0:00

If you like Dreamtown, the story of Adelanto,

0:03

and want access to early ad-free episodes,

0:06

join Friends of the Pod, Crooked's

0:09

new subscription community at

0:11

crooked.com. Well, well,

0:13

well,

0:15

well, here we are, the final chapter

0:17

of our story. It

0:25

looks like we got ourselves another election.

0:29

I believe they call that full circle. Stevonna,

0:33

she'd had enough of trying to work alongside

0:35

the mayor. Decided to run against

0:37

him instead. Stevonna

0:40

versus the mayor, yep. I

0:43

bet it's going to be a close one. Stevonna's

0:45

a fighter. And the mayor, well,

0:48

now he's proved he's got what it takes to win.

0:52

I

0:52

wonder how it's all going to shake out

0:54

in the end. On

1:03

October 3rd of 2022,

1:05

I placed my phone and keys in a plastic

1:08

tray and walked through a metal detector

1:11

inside the entrance to the federal courthouse

1:13

in Riverside, California. Today

1:16

was Jermaine Wright's sentencing hearing after

1:18

being found guilty of bribery and

1:20

attempted arson back in June of 2022.

1:24

Jermaine entered the courtroom in handcuffs and

1:27

leg shackles. He

1:29

had on a cream-colored jumpsuit. His last name was

1:32

tattooed on his forearm in cursive.

1:35

He looked defeated.

1:37

He kept his head down and hardly said a word

1:39

as he stood next to his lawyer, who had on a

1:41

bow tie and purple socks.

1:45

It had been three and a half years since

1:47

I'd last seen Jermaine.

1:49

When I interviewed him at city hall back then, his

1:52

daughter sat by his side doing her homework

1:54

as we chatted. I think a lot about

1:56

something he told me that day, when

1:58

I asked him about why he—

1:59

he changed his mind about weed.

2:03

I spent a lot of time speaking to

2:05

national bishops in the Methodist churches,

2:08

as well as Church of God in Christ, talking

2:10

to a lot of people that I've known that have a lot of respect

2:13

for, and really searching

2:15

myself to see, am

2:19

I doing what's right, not only for my city, but

2:21

can I look at myself in the mirror when I do

2:23

this?

2:25

I also think about the fact that Jermaine Wright

2:28

was a supporter of the prison back when

2:30

he was a council member. I

2:32

wondered if he felt different about prisons

2:34

now that he lived in one.

2:38

I wanted to ask him this, but he declined

2:40

my request for a follow-up interview. In

2:45

the end, former pastor Jermaine

2:47

Wright was sentenced by Judge

2:49

Jesus Bernal

2:51

to the minimum of five years

2:53

for the bribery charge and five

2:55

years for attempted arson.

2:58

But both sentences could be served concurrently.

3:02

He's scheduled to be released on March

3:04

4th of 2026.

3:08

Jermaine's sentencing

3:11

brought an end to one chapter of

3:14

Adelanto's history. But

3:16

what about the larger FBI investigation?

3:19

There were still a lot of unanswered questions, and

3:22

that uncertainty makes it feel

3:25

like the sword of Damocles is

3:27

hanging over the city of Adelanto. Who

3:29

might be the next person to get arrested? The

3:32

owners of the jet room or Bug,

3:35

or maybe city manager Jesse Flores?

3:39

Perhaps the man in the clown suit. That

3:41

would be a twist that no one saw coming.

3:45

It had been over five years since

3:48

the FBI first rolled into town, and

3:50

a lot of people felt the same way Stavana

3:52

did. She wanted to close

3:55

this chapter of Adelanto's history

3:57

for good. Trying

3:58

to figure out. What really happened?

4:01

How do we fix it? And not so much focus

4:03

on the past, because we want to move forward, right? But

4:05

if we don't unpack and figure out where

4:07

we went wrong, how do we

4:09

move

4:09

forward? This was the question

4:12

being put before voters in the upcoming

4:14

mayoral election. Did they want

4:17

to move forward with Stivana's vision of the future

4:20

or the mayors? And what did Adelanto's

4:23

future look like seven years after

4:25

legalizing

4:26

weed? What's

4:30

the future? What's the future?

4:34

What's the future? What's

4:36

the future? From

4:39

crooked media, this

4:41

is Dreamtown. The story

4:43

of Adelanto.

4:45

Chapter 8. Sometimes,

4:49

you win.

5:02

When Adelanto decided to run for mayor, she went all in. She

5:04

could have run for

5:06

re-election to the council at the same time. But she decided

5:08

it was no use trying to work with Mayor Reyes.

5:12

It doesn't make any sense for us to sit on this dais for another four years

5:15

and pretend like everything is cool, because

5:17

it's not. Because you feel like I'm a problem.

5:20

Stivana

5:20

and I are all in for a re-election. We're

5:24

all in for a re-election. We're all in for a re-election. Because

5:27

you feel like I'm a problem.

5:28

Stivana and Reyes continued

5:31

to butt heads over a number of issues leading

5:33

up to the election. And as you might remember,

5:36

the Adelanto City Council is nonpartisan.

5:39

But Stivana is a progressive Democrat. Whereas

5:42

Reyes says he's a registered Republican.

