Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
Hollister council members Monday night decided to push off adoption of medical cannabis regulations after a visibly frustrated Mayor Ignacio Velazquez spoke on lack of officials' involvement.
Council members passed a medical cannabis ordinance at their Dec. 19 meeting, and it went into effect Jan. 18. The ordinance lifted the city's ban on medical cannabis facilities within city limits. The ordinance addressed medical facilities, but not adult or recreational use allowed by Proposition 64.
Special Legal Counsel Pamela Epstein, who developed the regulations, received an earful from Velazquez during Monday's meeting. Velazquez was upset that council members weren't consulted before the regulations were drafted.
"I'm curious on how we got to the point of creating a whole regulation system with points if the council was not involved," Velazquez said. "I think it's probably important to have council involved in helping this. This is why we need the ad hoc committee so we can guide the direction we're trying to go in. Otherwise, where are we getting these regulations from?"
Epstein explained that she extrapolated information from conversations with council members during the drafting of the medical cannabis ordinance. She then worked with staff to create the regulations.
"What we're doing here is a very important document," Velazquez said. "How we organize this industry comes from this council. If there are mistakes made here, it'll come back to us. I think each member here has a right and should be involved in these conversations. A better way to handle this would've been allowing the ad hoc committee first to form or having that discussion amongst all council members until we understood the direction we're going in."
Not all council members shared Velazquez's frustration. Councilman Karson Klauer suggested the regulations would be better suited for a study session.
"As an original member of the ad hoc committee, taking the document and creating it from nothing was very arduous," Klauer said. "This would probably be better suited for a study session ... but I do appreciate we have something to start with and actually work off of."
Councilman Ray Friend came to Epstein's defense.
"My recollection is this document is exactly what we told you to come back to us with," Friend said. "You worked with staff, you came with what was workable within staff and this is the document we asked you to bring to us."
City Manager Bill Avera tried to offer clarification on the matter.
"As the council, you folks set policy," Avera said. "This rules and (regulations are) basically the implementation of that policy. That's essentially at the staff level. Now I'm not going to say that you as council don't have an input as to how the ordinance is being implemented."
Avera added that generally speaking, "councils don't write how to implement our jobs."
"You've retained Pamela as the expert," he said.
Velazquez clarified what bothered him.
"I guess I wouldn't be so bothered by it if this had come up as a study session, so we could've spent time going through each item," Velazquez said. "This is here for an approval. I can't support that, clearly, but that is bothersome to me."
Councilwoman Mickie Luna shared her concern over how long the city has talked on the topic.
"My concern is that we've been on this topic for over a year and I feel like we need to move ahead," Luna said. "If we need to make changes, we need to have a study session or whatever it takes. We just need to move on this. We can't be up here disagreeing on whether we have an ad hoc committee or not because we disbanded it. The matter of the fact is it's up to us now."
Council members will meet for a study session on the medical cannabis regulations next Monday.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Council Pushes Off Decision On Cannabis Regulations
Author: Nicholas Preciado
Contact: (831) 637-5566
Photo Credit: Nick Lovejoy
Website: Free Lance
Council members passed a medical cannabis ordinance at their Dec. 19 meeting, and it went into effect Jan. 18. The ordinance lifted the city's ban on medical cannabis facilities within city limits. The ordinance addressed medical facilities, but not adult or recreational use allowed by Proposition 64.
Special Legal Counsel Pamela Epstein, who developed the regulations, received an earful from Velazquez during Monday's meeting. Velazquez was upset that council members weren't consulted before the regulations were drafted.
"I'm curious on how we got to the point of creating a whole regulation system with points if the council was not involved," Velazquez said. "I think it's probably important to have council involved in helping this. This is why we need the ad hoc committee so we can guide the direction we're trying to go in. Otherwise, where are we getting these regulations from?"
Epstein explained that she extrapolated information from conversations with council members during the drafting of the medical cannabis ordinance. She then worked with staff to create the regulations.
"What we're doing here is a very important document," Velazquez said. "How we organize this industry comes from this council. If there are mistakes made here, it'll come back to us. I think each member here has a right and should be involved in these conversations. A better way to handle this would've been allowing the ad hoc committee first to form or having that discussion amongst all council members until we understood the direction we're going in."
Not all council members shared Velazquez's frustration. Councilman Karson Klauer suggested the regulations would be better suited for a study session.
"As an original member of the ad hoc committee, taking the document and creating it from nothing was very arduous," Klauer said. "This would probably be better suited for a study session ... but I do appreciate we have something to start with and actually work off of."
Councilman Ray Friend came to Epstein's defense.
"My recollection is this document is exactly what we told you to come back to us with," Friend said. "You worked with staff, you came with what was workable within staff and this is the document we asked you to bring to us."
City Manager Bill Avera tried to offer clarification on the matter.
"As the council, you folks set policy," Avera said. "This rules and (regulations are) basically the implementation of that policy. That's essentially at the staff level. Now I'm not going to say that you as council don't have an input as to how the ordinance is being implemented."
Avera added that generally speaking, "councils don't write how to implement our jobs."
"You've retained Pamela as the expert," he said.
Velazquez clarified what bothered him.
"I guess I wouldn't be so bothered by it if this had come up as a study session, so we could've spent time going through each item," Velazquez said. "This is here for an approval. I can't support that, clearly, but that is bothersome to me."
Councilwoman Mickie Luna shared her concern over how long the city has talked on the topic.
"My concern is that we've been on this topic for over a year and I feel like we need to move ahead," Luna said. "If we need to make changes, we need to have a study session or whatever it takes. We just need to move on this. We can't be up here disagreeing on whether we have an ad hoc committee or not because we disbanded it. The matter of the fact is it's up to us now."
Council members will meet for a study session on the medical cannabis regulations next Monday.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Council Pushes Off Decision On Cannabis Regulations
Author: Nicholas Preciado
Contact: (831) 637-5566
Photo Credit: Nick Lovejoy
Website: Free Lance
