the middle by

4:41

Highway 395. And

4:43

when you drive into town, you're greeted by

4:46

a huge sign with Adelanto's

4:48

motto,

4:50

the city with unlimited possibilities.

4:56

When I see the sign, I often think about

4:58

this quote by Richard Misrach, a

5:00

photographer who spent much of his life

5:03

in this desert. He said, the

5:05

human struggle, the successes and

5:07

failures, the use and abuse,

5:10

both noble and foolish, are

5:12

readily apparent in the desert. It

5:15

is a simple, if incomprehensible,

5:18

equation. The world is

5:20

as terrible as it is beautiful. But

5:24

when you look more closely, it

5:26

is as beautiful as

5:28

it is terrible.

5:33

I've been a reporter covering Southern California

5:35

for the past decade, and I've spent

5:37

a lot of time in Adelanto,

5:40

a city that's often referred to as a bedroom

5:42

community. Hardly any of

5:44

the roughly 30,000 residents work

5:47

in the city. There aren't many jobs in

5:49

town. There's not much of anything, really.

5:52

A handful of industrial businesses, some

5:54

prisons, a few local restaurants, some

5:57

liquor stores and churches, and one grocery

5:59

store.

5:59

store. And that's about it. Don't

6:03

get me wrong. There's a lot to love about

6:05

Adelanto,

6:06

but only if you appreciate emptiness

6:09

and heat and high winds

6:12

and the slow pace of small town

6:15

desert life. I

6:17

didn't like it. This is Stivana

6:19

Evans. She moved here from Riverside, California

6:22

when she was 10 years old. You know, typical

6:24

kid. I had to leave all my friends

6:26

and come to this city that

6:29

appeared to have nothing to do to come here where

6:31

there was pretty much nothing. Everything was kind of far away.

6:34

Riverside, where Stivana came from,

6:37

sits inside the Inland Empire,

6:39

a gargantuan sprawl of

6:41

cities and suburbs in Southern California

6:44

that is home to more than 4 million

6:46

people.

6:47

But when Stivana arrived in Adelanto,

6:50

there were just under 7,000 people

6:53

living in the city. It was a big change.

6:56

Yeah. What did you do for fun as a 10 year

6:58

old? Well, we rode our bikes a lot. There

7:01

was a big dirt hill. We used to fork, which

7:03

was fun. What was the

7:05

fork? Whoever started it would go to Costco and buy a pack of

7:07

forks, literally like plastic forks, and

7:09

we would fork

7:11

one person's yard, literally with hundreds

7:13

of forks. So they'd come out and their yard would

7:15

be all jacked up, and then they'd have the forks to go to the

7:18

next house and we'd just...

7:20

boring life, I guess. I don't know.

7:23

Since its founding, Adelanto's

7:25

population had been overwhelmingly white.

7:29

When Stivana and her family, who are black,

7:31

moved to the high desert in the mid-90s,

7:34

they were part of a larger demographic shift,

7:36

not just in Adelanto, but in

7:39

exurbs and suburbs all over the country.

7:42

People of color, who were priced out of bigger

7:44

cities, found themselves migrating to

7:46

smaller, more remote towns like

7:48

Adelanto. As a result,

7:51

these towns that were once mostly white,

7:53

became more diverse. For

7:56

me, it's the negative connotation that

7:58

people have when they talk about Adelanto. It's Adaghetto

8:01

and all these negative things. And it's like, I've

8:03

lived here forever and I've never had any of these problems that you

8:05

speak up. So let's keep it real.

8:08

One of the reasons Adelanto hasn't always had

8:10

the best reputation is that it was known

8:12

as a prison town. On

8:14

the off chance that you have heard of Adelanto,

8:17

it's probably because of the immigration detention

8:19

center there, which is often referred

8:22

to as Adelanto. It's the state's

8:24

largest. Plus the city

8:26

has a correctional facility and a federal prison

8:29

just outside the city limits. Every

8:31

time a new prison was built in Adelanto, there

8:34

were high hopes that it would bring enough good

8:36

jobs and tax revenue to keep the

8:38

city afloat. But by and large,

8:41

those prisons have not delivered on that promise.