5:45

Though he calls himself a 60-40. 60% Republican, 40%

5:48

Democrat, right? It's

5:52

not surprising that Reyes and Stivana

5:54

disagree on certain issues. Take

5:56

immigration reform. This

5:58

was an important issue. in Adelanto because

6:01

the city is home to the state's largest immigration

6:03

detention prison. Stefano

6:05

was in support of closing the facility

6:07

down. In a perfect world, there

6:10

would be no more detention centers altogether. But

6:13

the mayor felt differently. Even though he was

6:15

himself the child of immigrants who

6:17

came to this country illegally, he

6:19

was supportive of the private prison company, GEO

6:22

Group. They have been a good partner

6:24

for the community. They've donated

6:27

thousands of dollars to Little League, thousands

6:29

of dollars to get kids to college and give

6:32

back.

6:33

The mayor did agree with Stefano that America's

6:35

immigration system is broken.

6:38

But he saw it as a federal issue. Immigration,

6:41

in my opinion, shouldn't be handled by people

6:44

who have been in politics for one, two, three,

6:47

four years. That should be something where

6:49

the big boys and girls should roll up

6:51

their sleeves and really do what's best for our country.

6:55

Stefano and the mayor disagreed on other things,

6:57

like cannabis regulation and how to combat

7:00

racism in the city and police reform.

7:04

And then there was the water issue,

7:06

something I've alluded to before. It's

7:08

been a problem in Adelanto for decades.

7:12

The first week I was here, I

7:14

noticed that the water had an odor

7:17

and I saw that it had a discoloration.

7:20

You know, we can't drink the water. This

7:23

is Alan Hampton. He and his family

7:25

moved to Adelanto from Compton, California

7:28

in 2016. Like

7:30

a lot of people, the high cost of

7:32

living drove them out. We was

7:34

paying $2,800. We

7:38

got up to him. We was only

7:40

paying $900 for a four bedroom house.

7:43

A few years after they moved in, Hampton

7:45

and I chatted in the garage of that four bedroom

7:48

house on a quiet street in

7:50

a subdivision surrounded by open desert.

7:53

You told me that this new life suits

7:55

him. Yeah, it's been

7:58

great. except the

8:00

water.

8:02

Hampton has his own catering business.

8:04

His garage was filled with shelves of spices

8:07

and pantry items and spread

8:09

throughout the garage were gallon

8:11

jugs of store-bought water. We

8:14

probably go through 150 gallons of water, store-bought

8:20

water a month. We have

8:22

to brush our teeth with the water and

8:24

we cook with the water. So most of the

8:26

times, if we can't get water,

8:30

we're using broth

8:31

because water has went up. It used to be 9.8 cents.

8:34

Now it's a $1.50 for a gallon

8:37

and it cuts into the profit.

8:40

His family does have to use the tap water to

8:42

wash dishes and for bathing, even

8:45

though it makes their skin itch. One

8:48

of my children can't even, you know,

8:50

barely wash her hands because of the

8:52

water. We thought it was a soap,

8:54

but we changed soap. And now we

8:57

found out that it was the water. But

9:00

what can we do? The

9:02

first time Hampton went to a city council meeting

9:04

to voice his concerns, Rich

9:07

Kerr was the mayor and Bug

9:09

Woodard and Jermaine Wright were on the council.

9:12

Hampton's first impression

9:14

was that they weren't all that concerned about the safety

9:16

of the town's water.

9:18

They don't care. If you're not coming there

9:20

with, you know, weed farm and,

9:24

you know, any kind of business that has

9:26

to do with that, then they're

9:28

not gonna listen to you. But

9:30

they're not gonna do anything. People

9:37

in Adelanto have been complaining about the water for a long time. And

9:42

ever since the city started raking in money from

9:44

weed, they expected the water

9:46

quality to improve. But

9:48

years went by and it didn't seem like anyone at City Hall had

9:51

any plans to fix the problem.

9:55

But according to Hampton, things change

9:57

after Stivana was elected to the city council. Council.

10:01

We had one person responsive

10:03

to the issues of water and that was Stavonna

10:05

Evans. Water became a key

10:08

issue in the run-up to the 2022 election and as

10:11

a council member Stavonna believed it was her

10:14

duty to find out why there were

10:16

so many complaints about the city's water

10:19

but she says when she took initiative

10:22

Mayor Reyes was not supportive. The

10:24

mayor said on several occasions that I was working outside

10:27

of my scope of work you

10:29

know and I need to let the employees do their job

10:31

and you know this isn't your job to do and it

10:33

wasn't easy. She

10:35

couldn't investigate the water issue through

10:38

the council so she decided to

10:40

get to the bottom of the problem on her own.

10:43

She started by reaching out to Perk

10:46

the company that Adelanto contracts to

10:48

manage its water infrastructure. We

10:50

pay Perk a lot of money no

10:53

shade I love our guys at Perk please don't get

10:55

me wrong I think that they are amazing people and they've never given me

10:57

a reason to doubt what they say but

11:00

my problem is if your report is saying that the water

11:02

is fine and everything is good then

11:04

why is it cloudy

11:05

then why does it smell

11:07

why does it taste funny

11:08

why does it come out brown that

11:11

doesn't coincide with everything's

11:13

fine.

11:16

One of Stavonna's concerns was that

11:18

Perk was paid to operate the city's

11:20

infrastructure but the city also

11:22

relied on Perk to test water

11:24

quality. Stavonna thought it

11:27

would be good to have a third party test

11:29

the water.

11:30

I reached out to Pitzer College and

11:33

I said hey you got any kids that want to help me shout

11:35

out to Ella. I'm sort of the water

11:38

nerd. She was the student who took

11:40

this on as her thesis paper. I

11:42

was sort of the person who could

11:44

just think about

11:45

water for hours on end

11:48

and so she got in the trenches with me

11:51

out knocking on doors and asking people sounded

11:53

like crazy folks like can we have a sample of water from

11:55

Fost that you haven't used today and

11:57

that's how it started.

