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"A shocking conversation"

A woman with brown hair, glasses, and a long-sleeved green shirt at a computer monitor.

The head of the cannabis department told a Board of Supervisors committee that she wants to use state grant money to fund department expenses, including legal advice and staffing.

The General Government Committee did not agree Monday with the cannabis department’s request to use more grant money for its own expenses, choosing instead to bring the question before the full board at the end of next month.

The committee also learned that the county was not approved for another round of equity grant funding, due to the program’s eligibility criteria. Cannabis Department Director Kristin Nevedal reported that the state had found “a lack of data” demonstrating that growers who were within five miles of a CAMP raid were disproportionately subjected to the war on drugs.

The granting agency suggested that the county could either eliminate its five-mile proximity eligibility standard, or provide data proving that proximity does in fact show an impact from the war on drugs, whose victims are the intended recipients of the grant. The county has yet to expend $2 million of funding from the equity grant program, which is also known by the acronym LEEP, for Local Equity Entrepreneur Program.

Scott Ward, a former Planning and Building official who is now a cannabis compliance consultant, thought the criteria should be expanded to include those who were raided by any law enforcement agency, not just those operating under the narrow definition of the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, or CAMP.

“So we’re talking about the CAMP raid criteria,” he told the Board. “I’d like to see that expanded to any law enforcement raid. There’s no reason why we can't do that. A DEA raid and a State of California Department of Justice raid of Northstone Organics on Road B shut down an entire county cannabis program. There's no reason to limit it just to CAMP.” He added that he would be happy to show County Counsel “proof positive” that one of his clients was turned down for a LEEP grant, while another applicant with the same criteria was accepted, which he contends is “unequal treatment under the law.”

Nevedal asked the committee for its nod in approving the use of funds from another grant for legal advice. In 2021, she secured more than $17 and a half million in state funds under the Local Jurisdiction Assistance Grant Program, or LJAGP. That money is intended to bring more provisional license holders into compliance with environmental regulations so they can get to their annual state licenses. Originally, the department planned to allocate a little under $10.5 million of the award to applicants. But yesterday, Nevedal presented her case for cutting the direct grant amount to $3.6 million.

“The direct grant program was actually established for local jurisdictions, and not for the applicants,” she said. “It’s local jurisdictions’ prerogative to apply for direct grant funding that they can provide to the applicants, and that’s what we did. But the Local Jurisdiction Assistance Grant Program is specific to assisting the local jurisdictions in meeting their needs so that they can be able to process applications in a timely manner so that applicants and permit holders can qualify for annual licensure.”

The desired expenses include equipment, staffing, contract planning services, and legal bills. In the amendment, Nevedal said, the department is asking “to be allowed to utilize Local Jurisdiction Assistance Grant Program funding to cover some of the department’s expenses in relationship to County Counsel. Originally when we developed our budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, County Counsel was not an expense to the department. In October or November of 2022, we started receiving bills from County Counsel. We do understand that litigation is definitely not an allowed expense for LJAGP funds, so what we are requesting here is the ability to use LJAGP funding to help cover the costs associated with County Counsel’s time in assisting the department with implementation” of the county’s existing cannabis ordinance.

Supervisor Maureen Mulheren was skeptical. “I understand that without a track record of quickly processing applications, this is a shocking conversation,” she said. “Especially when it has been known, or announced, that there would be ten million dollars in funds for direct grants. If you break down the needs, for what applicants need, it could be $12,000. It could be hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Michael Katz, the Executive Director of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, described the proposed amendment as “monumental” and “obscene.”

“This idea of taking money from direct grants from County Counsel,” he began. “This grant process is designed to expedite the transition of provisionals to annuals, and by all accounts, every time County Counsel gets involved, we see blockages rather than expediting.”

Deputy CEO Steve Dunnicliff said the cannabis department’s “budget gap” is close to half a million dollars, and reminded supervisors that budget time is coming up soon.

Nevedal said part of the plan for the proposed amendment was to increase cannabis department staff to 22 people, in part by hiring temporary planners through a contractor. An organizational chart accompanying Monday’s agenda shows nine vacancies, including a senior planner, senior program manager, an office services supervisor, four planners, and two assistants.

Chantal Simonpietri, an environmental consultant, summarized the complaints of growers who have been through multiple rounds of review through several different systems. “It seems like we’re doing a lot of circular reasoning,” she noted; “that we need this in order to do that, but we can’t do that until we have this, and going around and around and around over several years. And ultimately, month by month, another local business goes out of business because they don’t have their permit. They're not able to make wise, long-term business decisions. And I right now fault the department and the Board of Supervisors for that. This has taken too long.”

Local News
Sarah Reith came to Mendocino County in 2008 and worked as a reporter and freelancer, joining KZYX as a community news reporter in 2017. She became the KZYX News Director in March, 2023.