8:44

Research has shown that most small towns

8:47

end up worse off economically after

8:49

they build a prison. Adelanto is a

8:51

city where people come here to sleep.

8:54

They have their house, they sleep here, but

8:56

they drive out of the city for work. They

8:58

come back, they pick up their kids. If their kids are involved

9:01

in sports, whatever, they may do that around town, but then if

9:03

they want to eat, they're going to Victorville. They're

9:05

not live working and playing here.

9:07

There is no movie theater in Adelanto.

9:10

No gyms, no department store, or

9:12

rec center for the kids to hang out in. As

9:15

the former mayor, Carrie Thomas said, you

9:18

can't buy a pair of shoes in Adelanto.

9:21

One issue that I've always had with Adelanto is we've

9:23

watched the cities around us grow

9:26

and develop and prosper. And so watching

9:28

the cities around us, Apple Valley, Hesperia, bloom,

9:31

blossom, freaking blow up.

9:34

And Adelanto is still the same. We can count,

9:36

in the time I've been here, I can count four developments that have

9:38

happened. That's the Stater Brothers Shopping Center. We got the Family

9:41

Dollar Family Dollar General, which whoopie

9:43

do, right? And the Cactus Shopping

9:45

Center, that's it. So

9:48

why is everybody else blowing up, but we're not.

9:52

Once Stefana got older,

9:54

she could have moved to any of those more prosperous

9:57

towns, just down the road. But

10:00

she didn't. She got used to the slower pace

10:02

of things, came to appreciate the

10:04

lack of traffic, the neighbors

10:06

and local spots she knew well. When

10:09

she was a teenager, she got a job at a local fast

10:12

food restaurant in the neighboring town of Victorville

10:15

and later moved on to a job in retail

10:17

at Staples,

10:18

a job she loved, even though it meant commuting

10:20

out of Adelanto. But

10:23

leaving the city for work or to shop, that's

10:25

the price you pay to live in an

10:28

affordable city in an expensive

10:30

state. And

10:32

later, Stefana would make a career change

10:35

that would have an impact on the entire

10:37

city, a city that many

10:39

people believe should never have existed

10:42

in the first place. It

10:44

is a small population to be considered

10:46

like a city in California. This

10:48

is Brooke Self, a reporter who

10:50

covered Adelanto with the Victor Valley Daily

10:53

Press. And if

10:55

you dig into the history of the city, there

10:58

was this commission board called

11:00

LAFCO in California that I guess

11:03

approved the incorporation of cities. And they had recommended

11:05

that Adelanto not even become a city. They didn't

11:07

think there was enough tax revenue there, enough population.

11:11

And LAFCO wasn't wrong.

11:14

By 2014, Adelanto had a massive

11:16

deficit and not a lot of prospects

11:19

for generating tax revenue. Like

11:22

a lot of places around the country, Adelanto

11:24

had been hit hard by the 2008 recession. It

11:28

was a city made up of mostly single-family

11:31

homes that had taken a huge hit

11:33

during the subprime mortgage crisis and

11:36

was struggling to recover. Nearly

11:38

a quarter of the city's staff had recently

11:40

been laid off. And city leaders

11:43

had begun steps to file from municipal

11:45

bankruptcy. That was the kind

11:48

of the atmosphere that was there in City

11:50

Hall. They fired almost, I

11:52

don't know how many people. They started firing and firing

11:54

and firing. And it was like, you know what?

11:56

This is crazy. I mean, that

11:59

city kind of... Rachel

12:01

Karanza worked in City Hall at this

12:03

time. In the wake of all these

12:06

firings, there was talk around town

12:09

about dissolving the city entirely, closing

12:11

City Hall, laying off all

12:13

the employees,

12:14

and letting the county take it over. There

12:17

simply wasn't enough revenue coming

12:19

in to keep the city afloat.