12:01

Ella and her peers did a comprehensive

12:03

study of Adelanto and its water, and

12:06

they came across some unsettling statistics

12:08

about the health of Adelanto's citizens.

12:12

The

12:12

rate of low birth

12:14

weights is in nearly

12:17

the 100th percentile for

12:19

census tracts in California. So

12:21

that means there are

12:24

essentially more low

12:26

birth weights occurring in Adelanto

12:28

than any other location

12:31

in California that we know of. Ella

12:34

witnessed this statistic firsthand. I

12:37

was with these

12:39

two new parents asking them about their

12:41

water in their house, and they had

12:44

their baby with them. Very adorable

12:46

baby, but definitely the

12:49

smallest baby I've seen in my entire

12:51

life.

12:56

When I asked Mayor Reyes about Adelanto's

12:58

water,

12:59

he told me that there was nothing wrong with it.

13:02

We don't have a water quality issue.

13:05

If you go to our water basins and

13:07

you look at the reports that are done by

13:09

the professionals who specialize in this, there's

13:13

not an issue with the water.

13:16

He says the real issue is Adelanto's

13:18

aging infrastructure. It's not

13:20

that the water's bad, it's that the pipes

13:22

are old. It's that we

13:25

are in a desert community. Whenever

13:27

a pipe bursts, all

13:29

that dirt is getting circulated into

13:31

our water infrastructure. So

13:35

again, we don't have a water

13:37

issue. Our water's not contaminated.

13:41

Stefano was not happy to hear the mayor's claim

13:44

that Adelanto's water was fine. To

13:47

say that the water is fine is sickening.

13:50

Go talk to the people and

13:52

ask them if they think their water is fine. I'm

13:55

sure the mayor of Flint said

13:57

that the water was fine. It's

14:01

annoying. Thanks

14:03

David for pissing me off. I'm sorry,

14:05

I really, I didn't mean to come over and angry. Oh,

14:09

that's frustrating. You

14:11

cannot live in Adelanto and say the water

14:13

is fine. You cannot.

14:17

I reached out to Perk to ask about their water

14:19

study, but they did not respond

14:22

to my interview request. This

14:26

was a key issue for Stuvana, not just on the campaign trail, but

14:28

as a resident of

14:30

the city whose water came from the same

14:32

wells as everybody else's. We're

14:36

going to go ahead and move on to our presentation by

14:38

Ella Meyer from Fitzer College regarding

14:41

our Adelanto Community Water Report.

14:43

Today I'm presenting on the Community

14:45

Water Report that was created to compile research

14:48

on Adelanto's water and suggest

14:50

pathways to achieve water

14:52

justice for Adelanto's residents. Next

14:56

slide please.

14:58

On September 14th, 2022,

15:01

the students from Pitzer College presented

15:03

their water report to the city council

15:06

and for Stuvana it was a bittersweet

15:08

moment. On one hand, all

15:11

this work was finally coming to fruition.

15:14

But one of the key findings of the study was

15:17

that Adelanto's water had dangerous

15:19

levels of PFAS chemicals, also

15:22

known as forever chemicals.

15:24

PFAS chemicals have been around in

15:27

lots of consumer products since the 1950s. They're

15:30

used to keep food from sticking to packaging

15:33

and to make carpets resistant to stains

15:36

and in foam used to fight

15:38

fires.

15:39

It is a chemical

15:42

that once it leeches into

15:44

the groundwater, it is

15:47

so hard to get out. It

15:49

basically stays there forever and

15:52

the same goes with when this

15:54

chemical leeches into human

15:56

bodies. It accumulates

15:59

in your bloodstream.

15:59

stream over time.

16:05

When Adelanto's water was tested for PFAS,

16:08

there were samples that contained two

16:10

to four parts per trillion of PFAS

16:13

in the water, which is between 500

16:15

and 1,100 times higher than the

16:18

EPA's advisory

16:20

for lifetime exposure.

16:24

Another key finding of Ella's study was

16:26

that many of the wells that Adelanto draws

16:28

its water from are located very

16:30

close

16:31

to the former site of George Air Force

16:33

Base, an area that was designated

16:36

a Superfund site. The

16:38

land was found to have a very high concentration

16:41

of toxic chemicals. Adelanto

16:45

filed a class action lawsuit related

16:47

to the toxic waste the Air Force Base left

16:49

behind when it closed. There's really

16:52

a lot that

16:54

I can't speak on too much about it because

16:56

there is plenty of

16:59

litigation around that and some things

17:01

that we're exploring. But yes, there's

17:04

contamination from the air bases

17:07

that have most definitely affected parts of my community.

17:11

Stefana and the people of Adelanto were

17:13

glad to see this action being taken.

17:15

But Stefana was also upset

17:17

because she felt the mayor was now taking

17:20

credit for work she says he

17:22

discouraged her from doing. And

17:24

then to have the council be receptive of the

17:26

report and now try to take credit for the

17:28

report. But it is what it is. I'm

17:31

not a credit senior. I don't care who gets credit. I also

17:33

don't like when you take credit where it's

17:35

not due,

17:36

but to be so against it while it was happening.

17:39

And then to say, oh, great teamwork. There

17:42

was no teamwork, bro. You guys fought against me every step

17:44

of the way.

