(05-05) 18:14 PDT ISLETON, SACRAMENTO COUNTY -- A plan to build the north state's biggest government-sanctioned pot farm in the Sacramento County town of Isleton may not be dead after all.
Developer Michael Brubeck has put his project on hold in the face of threats by federal prosecutors, who say they are going after large growing operations - but Isleton officials say they still consider the farm deal good.
The City Council is planning to vote on an amendment Wednesday to waive the farmer's fees until the heat from federal prosecutors and a related Sacramento County grand jury investigation dies down.
"We still want to go ahead with this project, and we are going to do what we can to keep it going," City Councilman Mike Gomez said Thursday. "It's not dead."
The council approved an agreement last fall allowing Brubeck, a nephew of jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, to construct a 4,000-square-foot medical marijuana farm in Isleton. The Delta hamlet of 800 was to collect $25,000 a month, or 3 percent of gross profits, whichever is more.Brubeck's Delta Allied Growers had five greenhouses nearly finished on Monday when the company and Isleton's city leaders received letters from U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner telling them that even though state law may permit such operations, federal law does not. If the project proceeded, everyone involved could be subject to criminal and civil prosecution, he warned.
William Portanova, an attorney representing Brubeck, said he had told his client to shelve the farm.
"Osama bin Laden knows what it's like when the U.S. Department of Justice comes knocking," Portanova said. "You can't ignore it. They don't go away."
Brubeck's official position is that the project has been suspended. Delta Allied's spokesman, Scott Hawkins, said Brubeck would now focus on "research and development of medical marijuana technology."
Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully issued subpoenas last month for Brubeck, several of his workers and nearly all of Isleton's leaders - from the City Council to City Manager Bruce Pope - to testify before the county grand jury.
The farm agreement violated state law, Scully wrote. Witnesses have been testifying before the grand jury since April 27. City leaders including Pope were given immunity in exchange for their testimony, but Brubeck has not testified yet.
The federal warning to Isleton is similar to those sent in recent months to officials in eight states, including Rhode Island, who are considering expanding the ability to grow medical cannabis.
The Obama administration declared 18 months ago that it would not arrest people who complied with their states' medical pot laws. However, Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in Sacramento, said Thursday that farms such as the one proposed in Isleton are larger that personal ones, making them "operations involved in the trade of illegal drugs."
A similar federal warning helped sideline plans late last year by the Oakland City Council to allow large farms.
E-mail Kevin Fagan at kfagan@sfchronicle.com.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/05/BAFM1JCGVH.DTL#ixzz1LXdCNAFb
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