12:22

And there didn't seem to be any hope in sight. They

12:25

were just in such a state of desperation

12:27

with their deficit that they didn't really have

12:30

a lot of options.

12:32

In fact, ever since it was founded, the city of Adelanto

12:34

has struggled financially. There was just

12:37

never enough money coming in to cover the

12:39

city's expenses. It

12:41

was just a lack of vision, a lack of actually

12:44

planning for the future, and that's what the problem

12:46

was in the city. This

12:48

is Jermaine Wright, a retired

12:50

pastor who was the only black member of

12:52

the city council at the time. He had

12:54

a shaved head, a mustache, and

12:56

a penchant for three-piece suits. Reporters

12:59

knew that he was always good for a colorful quote,

13:02

and he seemed to relish having his name in

13:05

the local paper. Jermaine

13:07

was one of Adelanto's four city council

13:09

members. In addition to the council,

13:12

Adelanto also had a mayor, and

13:14

it was these five officials who presided

13:16

over the town and got to vote when

13:19

the council met to make decisions. Are

13:21

you from Adelanto? No, I'm originally

13:24

from LA County. I was

13:27

born and raised down in the Monrovia-Dawardee

13:29

area in LA County, and

13:32

then I spent 10 years in Michigan. I

13:35

moved here in 2009. What

13:38

brought you to Adelanto? We

13:42

were finishing up our time in pastoring

13:44

in Michigan. I told her we want to go home to

13:46

California. She came to Adelanto first,

13:48

because she has a friend that lives here in Adelanto.

13:51

She

13:54

looked around. She found

13:56

a place to stay in Adelanto. When she first said we're

13:58

moving to Adelanto, I'm like,

13:59

where is that? She

14:02

explained to me where it was at and I'm like,

14:05

okay. As

14:13

soon as he moved to Adelanto, Jermaine

14:16

jumped right into public service. He

14:18

ran for a spot on the school board and

14:20

for a seat on the city council and

14:22

won both.

14:24

One of the big issues back in 2012 was the

14:26

city budget. The

14:29

city of Adelanto, when it was incorporated,

14:33

did not have a large enough tax base

14:35

to actually make it work and

14:38

they never did anything to actually get a tax

14:40

base to move forward.

14:43

As a city council member, Jermaine

14:45

had some success leaning into Adelanto's

14:47

prison industry. He renegotiated

14:50

the city's contract with GEO Group, the

14:52

private company that owns the immigration

14:55

detention facility. He got the

14:57

city a few more cents per prisoner

14:59

per day.

15:01

But the new revenue the city squeezed out of the

15:03

private prison company was a drop in

15:05

the bucket compared to what was needed to

15:07

balance the city's budget.

15:10

So in 2014, Jermaine decided that

15:13

in order to fix things properly, he

15:15

needed more than just a city council seat.

15:18

He would run for mayor,

15:20

which wasn't necessarily a risky move on his

15:22

part. If he won, he'd become

15:24

mayor. If he lost, he would

15:26

remain a city council member. And

15:29

it was in the midst of his mayoral campaign that

15:31

Jermaine met the man who would challenge

15:34

both the future of Adelanto politics

15:37

and eventually be a part

15:39

of a scheme that would change Jermaine's

15:42

life forever.

15:45

This chance encounter happened

15:47

when Jermaine was driving near his home and

15:49

he noticed a white guy with long gray hair

15:52

and a big scraggly beard. And

15:55

this stranger was messing with one

15:57

of Jermaine's campaign signs.

15:59

But Jermaine pulled over to investigate.