17:46

When I spoke with the mayor, I asked him about

17:48

this. Were you supportive of

17:50

those efforts? I noticed one of her criticisms was

17:52

that she felt that you weren't supportive of those efforts

17:54

to have that study done. Do you think that's accurate?

17:57

It's not that it's not accurate, right? I'm most definitely

17:59

supportive.

17:59

One of the things that I always,

18:02

that I will never take away from

18:04

Councilwoman Evans is she most definitely

18:07

has the heart of an activist, right? And

18:10

typically the heart of an activist, it's kind

18:12

of hard wanting to take criticism

18:14

or wanting to take guidance from other people if

18:17

it doesn't meet your agenda,

18:19

right? I'm glad she got it done. It

18:21

was, how would

18:24

I... I still have to be respectful

18:28

because I don't want to get in trouble with saying anything.

18:37

Last return of thought. So, yes,

18:39

I'm supportive. Yes, it

18:42

was great that we did, but

18:46

we all had access to that information. Raya

18:51

says that he already knew about everything

18:53

that was in the student's report

18:55

before they tested the water, which

18:58

raises the question, if the mayor

19:00

knew about the PFAS chemicals in the water,

19:03

why didn't he pursue litigation against

19:05

the federal government before the students

19:08

presented their report? And

19:10

why is he still saying today that the

19:13

water is totally fine? I

19:16

wrote to Raya's asking for clarification

19:18

on this, but he didn't respond. Stefana

19:21

believed that the work she spearheaded on

19:23

the water issue gave her an edge

19:25

in the mayoral election. And

19:28

as you've learned by now, it doesn't take many

19:30

votes to become the mayor of Adelanto.

19:34

In 2018, the population was

19:36

just under 35,000 and Gabriel Raya's won with 1,539

19:38

votes, which was

19:43

about 4% of the city's population.

19:48

Ten days before the 2022

19:50

mayoral election, I met up with

19:52

Stefana on the north side of town. She

19:55

was putting on a Halloween trunker treat event

19:57

in a dirt lot.

19:59

Weeks after the election, right? How are you feeling?

20:02

You know, I feel really good. I think that it's gonna

20:04

be super close between the mayor and myself, but

20:07

I think that overall we've done all we can do,

20:09

and we still have things to do, of course.

20:11

Do you have any plans for the last week coming

20:13

up? What is the last week of the, before the

20:15

election looked like for you? Yeah, try to only cry

20:17

once a day. That's the goal. Keep the crying down.

20:20

No, you know, I think it's just to stay in the trenches. We gotta get, we

20:22

have a whole lot more people to call. We've got a whole lot more

20:24

doors to knock on. That's what we have to do. That's

20:26

how you win elections.

20:30

As Stefana and I were chatting, kids started

20:32

walking across the dirt lot towards the bouncy

20:35

houses that Stefana had rented.

20:38

Her plan was to let the kids play during

20:40

the day, and then when it got dark, there

20:42

would be a trunk retreat. She'd

20:45

reached out to a local car club, and

20:47

the members had promised to park their classic cars

20:49

on the dirt and open their trunks, which

20:52

would be full of donated candy.

20:54

So when the trunk retreat is here, could the people bring

20:56

their costumes? Yeah, candy. Are

20:58

you gonna have fun? Shut

21:01

up, I'm gonna have fun. Shut up, shut

21:03

up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up. Shut

21:05

up, shut up, shut up.

21:07

What's your name? David. That's

21:09

my brother's name. You copied my brother's name.

21:12

I think I had his name. The sun dipped towards

21:14

the horizon, and the sky started to turn pink.

21:19

Kids peeled off one at a time to go

21:21

home and change into their costumes.

21:25

Slowly, little Batman and astronauts

21:28

and football players in jerseys way too

21:30

big for them emerged from the nearby

21:32

apartment complexes, hand in hand

21:34

with their parents. And

21:36

then I noticed Stefana was off to the

21:38

side, looking distraught.

21:42

Go on.

21:42

I'm a little stressed out. Why? Because

21:44

the car club hasn't shown up. Yeah, it's already six, huh? It's 6.06.

21:49

As the minutes ticked by, I could

21:51

see Stefana was getting more upset. The

21:53

car club still hadn't shown up, and

21:56

it was almost time for the trunk retreat to begin.

21:59

She started wiping.

21:59

tears away from her face with her sleep.

22:02

I'm a little bit, um, I'm

22:05

feeling a little bit right now. Yeah. It's

22:08

gonna be great. Yeah.

22:12

I'm sorry. It's gonna be

22:14

great. It's

22:17

gonna be great.

22:20

You weren't supposed to cry today. I

22:22

thought we were gonna be good. But remember I said once a day,

22:25

and so this would be the once. So we're fine. It's

22:28

like freaking a I mean, maybe they'll pull in right now,

22:30

but I don't know how long

22:33

I wait before I, you know, move

22:35

on to the other plan.

22:47

Stevanna never heard from the car club. None

22:50

of them ever showed up. But

22:52

Stevanna sprang into action with a backup plan.

22:55

She went up to every adult she could find and

22:57

asked them if they had a car.

22:59

And slowly she was able to assemble a line

23:01

of cars. I chipped in and parked

23:03

mine in line with the others.

23:05

Happy candy. Thank you. Whoo!

23:08

Thanks, lads. Thank you.

23:10

You're welcome. I love you too.

