ABOUT MIKE FARRAR
WHERE I COME FROM
While Mike Farrar is not proud to admit it, he is from California. Mike Farrar wants the people to understand that while he is from California, he is not a Californian in the modern sense of the word. Mike Farrar lived there, accompanied by his family, on a rural set of 200 acres. As everyone knows, California went down hill very quickly and the political abuse of power has made it a horrible place to live. Mike Farrar and his family moved to Apple Valley for a better life, full of freedom and free of political tyranny. The absolute last thing Mike Farrar wants is for Apple Valley to become California. The one good thing that Mike Farrar took away from California is learning what not to do when it comes to local government.
A THRIVING CAREER
Mike Farrar started his career cleaning buses and being a mechanic in the bus yard. When his sons were born, he realized this may not cut it and took the big risk of starting a business. With a lot of hard work, countless hours, and a bit of luck, Mike Farrar’s first business venture was a great success. From the success of this business, Mike Farrar started a number of other businesses along with investments in real estate and securities. Mike Farrar’s experience in the business world and successful investment of his profits is an invaluable asset to the town of Apple Valley in its current state.
As soon as Mike Farrar moved to Apple Valley, he became involved in local government. Mike Farrar has been active at almost every town meeting since moving to Apple Valley (town council, planning commission, water board, etc.). He was appointed to the Planning Commission and became Chairman of the board. Mike Farrar, both as chairman and in a personal capacity, has worked very closely with the current mayor and administration to solve problems within the community. Mike Farrar has also been tending to certain problems residents are having on a personal level - neighbors needing a hole dug, residents needing minor groundwork at their home, etc. Mike Farrar does these things out of his pocket and busy schedule because he believes there is almost nothing more important than uniting this town and helping a neighbor in need.
WHY DOES MIKE WANT TO BE MAYOR OF APPLE VALLEY?
The million dollar question; why would Mike Farrar want to be mayor? Isn’t he semi-retired? Won’t he be taking a pay cut? Why would you want to subject your peaceful life to the hectic life of being mayor (not to mention the harassment that comes with it)? Firstly, Mike Farrar is not worried about the salary; 100% of it will be donated back to the town. Secondly, yes, a retired life full of traveling with his wife and spending time with his grandkids sounds ideal; however, Mike Farrar cannot sit idly by while his home is destroyed. Mike Farrar has experienced a calling to public service and wishes to, in partnership with town’s residents, preserve Apple Valley’s rural way of life.
A small group of individuals have accused Mike Farrar of having a hidden agenda. In tandem with what has been described above, Mike Farrar’s only other agenda is his family’s longevity in this amazing town. Recent discussion has come up over who has the most to gain, financially, from growth in the town. Yes, Mike Farrar owns several acres of land, but the fact of the matter is that he has taken every step to turn this land into a home for his entire family, including placing the land in a trust with stipulations that it can not be sold for multiple generations. Applying a bit of common sense with these facts and Mike Farrar's word shows that the Farrar's have absolutely zero interest in developing or profiting off of this land. It is no small undertaking moving one’s entire family and picking out the perfect place to settle down… and his entire family absolutely does not want to do it again. Mike Farrar and his family believe they have found the perfect place to call home for several generations. All of Mike Farrar’s property is put into a trust with verbiage stating that it cannot be sold and will be home to all future Farrar’s- Apple Valley is not an investment for Mr. Farrar, it is home. Luckily for Mike Farrar, his goals align with what the majority of Apple Valley wants: keep the town as rural as possible for as long as possible so that our grandkids and their grandkids after them can continue to call Apple Valley home.
So, why does Mike Farrar want to be mayor? Not because it sounds fun. Not because he has anything to gain from it. Mike Farrar wishes to be mayor so that he can protect Apple Valley and its residents. If at any point throughout his term, the majority of residents decide Mike Farrar is not the right one for the job, he will step down immediately. A vote for Mike Farrar for mayor is a vote for the longevity of a rural and protected Apple Valley.