16:03

I'm like, who are you? And

16:05

he's like, oh, I'm Johnny Buckwood. And I'm

16:07

like,

16:08

OK. And he just looked like, to

16:10

me, an old hippie. Johnny

16:14

Bug Woodard Jr. told

16:16

Jermaine that he was running for city council in

16:19

the upcoming election. There

16:21

were two seats up for grabs, and

16:23

Bug had his sights on one of them. When

16:26

they met that day, Bug claimed

16:28

he was putting up one of his own campaign signs

16:31

when he noticed that Jermaine's sign was

16:33

broken, and he was simply being

16:35

a good Samaritan by fixing it for

16:38

him. Yeah, I think I was fixing his

16:40

sign, maybe. We came up to each

16:42

other. He was on the campaign

16:44

trail. I'm on the campaign trail. Bug

16:47

was relatively new to politics. This

16:49

was his first run for office, though

16:52

he had been a board member of the High Desert

16:54

Tea Party. As Bug

16:56

and Jermaine got to talking, Bug

16:59

laid out his political platform, which

17:01

was pretty radical for the time. Bug

17:04

had taken a look at the city's dire financial

17:07

troubles and realized that

17:09

something needed to be done. And

17:11

then I decided, you know what? Let's do a little

17:14

research on this. I got an old Google.

17:17

I did a little Googling, and I

17:20

found out the secret.

17:22

The secret, according to Bug

17:25

via Google, was marijuana,

17:28

specifically marijuana cultivation.

17:32

And at this time, that was a radical idea.

17:35

No city in Southern California had

17:38

ever legalized commercial weed cultivation.

17:41

According to Bug, it would be a way for Adelanto

17:44

to get into the black without having to

17:46

cut spending or increase taxes

17:49

like the other council members at the time were

17:51

proposing.

17:53

But Jermaine was against the

17:55

plan. Well, I'm a retired pastor.

17:58

So on the... the Christian

18:00

side, I had a real hard time with the doctrine

18:03

that I've gone through throughout my

18:05

life.

18:06

As much as Jermaine was against Bug's plan,

18:09

he wasn't all that worried,

18:10

because he felt that Bug's chances of winning

18:13

were slim at best.

18:15

Yes, California voters had legalized

18:17

marijuana from additional use 20 years

18:20

prior,

18:21

but commercial cultivation and

18:23

recreational use were still illegal

18:25

in the state. And the reality

18:28

was that the vast majority of cities

18:30

and counties in California, including

18:33

relatively conservative Adelanto, did

18:36

not want pot being grown or

18:38

sold in their community.

18:40

It would take a pretty savvy political operator

18:43

to pull off Bug's plan in this

18:45

part of the state. And Jermaine's

18:47

first impression of Bug was

18:50

that he did not have the political knowledge or

18:52

skill

18:53

to make that happen.

18:54

I remember he goes, you ain't got a chance

18:57

in hell now. It's good luck.

18:59

I went, well, good luck to you

19:01

too, Jermaine.

19:08

Sometimes, out here in the

19:10

West, a stranger comes

19:12

to town and saves the city from

19:14

whatever peril is threatening the town's people.

19:18

And sometimes, a stranger comes

19:20

to town disguised

19:23

as a savior, but

19:25

turns out to be just another grifter.

19:30

Bug and Jermaine represented two

19:33

very different ways of doing things. Jermaine

19:36

was a part of the old guard, the

19:38

regime that was in power at the time.

19:42

And the general consensus among the old

19:44

guard was that the way to save

19:46

Adelanto from bankruptcy was

19:48

to raise taxes. And

19:50

the proposal they put forth was

19:52

an 8% tax increase on

19:54

utilities. Bug,

19:57

on the other hand, was like, why raise

19:59

everybody's taxes? taxes and just

20:01

balance the budget. When we could

20:03

get rich, growing pot on

20:05

land that nobody's using. It

20:08

seemed like a no-brainer to Bug, but

20:10

he was not prepared for the shitstorm

20:13

that he was about to stir up.

20:15

That's after the break.

20:33

One thing I'm always curious about when I meet

20:35

people in Adelanto

20:37

is how they ended up here. This was a

20:39

question I asked Bug when we met, and

20:42

it turns out his move to the high desert

20:44

was driven by two things, cheap

20:47

housing and spite.