23:12

I lost a Sour Patch K in the car. You're welcome. Great,

23:14

great, you have a great night. Thank you. And

23:16

then the party started. Hey,

23:19

are you guys having fun? Yeah! All

23:22

right, here we go. I'm

23:27

very scared of what's about to happen, because I know

23:29

you guys know how to do this dance. Stevanna

23:31

stepped on stage and was surrounded by

23:33

kids in their costumes. The stage

23:35

lights lit up dust being kicked

23:38

up by all the dancing. Jump,

23:40

jump, jump, jump, jump, jump.

23:42

Everyone was in a good mood. The kids

23:44

were all hopped up on candy. Only little. Smoke

23:47

poured out of the smoke machine.

23:49

Hey! Y'all

23:52

are amazing. Y'all know all the dances. All

23:54

right, guys, come up this way. Go up this way. Go

23:57

up this way. Big kids, go that way. As the party

23:59

came to an end. Stavana made her last campaign

24:01

pitch to the crowd.

24:22

This was basically the end of Stavana's

24:24

campaign for mayor. There would

24:26

be some phone banking and a bit of driving

24:28

around, sticking campaign signs into the dirt.

24:31

But this was the big finale before the election.

24:35

But would it be big enough to make her the mayor

24:37

of Adelanto?

24:41

Ten days later, she'd find

24:44

out.

24:59

On November 8, 2022, the sun rose at 6.17 a.m. in the city of Adelanto.

25:06

It was cold and rainy in the high desert.

25:09

It was also election day. I'm a reporter.

25:12

I was wondering if I could ask you about who you were planning on voting

25:14

for. Across the nation, people

25:16

were making their way to their local polling precincts

25:20

to cast their votes for local, state

25:22

and national candidates. Who I'm voting for? Yeah.

25:25

The city council on the last time? For the mayor, yeah. Oh,

25:27

OK. Well, I'm I'm a toss up

25:29

between Esmeralda and

25:31

Reyes here in Adelanto. So I'm going to

25:33

read their statements in here to finally decide.

25:36

One of the first people I met at a polling station

25:38

outside of middle school

25:39

was Kevin. Gray beard,

25:42

longish hair and a button on his jacket

25:45

with a peace sign in an American

25:47

flag print. Can I ask you just one more quick question

25:49

about how you feel like the city has done in

25:51

the last four years since the last council election? I've

25:54

been in here since about 92, and

25:57

I think that for the last eight years,

25:59

the city has done a great job.

25:59

has been steady improvement. The

26:02

neighborhoods are much better. There

26:04

seems to be almost no, you

26:07

know, twerps running around spray painting

26:09

on things. So the twerps seem to be under control.

26:13

Twerps aside, I can't say there was

26:15

any one issue that more people were

26:17

concerned about than any other.

26:20

One woman who didn't want to be interviewed said

26:22

she was moving out of Adelanto because

26:25

it was too diverse. Another

26:27

woman named Aliyah told me she'd

26:29

recently graduated from college and

26:32

moved back to Adelanto. Yeah, I

26:34

grew

26:34

up here, but it's nice. It's nice to

26:36

always come home and know that you have a home

26:38

like this town. This town is really nice. I love it

26:40

so much. It's really nice.

26:50

After the sun went down, I headed

26:52

over to a Mexican restaurant called Pancho Villa

26:55

in Victorville, where Stuvana was hanging

26:57

out. There was a big election

26:59

watch party for Juan Carrillo, a

27:01

high desert Democrat who was running for state

27:04

assembly, along with several other Democratic

27:06

candidates running for offices in the high desert.

27:10

What we have done this past cycle

27:12

in these past two years is

27:13

truly, truly incredible. And

27:15

I know that tonight, we are going to be

27:17

turning parts of our district

27:20

blue for the first time that we've never

27:22

seen before.

27:26

On one hand, it was nice for Stuvana to

27:28

be at a big party among fellow progressive

27:30

candidates. They even invited

27:32

her up to the mic to say a few words.

27:34

It's so awesome to be here with so

27:37

many Democrats. But here she was, about

27:39

to possibly become the mayor of her hometown.

27:42

And she wouldn't even be in Adelanto when the

27:44

results came in. I

27:48

would love to be doing this in Adelanto,

27:51

but the problem is there's nowhere that stays open.

27:53

There's no restaurants. There's nothing. So

27:55

you're kind of forced

27:57

to go into Victorville, which is one of the issues that we have,

27:59

right? forced to go to our neighboring city to

28:02

spend money because there's nowhere in Atlanta to spend it.

28:06

All around us TVs were announcing the

28:08

election results but it was all national

28:10

politics.

28:12

The Democrats were doing surprisingly well

28:14

in their congressional races and it was looking

28:16

like they might keep a majority in the Senate.

28:19

But all of us here in this room we

28:22

were waiting for a different set of results. Who

28:24

would represent the high desert in the state

28:27

assembly? Who would be the head of

28:29

the Victor Valley School Board?

28:31

And who would be the next

28:33

mayor of Adelanto? To

28:36

get those results, Stevonna and her

28:38

campaign manager, Jaishan Johnson,

28:41

had to look at their phones. They

28:43

were huddled together in a booth refreshing

28:46

their browsers over and over again waiting

28:48

for the first batch of votes to trickle in. And

28:51

eventually they did.

28:54

He's

29:01

got it already. There's nobody coming

29:03

back from him. The

29:07

numbers did not look good for Stevonna.

29:10

In the first batch of votes, Mayor Reyes

29:12

was ahead by 400 votes.

