Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, April 28, 2011
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.
E-mail Kevin Fagan at kfagan@sfchronicle.com.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/28/BAVU1J8UEI.DTL&type=printable
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