ADELANTO — As raucous crowds gather to watch a swaggering City Council every other Wednesday night, the worst thing to be is part of "Old Adelanto."
Since Mayor Rich Kerr, Councilman Charley Glasper and Councilman John "Bug" Woodard were elected in November, replacing three-fifths of a Council that will largely be remembered for presiding over a fiscal crisis, the narrative here has shifted to old versus new.
The "old" now includes former City Manager Jim Hart and former Finance Director Onyx Jones. The top finance official in Jones' place, Assistant Finance Director Vanessa Martinez, also recently resigned.
In an atmosphere that often resembles a TV talk show, complete with frequent cheers and occasional jeers from the audience, the Council's 7 p.m. meetings sometimes push past midnight. The conversation often comes back to a central theme: the Council members distance themselves from the past while lauding their own efforts to pull the city back from the brink of financial ruin.
At one recent meeting, Kerr took the unusual step of submitting a public comment card, stepping down from the dais and lauding the Council's work from behind the podium. He later touted the progress the Council had made in coming together. In the absence of public infighting, this Council prods each other with jokes, knows residents well enough to address them by first name and often takes time to praise themselves and the crowd.
"Let me say this, this Council's totally surprised me in the last four months," Kerr said last month, when talking about two possible draft marijuana ordinances. "What we did is we went from uneducated to educated, we did our research, we went out and talked to people. We read. We did what we're supposed to do for the citizens of Adelanto."
Residents who attend meetings also have compared the new Council favorably to the old guard.
In pushing back against investors whose interest was piqued by the city's consideration of allowing medical marijuana dispensaries, resident and medical marijuana collective owner Johnny Salazar responded, "We don't need your money, we are fine. This is Adelanto. We have a new mayor, we have a new City Council."
Speaking of a plan to revamp welcome signs at all entry points into the city, Woodard also focused on the new.
"Our city's changing," he said. "It's not the same old Adelanto."
By accounts of many residents who attend the meetings, the change is tangible: They commend the uptick in entertainment, better condition of roads and code enforcement efforts. Some changes, such as the more active code enforcement, have led to complaints. But the applause during meetings is loud, and the cheers louder.
"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" and "Yay, Charley! Good job! Good job!" were both heard Wednesday.
Audience members, some of whom appear to have found optimism again through the Council, are as much a part of the meetings as the policy decisions they come to hear. Many who show up also wish to speak, and their ability to make statements is not always confined to the window of the public comment period, as it is at most governmental board meetings.
Residents who yell out from the crowd are sometimes censured by officials, but also sometimes engaged and answered on the spot.
With a lively, attentive electorate just feet away, the Council has made no bones about highlighting the changes they've sworn to enact or the progress they wish to make.
Mayor Pro Tem Jermaine Wright last month used the news that the Adelanto Public Utility Authority could return $1.2 million it borrowed to the city's general fund — in turn, shrinking the deficit — to shoot back at the city's detractors. But sometimes the rebuttals are personal.
Wright steadfastly criticized comments Wednesday he said were made about his foster children. His response mirrored the "get my family out of your mouth" response that Councilman Ed Camargo employed last month while defiantly addressing rumors over his city of residency.
During the meeting Wednesday, Glasper spoke to the us-versus-them mentality that has become prevalent in the chambers.
"I think we've gotten some bad press. I think we've gotten some bad publicity, all because a lot of people just don't like Adelanto," he said. "Well, that's tough if they don't like us, because I've got the same feelings about some of them."
The dynamics of these meetings were no stronger than during medical marijuana discussions Wednesday, as the topic at hand slid into the background.
"It is being said that you think you're an island," former Mayor Cari Thomas told the Council as she spoke against allowing medical marijuana dispensaries into the city, "(that) you can do anything and everything you want to do and it will not affect the High Desert."
Thomas was heckled by an anti-"Old Adelanto" resident in the crowd. Her son later stepped up to the podium to defend her.
"She did a hell of a lot more than anybody on this Council," he said.
Wright, who had often battled with Thomas during their tenure on the Council together, surprisingly extended to her a public olive branch.
"We don't see eye-to-eye politically," he said, staring straight at Thomas, who had returned to her seat in the second row. "But as a person, I have no problems with you. As a parent, I have no problems with you."
Wright then again addressed anyone leveling personal attacks.
"You wanna talk about us? Talk about us," he said, "but leave our children out of it, dog!"
Thomas expressed her thanks, even as she spent much of the night voicing criticisms of the Council and structure of the five-hour meeting — a much longer affair than the typical meeting when she sat at the dais.
In the same election where Glasper, Woodard and Kerr joined the Council, voters overwhelmingly struck down a Camargo and Thomas-supported 7.95 percent utility user tax that was thought to be a short-term plan to provide fiscal relief to a city starving for it.
Even as the city likely shrinks some of its $1.7 million deficit through the APUA payback, officials including City Attorney Todd Litfin and newly-appointed City Manager Thomas Thornton have acknowledged that Adelanto is still in financial trouble. They say longer-term solutions are needed to rectify the shortage of tax revenue to cover services.
So far, there isn't much on the table that could make up the rest of the deficit, though the marijuana ordinances are a possible boon to city revenue if they are drafted and eventually approved.
"Keep watching, keep looking around. Things are changing," Kerr said at the conclusion of Wednesday's meeting. "We're not stopping. We're not slowing down. We're not half-stepping on this.
"We're out there every day, doing something."