29:16

This was pretty much how the rest of the night went. Stevonna

29:19

repeatedly checking her phone to see if the

29:21

vote tally had changed. Slowly

29:24

the crowd thinned out and

29:26

by about 10 p.m. everyone had

29:28

gone home except a couple stragglers

29:30

and Stevonna.

29:34

We're far behind. He

29:36

has 600 and something and I have 200 and something.

29:41

You have two homes.

29:50

Stevonna and I both left at the same time

29:52

going our separate ways in the parking lot. Before

29:56

I made the drive back to LA I checked the results

29:58

one last time. Stefano

30:01

was behind by 400 votes,

30:04

and supposedly only 4% of precincts

30:07

had reported.

30:09

But that didn't seem right,

30:10

and it seemed unlikely that Stefano would close

30:13

the gap,

30:14

though technically the election had not been called.

30:25

On November 9, the sun rose

30:28

at 6.18 a.m. in the city

30:30

of Adelanto. The

30:33

residents awoke to the news that

30:35

Mayor Gabriel Reyes had won

30:37

his re-election bid, with 1,696 votes.

30:43

In second place was Stefano

30:46

Evans, with 605. Which

30:50

meant that the December 14th

30:52

City Council meeting

30:54

would be her last. Stefano

31:20

says that she doesn't plan to give up fighting

31:23

for the issues that she

31:46

campaigned

31:50

on. She's just going to go back to

31:52

fighting as an activist.

31:54

and

32:00

counsel, now I understand how to work this from the

32:02

inside. Stefana

32:05

may never have run for office if it

32:08

hadn't been for the nightmare she went through after her

32:10

daughter Haven died, and her children

32:12

were wrongfully taken from her.

32:15

Twice.

32:17

The sad irony of her situation was

32:19

that when she did get elected, it meant

32:21

she had a lot less time to spend with her

32:23

children.

32:25

But now, she would be getting a lot of that time

32:27

back.

32:29

And the biggest change to Stefana's life happened

32:32

not long after she lost the election.

32:35

I got married. I got married, right?

32:37

All the way married, yeah. Engaged you

32:39

and married issues. Yeah, within

32:41

a week. Yeah, yeah,

32:44

a few days actually. Yeah, but it's

32:47

good. You know, I think when it's right,

32:50

then you just know. You know, you don't

32:52

have to take forever, and so

32:55

super happy.

32:57

I visited Stefana and her family on a recent

32:59

Wednesday night. Down at City

33:02

Hall, the council meeting was in session.

33:05

If Stefana were mayor, that's where she would

33:07

have been. Instead, she

33:09

was at home

33:10

with her family. Look at us eating

33:12

at a normal time, like a normal family. So

33:15

we'll have dinner, and you know, we'll probably

33:17

listen to some of the meeting.

33:20

We also have Bible study tonight, so we'll do some of that. And

33:22

then my husband will be having the

33:24

basketball game on. I think I hear it on already,

33:26

so we're doing that. Yeah, multitasking.

33:29

What do you make it for dinner? Tuna casserole.

33:32

Oh, I should have picked something more black,

33:34

huh, for this? Yeah, no, quick

33:36

and easy. Tuna casserole is one of my family's

33:38

favorites, so that's what we're doing.

33:42

But Stefana's absence from politics may

33:45

be short-lived. She has a

33:47

new six-year plan. She's

33:50

going to run for her seat on the council in the upcoming

33:52

election. Make another run for

33:54

mayor in four years, and then

33:57

run for county supervisor.

34:08

Now,

34:12

you might be wondering, whatever happened

34:15

to Bug and his colleagues'

34:17

plan to save Adelanto

34:19

from bankruptcy?

34:21

How did that pan out in the end?

34:24

Well, Bug's plan may have

34:26

got the ball rolling, but under his

34:28

leadership, along with Kerr and Germain,

34:31

things were a mess. Back

34:34

then, cannabis was only bringing in a

34:36

few hundred thousand dollars a year. Plus

34:39

there was all the corruption. Stefana

34:41

and Mayor Reyes, along with

34:43

the new council, did their best to

34:46

clean things

34:46

up. And by and large,

34:50

they have succeeded. In

34:52

the last two years of Stefana's term as

34:54

a council member, the city almost

34:56

balanced the budget. And that

34:58

would not have been possible without

35:00

the money the city is taking in from

35:03

weed. Here's Mayor

35:05

Reyes. We wouldn't be here

35:08

with any type of physical stability without

35:10

cannabis. The cannabis industry, for

35:12

just alone this year, we're

35:15

going to bring in its estimated $5.3 million.

35:18

So the cannabis industry is bringing

35:20

about 25 to 30% of our general fund. Taking

35:24

a balanced budget is a huge achievement

35:26

for Adelanto.

35:28

But a balanced budget just means

35:31

that the city breaks even each year.

35:34

And Adelanto needs substantial funds

35:36

to fix its infrastructure. Mayor

35:39

Reyes says that replacing the city's water

35:41

pipes alone will cost

35:43

tens of millions of dollars. You

35:45

know, pre-inflation, we were talking

35:48

about maybe like in 2019, 2020, before COVID, it was

35:52

right around like 40 million, right? That

35:54

it would probably cost to do the whole thing.

35:57

But Reyes is optimistic.

35:59

The United States administration has successfully balanced

36:01

the budget for multiple years in a row.

36:04

The city's credit is improving.

36:06

We're working on our credit rating. We're working on

36:08

other various things to continuously show our

36:11

physical responsibility.