20:51

I ended up in Adelanto from

20:53

a challenge from a very

20:56

rude obnoxious lender that

20:58

said, oh my god, you only

21:00

have $800 a month coming in. You

21:03

can't afford anything in California. He

21:06

might as well forget that. Maybe you're lucky you can go

21:09

rent someplace. Well,

21:12

I couldn't believe how snobby it was. That

21:15

guy was that rude. Screw that dude. I said,

21:17

let's go see what we find. At

21:19

the time, Bug was living in a 66

21:22

Chevy van. I lived in the van in

21:25

the barn out back because me

21:27

and my ex, we had a little falling out.

21:29

I formed rock bands. I managed

21:32

rock bands. We played in the local nightclubs

21:34

there. You know, it was those were

21:36

happy times. None of Bug's bands

21:38

ever made it big, but he did manage

21:41

some pretty promising acts. Maximum

21:43

Force was one of the hottest bands in San Luis

21:45

Obispo. We were all loadies back

21:48

then, you know, it's like part of

21:50

the status quo.

21:50

It was all his

21:53

normal way of life. Bug

21:55

says he doesn't smoke weed these days,

21:58

but back in the day, he was a big part of it.

21:59

and doing drugs was just part

22:02

of the lifestyle. That's how he earned

22:04

the nickname Bug. He had some friends

22:06

who sold weed, and he got a tip that they were about to be

22:08

raided by the cops. So

22:11

I frankly gave

22:13

him a little heads up. Anyways, they

22:15

told my whole circle of friends, hey, the

22:17

guy's name is Bug, because the

22:20

Bug in the phone, man, saved our butt.

22:24

So back to the story of how Bug ended

22:26

up in Adelanto. Despite his

22:28

happy times living inside a van, inside

22:31

a barn, he and his girlfriend decided

22:33

that they wanted to buy a house. That's

22:35

when they talked to that lender, who told them they

22:37

couldn't afford anything in California. Eventually,

22:41

they ended up in Adelanto.

22:43

I said, we like that house. So

22:46

I go back to my lender, a bonehead

22:48

by the name of Winston. Bam,

22:51

bam, bam, bam, the house

22:53

is

22:53

ours.

22:55

Bug was moving from the laid-back city of Pismo Beach,

22:59

where it wasn't uncommon to smell weed drifting

23:01

through the air, to Adelanto, a

23:04

small desert town where the political

23:06

climate was very different.

23:09

Here's reporter Brooke Self again. The

23:11

high desert in general is very politically conservative. Like

23:15

California is a blue state, but the high desert

23:17

is very red, pro-guns,

23:19

pro-military.

23:21

Since then, the high desert has become less

23:23

red. But back then, Bug had

23:26

his work cut out for him, in terms of campaigning

23:28

on a platform like the one he was proposing.

23:31

And Brooke says the reactions to Bug, among

23:34

her colleagues at the paper, were all

23:36

pretty much the same. What is this

23:38

guy doing? Like, he's kind of a joke. What

23:41

was this guy doing? Bug's

23:43

campaign didn't seem to make a lot of sense. His

23:47

values and political leanings were

23:49

a little all over the place. Even though he

23:51

was pro-weed, which was an arguably progressive

23:54

stance to take at the time, he was

23:56

an active member of the high desert

23:58

tea party.

23:59

He was a guy who loved to go grocery shopping

24:02

with a firearm proudly displayed

24:04

on his hip. And it was clear

24:06

that he was a staunch conservative, at least

24:08

in that way. I used to direct traffic

24:10

with my car being on my back and

24:13

my 357 on my side. Direct

24:16

traffic right on into the cocky bull

24:18

over here, which has long gone

24:20

down. I stand up for

24:22

what's right. My second amendment rights

24:25

are very important. Without the second amendment,

24:27

believe me, you don't have any other rights.

24:29

When you read the constitution, you find out

24:32

the real true meaning of the constitution.

24:35

The second amendment is in place to

24:37

protect all the other rights that

24:40

are given to

24:42

us by God. So

24:44

many of Bug's political views were very

24:46

much in line with Republicans, but his

24:48

stance on marijuana was not.