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A TIMELINE OF MIKE'S LIFE
1990
On my 16th birthday I got my drivers license and first job on the same day. Started working at Pizza Hut as a cook and dishwasher. 10th grade year of high school. School was boring and easy. Decided they weren’t paying me to go to school so I would rather make $3 an hour working at Pizza Hut. So I took my GED and dropped out of school.
1991
​Left Pizza hut and had a few other minimum wage jobs like Dominos Pizza, Del Taco, Mc Donalds.
1992
Turned 18. Wanted to get into law enforcement but had to wait until I was 21. So I went to Security Guard school. Started working as a security guard and part time bouncer. Got into lots of fights and one night my partner got stabbed. Decided this was too dangerous for a guy that wanted a family some day.
1993
At 19 I got my school bus license. Drove school bus for a while and also did some transportation of public transit buses cross country. I wanted to marry my high school girlfriend and start a family. This made me realize it was past time to get my career going and stop wasting time.
1994
Got a county job… Woohoo. Started working at Riverside Transit Agency. Started as a bus driver, then went to maintenance where I fueled and cleaned the buses. This was not a pretty job. I cleaned up vomit, blood, feces and other nasty stuff on public buses. But it was a good stable job with great benefits. That was a good thing since me and my high school girlfriend wanted to get married and start a family someday. Always worked graveyard since the buses were out in service all day. Got promoted to a bus mechanic. No more cleaning buses but now I was playing in grease all night. Spent 5 years at RTA
1995
Married my high school sweetheart. Still married to her today nearly 30 years later. Wife got pregnant and my first son Mikey was born. . Bought 20 acres of property and an old used mobile home for $10k. This was our home for around 25 years until we moved to Apple Valley. We loved our small modest mobile home. My adopted son Tony now lives in it on our property.
1999
My dad and his business partner started a transit bus window factory in Colton, Ca. They asked me to come and run it for them. I quit my job at RTA and started running their window factory. We called it Transit Care. Stayed there 5 years until we sold the business. I started the small company with 5 employees, about 5,000 square feet and about $100k a year in sales…. Over the course of 5 years I took it to about 150 employees and 150k square feet. When we sold it we were doing over 15 million a year in sales. I finally found something I was very, very good at and I could use to make good money. Managing, Running a business, leaning out the business and most importantly making large profits. My second son Bradley was born in 1999. We decided we were done have kids. Two was enough as we didn’t have the space for a larger family in our mobile home nor did we have the finances for additional kids.
2002
It’s a long story and I wont tell it right now. LOL. We adopted two brothers that came into our life. They were about 6 or 7 years old. We had known them for a few years. Their parents were drug addicts. We were scared. We only had a small 2 bedroom mobile home. I was still building the business and money was tight. But we felt we must do it. We had to help these boys. We couldn’t send them back to the streets and hotels with their drug addicted biological parents that were both later arrested and went to prison. The 4 boys (2 adopted brothers, Mikey and Bradley) shared a very tiny bedroom for about four years until I could afford to have a second room built onto our mobile home. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as sharing a room made them very close. It made them real brothers and best friends. About this time I decided I was tired of just getting by. I wanted more. I wanted more for my four boys. I wanted to give them more. I wanted to give them an amazing life.
2004
Once TC was sold I ventured out on my own and started my own company called Transit Products and Services. I continued to sale bus windows, bus glass and bus window parts. A few other products as well. All in the public transportation industry. My reputation from growing the successful window factory spread and companies along with employment headhunters contacted me and offered me very high paying executive jobs. These jobs were very tempting. However I decided the only way to have the wealth that I wanted was to stay self-employed. So I declined their offers but offered my services as a consultant. Most all of them gladly accepted my offer as a consultant. My company was hired to consult some small start up companies as well as some larger warehouses and factories like Toyota and Pepsi. I had a natural ability to run businesses and make large profits. This made me very valuable. I was very successful helping small business get started. I was also very successful turning large companies around, leaning out their processes and helping them turn better profits. I ran several businesses, contracts and consulting jobs under this companies name. During this time I took on several long term consulting contracts where I was running companies of over 1,000 employees. One company I was consulting for had well over 5,000 employees just in the one of the many facilities I was stationed at. They would move me around from facility to facility and I would help them lean up their manufacturing and warehouse processes. I worked very hard and saved ever penny I made. We lived very frugal. I still currently own this business and it does very well.