36:12

And with a good credit rating, the city

36:14

has a better chance at getting infrastructure

36:17

funding from the state

36:19

in the form of bonds. You know, Fiona

36:21

Ma was a big supporter of my campaign. She endorsed

36:23

my campaign. She's our state treasurer. And

36:26

she said, hey, when you guys get everything

36:28

in order, you get your ducks in a row, you

36:31

know, approach us and we'll see how we can support

36:33

in giving you guys a bond to address

36:35

those issues.

36:38

On January 13th, 2023,

36:41

former Mayor Rich Kerr pled

36:43

guilty to one count of

36:46

wire fraud. Prosecutors

36:48

in the case had evidence that he'd accepted

36:51

over $57,000 in bribes and kickbacks. His

36:56

sentencing is scheduled for August 4th

36:59

of this year.

37:01

He's facing a potentially lengthy stay

37:03

in federal prison. Though it's

37:05

possible his guilty plea was

37:08

part of a deal that he made with the feds. Perhaps

37:11

he was promised a reduced sentence

37:14

in exchange for testifying against people

37:17

who have yet to be charged. And

37:20

one of the most powerful people in Adelanto,

37:23

city manager Jesse Flores, who

37:25

was appointed by Mayor Kerr, Bug

37:28

and Jermaine, is still in power.

37:32

As the city manager, he's in charge

37:34

of matters both big and small.

37:39

We have been experiencing vandalism

37:41

in our local park restrooms. Our

37:44

toilet paper, it either comes up missing,

37:47

or it's removed from its dispenser

37:49

and shoved down the toilet causing it to

37:52

back up.

37:53

We do apologize for any

37:55

inconvenience. This may have

37:57

caused those individuals that just wanted

37:59

to use.

37:59

the restroom, help

38:02

is on the way. Apparently

38:05

there are still a few twerps running

38:07

around town.

38:09

As for Bug, he decided he'd

38:11

had enough of Adelanto and of California.

38:15

He moved to Kingman, Arizona, a

38:18

few months after he lost his reelection

38:20

bid.

38:21

He's much happier living in a place

38:24

where he can carry a loaded gun. You

38:26

know, I mean, over here, we're allowed to, you

38:29

know, openly carry our guns, you know, of

38:31

course they're loaded. I mean, how

38:34

stupid would it be to openly carry an unloaded

38:36

gun? I mean,

38:38

you're asking for trouble.

38:41

Bug looks back at his tenure on the city

38:43

council as one of the more interesting

38:46

times in his life. Yeah,

38:49

yeah, that was a former

38:51

life. Ha ha ha ha. But

38:55

yeah, you know,

38:58

I did my four years over there and

39:00

I'm very happy to where I'm at now, you know,

39:03

and doing what I can, you know, for

39:06

the future of our children and I

39:09

want to say, shall we say mankind in general.

39:11

To this

39:13

day, Bug has never been charged with

39:15

any crimes related to his real estate dealings

39:18

with the jet room, which by the way,

39:20

is still open for business. If

39:23

anything, Bug says that all

39:25

the good he did for Adelanto has

39:27

been overshadowed by the corruption

39:30

of everyone around him.

39:32

It's very, very shameful, but

39:36

it is what it is. And yeah,

39:39

that's just the way I am. You know, I just, just

39:42

do people right, you know, and

39:44

don't fool around and, you

39:47

know, it's kind of what it's all about, isn't it,

39:49

David? I think, I'm sure you're probably the same way. Yeah,

39:53

yeah. Bug

39:55

seems to be living his best life. For someone whose idea ultimately...

39:58

helped

40:00

save a town from bankruptcy. He

40:03

seems to have exited the stage quietly.

40:06

And I wonder how he sees himself

40:09

and the story of Arlonto. I

40:11

was curious if you feel like you learned any big life

40:14

lessons from your time in politics. We

40:18

have learned lessons? Well,

40:22

not really.

40:30

In a lot of ways, Arlonto is

40:32

a different place than it was back

40:34

when Kerr was mayor. The

40:36

transition from prisons to pot

40:39

is ongoing. Nowadays,

40:42

one of Arlonto's biggest employers is

40:44

the cannabis industry, a big

40:46

change from back when the prisons were

40:49

the top employer. In

40:51

fact, the days of Arlonto being

40:53

a prison town, they'd be numbered.

40:57

We had like hundreds of people that

40:59

were released, which was a miracle,

41:02

like a total exodus, you know, exodus

41:04

in the Bible.

41:05

Again, this is Diana Esmeralda.

41:08

She came in third in the mayoral election

41:11

and has been a proponent of closing down Arlonto's

41:13

prisons. In September

41:15

of 2020, during the spread of COVID,

41:18

a federal judge ruled that GEO

41:20

Group, which owns Arlonto's immigration

41:23

prison, had to reduce the number of inmates

41:26

so that each person could be spread

41:28

out six feet apart. Hundreds

41:31

of detainees were released, and

41:33

by July of 2022, the

41:35

average daily inmate population was

41:38

just 49.

41:38

It was like they

41:41

just opened the gates and let

41:43

them out, you know, like the walls of Jericho

41:45

were going to come down, and it

41:48

was such a beautiful thing.

41:53

In March of this year, GEO Group announced that it was

41:55

laying off 112 employees at the Arlonto facility.

42:01

Soon after that, the San Bernardino

42:03

Sentinel reported that GEO

42:06

was closing the facility entirely.

42:09

But they did not respond to my email

42:11

when I wrote to confirm this.

42:14

If the facility does close, the

42:17

current city council will have to figure

42:19

out how to replace the funding the

42:21

prison was bringing into the city.