24:51

Republicans were largely responsible for

24:53

the anti-marijuana policies in California

24:56

and the nation. But Bug believed

24:58

that his pro pot campaign would

25:00

attract a new generation of young

25:03

conservatives who would propel him to victory

25:05

in a town that had long been dominated by

25:08

conservative politicians.

25:10

But when an organization of young Republicans

25:12

reached out to help Bug fundraise,

25:15

he turned them down. They asked if

25:17

I needed a pack or anything like that. And I said,

25:19

you know, I got a few

25:22

bucks socked away. I said, you know, I think

25:25

I can just handle it on my own. Bug

25:27

decided he would spend his own money,

25:29

but no more than $1,000 on his campaign. I

25:33

own my own printing company, so I can print my own

25:35

signs for wholesale. And

25:37

I said, if I can do it, I can pull

25:39

it off with a thousand bucks, that's fine. If

25:42

I can't, at least I try to do something.

25:45

Bug says he ended up spending about $700 total

25:47

on his campaign.

25:51

And the climax, if you could call it that,

25:53

of the campaign for city council came

25:56

in the form of a debate

25:57

hosted at the local high school. Here

26:00

is reporter Brooke Self again. The

26:03

debate was set in the newly

26:05

built Adelanto High School. I

26:08

remember the red curtains kind

26:10

of felt like high school musical or something.

26:13

And the candidates all sat on the stage

26:15

and along table.

26:16

It was September 2014, two

26:19

and a half months out from

26:21

the election. And the debate was

26:24

not a particularly hot ticket. I

26:26

mean, honestly, it's such a small town. There weren't very many

26:28

people in the audience. It was like like their family

26:31

members and like

26:33

a few kind of quirky people in

26:35

the public who would always complain

26:37

about

26:37

the same thing. Two

26:40

of the four seats on the city council were

26:42

up for grabs. There were five

26:44

candidates running for these two seats, two

26:47

incumbents running for reelection, a guy

26:50

who had previously been a planning commissioner, a former

26:53

mayor of Adelanto and Bug,

26:56

the political newcomer of the group

26:58

and a noticeable latecomer

27:00

to the debate.

27:01

Bug still remembers how the press described

27:04

his arrival. A guy walks in late.

27:07

He's got on a Hawaiian shirt. He's got

27:09

this big silly straw cowboy

27:11

hat on. And I swear that was a beer

27:13

he was holding his hand. No,

27:16

it was a Monster Energy drink.

27:18

But Bug did confirm that he was indeed

27:21

wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a straw cowboy

27:23

hat. He sat there

27:25

listening as the other candidates laid

27:27

out their plans to save the city.

27:30

They ranged from the unoriginal building

27:33

yet another prison to the aforementioned

27:35

tax increase on utilities. And

27:38

it was at this moment that

27:41

Bug sensed an opportunity.

27:44

When it came to my turn to speak, I

27:47

just let him have it. I said, these things, you guys

27:49

are failing. I said, I think it's time

27:51

to talk about marijuana. Oh,

27:55

my God, I was in the school, the high

27:57

school, you know, and all the teachers

27:59

were there going.

27:59

Oh no, not that.

28:02

You know, then all of a sudden I let it out of the

28:04

bag, you know, I got beat up

28:06

real bad by the press.

28:10

After the debate, it was up to the citizens

28:13

to cast their votes. And in the

28:15

Adelanto City Council election of 2014,

28:19

just 10% of the residents bothered

28:22

to show up to the polls. Which

28:24

is a shame, because local government has

28:27

a really big impact on your life. Also,

28:30

the stakes were very high in this election.

28:32

Depending on what happened, it could mean the

28:34

difference between the city prospering

28:37

or throwing in the towel and calling

28:39

it quits. And

28:43

when all the votes were tallied, Bug,

28:46

the political newcomer, the gun wielding

28:48

weed guy, had won a seat

28:51

on the council. I

28:53

won by the senior vote. I thought

28:55

I was gonna win by the younger vote.

