In Salinas, the first cannabis business permits have yet to be issued, but the city is already considering upping the number of permits.
At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, city staff recommended amending the existing cannabis ordinance to increase the maximum number of permits issued. The item was presented as a consideration and is expected to return to the council for a vote at the Aug. 15 meeting. A vote of 4-3 is needed to pass the amendments.
The recommendation to increase the permits came from the city’s finance subcommittee, which includes Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter and Councilmembers Tony Barrera and Scott Davis.
Barrera said the committee was prompted to make the recommendation after being approached by applicants who expressed frustration about the vetting process.
“We didn’t have all of the information, we just wanted to be supportive, and we were really pushing local preference, but we didn’t want to jeopardize the process,” Barrera said.
City staff, Barrera said, also supported the proposal.
The proposed ordinance also shifts the primary oversight of the industry from the Chief of Police to the City Manager’s Office. Under the newly structured procedures, a selection committee that could include the Chief of Police or a representative from the police department would oversee the cannabis businesses.
Salinas has been working on creating a regulatory structure for the industry since January 2016 when the city council green-lighted the sales and cultivation of medical marijuana. In March 2016, the city hired HdL Consultants (also known as Hinderliter, de Llamas & Associates, a company based in Los Angeles County) for $99,750 as a consultant to take the city from start to finish when it comes to setting up the city’s involvement in the new industry. This included establishing a regulatory structure for the various categories of permits and working with local law enforcement and the community.
Salinas is only one of 70 cities and counties in the state that HdL has worked with when it comes to cannabis compliance. In Salinas, David McPherson, the Cannabis Compliance Director for HdL also sat on the selection committee that vetted the applicants. The committee also included Megan Hunter, the city’s community development director, Andy Myrick the economic development manager and Matt Pressey the city’s finance director.
Nevertheless, based on Tuesday night’s lively discussion over the matter, there are many questions that remain unanswered especially over the application and vetting process.
If the number of permits is expanded should the finalists who came close to making the cut be granted permits? Or should they have to reapply and pay application fees again?
One application cost $2,000 with added costs for multiple applications. Kurt Kaufeldt the head of Badfish Compassionate Care, a cannabis company, applied for a cultivation and manufacturing permit and said the company spent anywhere from $5,000 to $6,000 on the application alone.
Kaufeldt said the idea of finalists having to pay an application fee again is “absurd.”
Cannabis company owners and stakeholders, including Mike and Omar Bitar of Grupo Flor and Mike Hackett of Riverview Farms, who attended Tuesday’s meeting listened intently to the discussion.
Gunter and City Councilmembers also agreed that the finalists who had applied should not have to repay application fees. If the ordinance is amended, Gunter said he supported approving the companies who are finalists.
Salinas was one of the first cities in Monterey County to “be serious about creating an ordinance, but their process was much slower than the other cities,” said Joey Espinoza deputy director of Monterey County NORML. Nearby cities such as Greenfield and King City have already begun issuing permits.
That said, the city’s locally elected officials are excited about cannabis as a potential revenue stream and also generate more jobs.
“I’d like to see it more efficient and a fair process and the permit process needs to be streamlined…I think there’s always room for improvement, and the council made it clear what our expectations were,” said Davis after Tuesday’s meeting. “I’m hopeful that in the future the process will be much faster and much more efficient.”
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