2008
The housing market crashed. I took every penny I had saved and bought as many properties as I could. Many in foreclosures. I bought homes, vacant property and commercial buildings. This turned out to be a very wise decision on my part. We continued to live very frugal other than traveling. We have always loved to travel.
2008-2019
I continued very successfully with property investing, rental homes and my other businesses. During this time frame I also purchased about 200 acres of vacant property in Beaumont, Ca. This turned out to be one of my best investments ever. Around 2014 I decided I no longer wanted to do the consulting as it took up too much of my time and I no longer needed the money. At age 40 I semi-retired. I managed my properties, managed my business and bought and sold a few properties. We still lived very frugal. The only money we spent was on traveling. We enjoyed traveling the world with our 4 boys whenever they weren’t in school. At his point we lived in the same old used mobile home on our 20 acre parcel we had purchased close to 20 years ago for $10k.
2018-2020
The four boys graduated from college with their bachelors degrees. Tony the younger adopted brother got his degree in criminal justice and went to the police academy. He has now been a police officer for close to 4 years. His older brother Gabe lives in Las Vegas and is involved with the family business. Gabe likes living in the city. I have no idea why… LOL. Tony may move up here to our property in a few years. I hope so as I miss my grandkids. Both adopted boys turned out amazing. I am truly so proud of them. Bradley got two bachelor degrees. One in financial economics and one in accounting. Bradley now runs the ranch, runs my businesses and handles all of my properties. He is also into the stock market and investing. Mikey also got two bachelor degrees then he went on to get his masters degree. After getting his masters degree he spent months studying and taking his CPA test. This is a very hard process. He is now a CPA with his own business. He manages financials, does investing, does income taxes and business taxes. He is also heavily involved in financial investing and the stock market. As a good gesture to help out he also took the town on as a client at a 50% reduced rate.
2020
Covid hit and the stock market crashed. I had never messed with the stock market as I didn’t know anything about it and it intimidated me. But with this crash I decided to learn. I started reading, and asking lots of questions to some financial advisors and friends I knew that were into the stock market. I also consulted with both my sons as they had just obtained degrees in financial economics. I stayed up many nights reading and learning the market. Fortunately I have always been a very fast learner. It took me about a week after the market crashed and I felt like I had a pretty good understanding of the market. I felt confident enough to take the jump. I was going to invest very large amounts of money into some stocks that had dropped hard due to Covid. I bought lots of stock in cruise lines, airlines, hotels and anything associated with travel. I also bought many other risky stocks that had dropped due to Covid. Many of these were against the advice of my financial advisor but I was confident it would all spring back. And as we know the market did spring back. I was very fortunate and I made massive profits.
After this I had decided I was done. Between working my butt of on my businesses, my property investments and now the stock market I had made generational wealth and it was time to enjoy life. My family wanted out of California so bad. So we did it. Early 2020 we bought our 350 acres of property here in AV. We brought my entire family. Me and my wife built a 5,000 square foot home. No more mobile home. This is the first real house we have ever lived in. Also the first new house we have ever lived in. In fact these are the first stick built houses any of my family have lived in. We have all just lived in older used mobile homes. There are 8 homes we built here on our property. Yes I have an easy life now but I worked hard and put my time in. I was not born wealthy. I remember as a child digging change out of the couch cushion and car seats to buy milk and bread. I grew up poor. My wife was the same. There was many times her family was homeless and slept in their car. She remembers her mom donating blood to buy food. Life hasn’t always been easy. We still live somewhat frugal. We don’t have fancy furniture or fancy things. We like our toys. I love my large shop/barn, my tractor and my classic car. Come visit my home and you will see. We live very modest. This is why I want to volunteer my time and help this town. Everyone here has been so nice to us and we love this town. I just want to give back. I want to share everything I have learned in life to help this town. Not only help the town but help the residents, neighbors and friends here in AV. All of my experiences running businesses and making profits. All of my decision making experience, management experience, financial experience and working with people. I will use it all to help steer this town in the right direction, lean up our finances and start us down the path to having more financially successful town.