28:58

I thought I was gonna teach these kids how to go

29:01

out and vote, because they're voting for weed. And

29:06

by golly, they still sat on their ass pretty

29:08

much. I

29:10

think it was about 26 votes I won. It

29:13

was actually 24 votes. That

29:15

was Bug's margin of victory. I'm

29:18

going to give you a few more numbers here, because

29:20

they're bonkers. 676 people voted for

29:22

Bug.

29:22

That's

29:25

only 2% of Adelanto's

29:27

total population. He'd spent

29:30

about $700 on his campaign, which

29:32

comes out to a little over $1 per vote, enough

29:36

to put him on a city council in

29:38

charge of a budget

29:39

of roughly $13 million.

29:43

In the election for mayor that year, Germain

29:45

Wright wasn't as lucky as Bug. The

29:48

winner against the incumbent mayor, Kerry

29:51

Thomas, was Rich Kerr,

29:54

a retired marine who worked as

29:56

a cell tower technician. Germain

29:59

remained on the city.

29:59

City Council. So to

30:02

save Adelanto from the brink of

30:04

bankruptcy, the ex-marine,

30:07

the former preacher,

30:09

and the right-wing hippie

30:11

would have to work together. This

30:15

was a huge change in the political

30:17

tide of Adelanto. Both

30:19

incumbents lost their City Council seats

30:22

and the incumbent mayor lost. The

30:25

old guard had been replaced by

30:28

a new majority. And

30:30

this new council was about to take Adelanto

30:33

in a different direction. The

30:35

city was about to blow up in a very

30:38

big way.

30:41

I don't think anyone expected just how

30:43

crazy things would get in the months and

30:46

years ahead. The money

30:48

that would pour into this small desert town.

30:51

The celebrities, professional athletes,

30:54

a Russian oligarch, and

30:56

eventually the FBI.

30:59

I seen that awful bag of money come

31:01

in and it didn't go to the bank. And

31:03

I knew that cannabis was going to become just absolutely

31:06

a fucking battleground for the wealthy. It's

31:09

a story about what happens when

31:11

people with a half-baked idea suddenly

31:14

find themselves in power. The

31:16

wheels are in motion. Ain't nobody

31:18

getting in the way. You know, I don't care if you're

31:20

the sheriff, I don't care if you're the governor,

31:23

I don't care who you are. And the unintended

31:25

consequences of a modern-day

31:27

gold rush. To developing news,

31:30

the FBI served several search warrants

31:32

this morning in Adelanto. According

31:34

to the Victor Valley Daily Press, agents

31:36

raided City Hall and the mayor's home.

31:39

And of picking up the pieces

31:41

when everything comes crashing down. What

31:43

is the city budget like these days?

31:46

You funny! So

31:48

it is just a bunch of made-up

31:51

numbers that they pulled from God knows where and

31:54

put into

31:54

a book and called it a budget. And I'm like,

31:56

what the hell? Who approved this? So

31:59

it's That's

32:02

this season on Dreamtown,

32:06

the story

32:07

of Adelanto. Adelanto

32:17

is an original podcast from Crooked

32:20

Media. It's hosted, written,

32:22

and executive produced by me, David Weinberg.

32:25

Nick White is our story editor. Angel

32:28

Carreras is our associate producer.

32:31

Sound design, mix, and mastering

32:34

by Brendan Baker of Phenomophon.

32:37

Our theme song is by Icarus

32:39

himself. And our original score

32:42

is by Eric Phillips. Fact

32:44

checking by Amy Tardif. Additional

32:47

production help from Inez Mazza, Sydney

32:50

Rapp, and Coby Copeland. Thanks

32:53

to Betsy Zico for narrating portions

32:56

of the show. From Crooked

32:58

Media, our executive producers are

33:00

Sarah Geismer, Katie Long, and

33:02

Mary Knopf. With special thanks to

33:05

Alison Falsetta, Lyra Smith, Andrew

33:07

Leland, Richard Parks III, Shaka Molly,

33:11

and Katya Epikina.

33:27

Thank you.