42:25

Meanwhile, Stefana is making the most

42:27

of her life outside of politics. She

42:30

has more time to devote to her nonprofit,

42:33

Haven's Future, which is named after

42:35

her daughter who passed away.

42:38

The nonprofit's mission is to provide

42:41

resources and support for families

42:43

as they go through the child and family services

42:45

system.

42:48

A

42:51

while back, Stefana held a fundraiser at

42:53

the Sierra Lakes Golf Course in

42:55

the city of Fontana, California.

42:59

She reserved a ballroom with huge windows

43:02

overlooking the golf course. There

43:04

were big round tables with beautiful floral

43:07

arrangements in the center.

43:09

Golfers from all over the country came to compete

43:11

in the tournament. There was also a raffle

43:14

and guest speakers, including a CFS

43:16

social worker, who spoke about the

43:18

problems inside the system. After

43:22

the speeches, Stefana asked everyone

43:24

to dig deep into their pockets and

43:27

give what they could.

43:41

At the end of the day,

43:44

Stefana and her team encouraged the guests

43:46

to take the flowers home with them. They

43:49

folded all the tablecloths and packed

43:51

everything into Stefana's car before

43:54

she made the long drive back home to Adelanto.

43:58

When it was all over, she was very happy. felt relieved. You

44:01

know, I think that it was a super successful day. While

44:04

we didn't raise as much money as we would have hoped,

44:07

we learned. And so we move forward

44:09

next year.

44:11

When

44:11

I asked Ivana how much money the fundraiser

44:13

brought in, she said that unfortunately,

44:16

with all the costs of putting on the event, she

44:19

just broke even. But she considered the

44:21

day a success.

44:24

You know, I don't I don't think that you ever lose

44:26

in anything. It's always you win or

44:29

you learn,

44:30

right? Ivana

44:33

says the event got her some media attention and

44:36

she was already getting calls from families asking

44:38

how they could help her.

44:41

She learned some valuable lessons from the experience

44:44

and from the last four years of her time on

44:47

the city council. Not

44:49

just about politics.

44:52

She's hopeful about the future. There

44:55

are a lot of broken systems to fix and

44:57

causes to fight for. But

45:00

the way she sees it,

45:02

sometimes you win and

45:04

sometimes you learn.

45:20

Well, that was quite a tale, wasn't

45:22

it?

45:24

Now don't get me wrong. That's

45:27

not the end of the story of Adelanto.

45:29

No, man. The sun keeps

45:32

rising and setting on this patch of land out

45:34

here in the Mojave. All

45:36

sorts of things keep happening. In

45:39

fact, not too long ago, a

45:42

new stranger came to town. A

45:45

real big shot. Richest

45:48

men in the world, they say.

45:51

Well, used to be anyway. Fell

45:54

by the name of Elon

45:56

Musk. for

46:00

sure he came into town himself,

46:02

but he sent some of

46:05

his people to set up shop in Adelanto

46:08

right down the road from the chat room.

46:13

Now what this Elon fella was interested

46:15

in is what lies beneath

46:17

the city. Apparently

46:20

this is an ideal

46:22

spot to practice whole digging. You

46:26

can't make this stuff up. You

46:28

see, Mr. Musk

46:31

wants to build a network of underground

46:33

tunnels all across

46:36

America, and he promised

46:38

Adelanto they could get in

46:40

on the ground floor of this exciting

46:43

opportunity.

46:44

Who

46:46

knows what'll pan out. I'm

46:49

certainly no expert on the matter, but

46:52

I do know this. There

46:54

seems to be something about this place

46:57

that attracts folks with big dreams.

47:02

Maybe it's the wide open spaces. A

47:05

blank canvas you could say. Remember,

47:10

once upon a time, this

47:12

was all underwater. Of

47:15

course nowadays there doesn't seem to be enough

47:17

of this stuff. I

47:20

do wonder what the next hundred

47:22

million years will be like in Adelanto.

47:26

Heck, I suppose anything could

47:28

happen. After all, this

47:32

is the city with unlimited

47:34

possibilities.

47:49

Adelanto is an original podcast

47:51

from Crooked Media. It's

47:53

hosted, written, and executive

47:55

produced by me, David Weinberg. Nick

47:58

White is our story.

47:59

editor. Angel Carreras

48:02

is our associate producer, sound

48:05

design, mix and mastering by

48:07

Brendan Baker of Phenomophon.

48:10

Our theme song is by Icarus

48:13

himself and our original score

48:15

is by Eric Phillips. Fact-checking

48:18

by Amy Tardif. Additional

48:21

production help from Inez Mazza,

48:24

Sydney Rapp and Kobe Copeland.

48:28

Thanks to Betsy Zicow

48:29

for narrating portions of the show.

48:32

From

48:34

crooked media, our executive

48:36

producers are Sarah Geismer, Katie

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Long and Mary Knopf. With

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special thanks to Alison Falsetta, Lyra

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Smith, Andrew Leland, Richard

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Parks III, Shaka

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Molly and Katya

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Apikina.

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When you're in the zone, you need to be focused.

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Bring your A game with Starbucks Double Shot Energy.

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Pack with B vitamins, Gorana

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and ginseng, Starbucks Double Shot Energy

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is the perfect pick-me-up. And it comes in delicious

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flavors including vanilla, mocha, white

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chocolate, coffee and their newest flavor caramel.

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Own the day with Starbucks Double Shot Energy.

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Available online as well as at grocery stores,

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convenience stores and gas stations

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nationwide.