The INTEGRITY 1O1 SERIES
After reading The HAPPIEST CORRUPTION, readers want to be sure their town isn’t the next Happiest Corruption in America. They want to know how corruption happens, how to spot it, and how to fix it, but there’s no playbook for newly elected councilmembers. They get thrown in at the deep end and have to learn by osmosis, if at all. Mayor Debbie Peterson fast-tracks the learning process for those who want to get it right.
Book 2 in the Integrity 101 Series, CITY COUNCIL 101 – Insider’s Guide for New Councilmembers, is the Mayor’s perspective on what local elected representatives really need to know.
After reading this book, people know how to beat city hall at its worst and how to be city hall at its best.
“For civil servants and elected representatives and all who desire to preserve the public trust, this much-needed guide, relevant at every level of government, sets out what every civil servant needs to know about open government.” Andrea Seastrand, Former Representative, US House of Representatives
Other Books in the INTEGRITY 1O1 SERIES:
WE THE PEOPLE 101 – How to Beat City Hall – Because too many people think you can’t. A former mayor tells you how. Coming Spring 2023.
365 Ways of Good Govern-ers – How everyday people turned on the lights at city hall. Coming Summer 2023.
Other Books in the INTEGRITY 1O1 SERIES:
CITY COUNCIL 101 – Insider’s Guide for New Councilmembers – for would-be elected representatives, appointees, and activists. What nobody tells you about being a city councilmember.
WE THE PEOPLE 101 – How to Beat City Hall – Because too many people think you can’t. A former mayor tells you how. Coming Spring 2023.
365 Ways of Good Govern-ers – How everyday people turned on the lights at city hall. Coming Summer 2023.
THE HAPPIEST CORRUPTION
Sleaze Lies & Suicide in a California Beach Town
This is a true-crime story written by an insider. It is the account of politicians, government officials, developers, contractors, and cannabis kings, who operate a criminal machine that streams through every part of a small county, bankrolled by public funds, campaign donations, and pallet loads of cash generated by the most valuable crop in the nation.
It is a businesswoman’s journey from planning commission chair to city council member to mayor in the friendly little beach town she called “Kansas at the Beach.” It should have been a happy memoire. Instead, it evolved into a sinister citizens-turned-spy suspense epic of bribery, extortion, dark money, and death.
Like her neighbors, for years she couldn’t believe that the beaches, verdant crops, and wine-grape-clad hills that Oprah called the ‘happiest city in America’ and locals call ‘paradise’ could be riddled with corruption. But as the mayor, she heard whispered stories, sat around board room tables behind closed doors, and had access to people and facts that others do not.
She was able to connect the dots between dysfunctional boards, sexual harassment, whistleblowers, and millions of dollars missing from accounts. As the press and the public bought into and repeated the lies of conmen, the cabal coopted whole city councils, county departments, and businesses and delivered on both threats and promises.
A widely diverse group of sincere citizens previously unknown to one another and from all walks of life with little in common except the determination to bring integrity to their local government exposed facts and figures corroborating an epidemic of crime as far-reaching as Central America, Korea, Vietnam, and Russia. They coalesced to fight for honest governance putting their jobs, their reputations, their businesses, and their families at risk of reprisal because they simply couldn’t let this happen to their community. Together they uncovered the covert patterns and practices of the corrupt machine.
Press releases from the District Attorney, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Public Health matched the accounts from the brave citizens – number one in the state and number two in the nation in real estate loan fraud in 2012, a 2020 spike in synthetic opioid deaths to 55% above the state level, and the 1850 homicide capital of the country.
“A must-read, firsthand account of trouble in paradise from a former mayor who spent years in the political trenches. Peterson offers a much-needed primer for keeping local government open and accountable. Buy two copies. One for you and one for your local representative.”