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All right, good evening everyone. If you'd find a seat just as a reminder there is some translation equipment in the back of the room for those that need to hear this meeting in Spanish. Alright, good evening everyone I'd like to call to order the special meeting of the sample city council this Monday April 6 2026 630pm. And this is at the Santa Paula Community Center.
If everybody if you're able to stand please stand for the flag salute and Councilmember Cornelius Madam Clerk, could you please conduct a roll call?
Roll call, called by City Clerk
Show transcript
All present thank you
Thank you. Our attorney Monica Castillo, would you please provide if there is a closed session report?
Thank you. This evening, the City Council recess in a closed session concerning a public employee evaluation pursuant to government code 54957B1 title city manager 2026 review there are no reportable actions taken thank you.
Thank you very much and this meeting is being televised and being recorded if we need to refer to it in the future I do want to talk about public comment just for a moment Please indulge me for just a moment this not only falls under public comment, but also whenever the speakers are speaking and let me explain so to maintain a public meeting environment can do conductive and welcoming to receive public comments from all members of the public.
The audience is discouraged from engaging in displays of support or opposition to staff reports or public comments including clapping, yelling, booing, hissing, or cheering that may create a disruptive environment for the public who wish to express their views during the meeting are encouraged to do so in silent, non-disruptive ways such as raising a hand, shaking hands or other quiet gesture of support or opposition that does not obstruct views or interrupt proceedings. Members of the public holding signs are asked to hold the signs on their person or in front of them or move to the back of the room so as not to obstruct the view of other members of the public wishing to participate in this meeting. So if we would please abide by that, we'll get by smoothly.
We do have quite a few speakers The action under action in 5A tonight is cannabis ballot measure discussion. And so we're going to turn this over to our Economic Development Director, James Mays.
Good evening. Thank you Mayor and Council. So just real quickly kind of go over what we're gonna go over. The purpose tonight is really to provide a background on cannabis legislation and the local authority that we have over that. Review Santa Paula's current policies and voter approved taxes, present some of the prevailing market trends in revenue data, outline potential benefits concerns and policy considerations, and then we're going to seek council direction on the next steps as we move through this.
So first of all, I want to talk a little bit about the legal framework. In 2016 California approved Proposition 64 which legalized adult use of cannabis statewide. This allows local jurisdictions to permit or prohibit cannabis businesses regulate through zoning licensing and taxation so Santa Paula currently prohibits all commercial cannabis activities with one exception that's lab testing and we don't have anyone in town that's doing that right now And that requires a state license to be able to do that.
on November 6, 2018 that passed 71.7% approval and that just established a business tax on cannabis. Keeping in mind again we don't have any cannabis operation but in the event that did happen there was a tax structure in place and that was done because the state required us to have that in place if anything changed in the future we had to have that placeholder.
And it's intended for general municipal purposes, and that tax as a sign could be used for street repair police services in general city services. And then in August of 2022, we went forward with an ordinance first to the planning commission looking for a recommendation to go to council on allowing commercial cannabis. And that's from the standpoint of factoring or distribution basically warehouse users that didn't involve any retail that was denied by the planning commission so it did not go to council for approval.
And then the current status, we went to council recently. There's a tax codified through ordinance 1261 and that's no permitting framework implemented in the result. No cannabis businesses operated locally, no cannabis tax revenue collected. That's where we are right now. One thing I did wanna mention, we were required by the state to allow for the distribution and that would be delivery of medical cannabis. That is allowed statewide and across city boundaries, so anyone who wanted to order medical cannabis that can be delivered and we don't have any legislation over that or any enforcement of that.
And one piece is that will requires if someone did put in application to have a retail operation in town Delivery, but no customer interface at that location. That would have to be allowed and that's currently in our ordinance not the state requirement we have required us to do that. We do not have any locations like that within Santa Paula. So regionally right now there are four cities that do have dispensaries for either medical or recreational cannabis. That's Ojai, Port Hueneme, Oxnard and Ventura.
And really there's been some major market in the last four years really coming out of COVID and that's two of those cities, Oxnard and Ventura added within their legislation, their ordinance they allowed for dispensaries. The longest time Ojai and Port Hueneme were the only two in the county that had that. that really diluted the market. Another thing within the market, especially California, California has a very high tax structure for cannabis businesses and a lot of legislation because that's very expensive operation. So a lot of folks got into it early and a lot of cities got a lot money early. That's kind of tapered off. And when you look at kind of the revenue shifts, early adopters to where they were, to where they are now. They're anywhere from half to a third of what they were as far as revenues.
There's been a shift in that direction. To give you an example, Port Hueneme kind of out of the gate was around $1 million at their peak there were just a little over $4 million tax revenue from cannabis. Right now they're projecting anywhere from 900,000 to 1 million so that's almost a quarter of where they were before. Ojai They, at their peak were at $320,000 a year in tax revenue specifically from cannabis business tax.
And right now they're at about 160,000 so they are less than half. So revenue varies significantly by market size and competition. You have to think about market areas and where's the draw. Example, Port Hueneme is very small. They had at one time 13 dispensaries but they're almost completely surrounded by Oxnard so once Oxnard added that kind of diluted their market. And that's the regional competition and other things I mentioned as far as just the state issues.
Retail does generate the highest revenue when it comes to cannabis operation. As I mentioned before, we went forward with presenting an ordinance for commercial cannabis again manufacturing distribution those type of things not as much of a high tax structure on that because those are wholesale operations and then let's see Potential benefits from that, as I mentioned before there is revenue that's from that which we've seen that slowly depleting.
And the other thing is activation of vacant commercial properties. They have a lot of commercial and industrial properties in town right now that are vacant. And one thing that has been a significant impact in communities is having space that's utilized does reduce crime and create opportunity for Eyes and ears on the street. And obviously, there's a lot more requirements for safety and security when you're dealing with the cannabis operation that another level of that job creation and greater local regulatory oversight.
As we know one thing we will not completely eliminate as illicit cannabis market And what we found looking at other cities where there is retail operations, the folks that are in retail operation are very protective of what they have as far as business and are kind of the first to try and make sure that illicit operations were either shut down or limited. And then convenience for residents that do use our consumers of the product, as opposed to having to go to other cities or having it delivered into town.
Potential concerns, we've heard some of them from the public. Community character impacts, what do we want to portray as Santa Paula? Public safety perceptions, youth access concerns, land use compatibility, where would be the best place for these things to locate? And market volatility, as I mentioned when we're talking about some of these cities they've gone from you know got reduced their revenue in this as much as a quarter or three quarters.
Real quick tax rates in Ventura County on cannabis pretty much everyone when I talked about that ordinance, we had to pass We have a tax structure in place, so that if we did at a later point do that. Almost everyone has a tax structure that's given their councils as we did flexibility. So for example Ojai of their tax structures up to 10% so they can adjust it at any time. Port Hueneme is between 8-10%.
Ventura is between five and 10%, Oxnard's between six and 10%. And in Santa Paula, when we passed ours that was up to 10%. So again approved but not implemented. And then the last piece I wanted to address is land use considerations where if this was to go on a ballot and it did pass where in town would make the most sense for something like this to locate?
A couple of things. You have commercial districts, you have industrial districts. Pretty much every city either does both or either of those. You don't want them in residential neighborhoods from a state perspective that's pretty much not allowed and And the other piece of that is key locations like schools, churches, community centers, places where parks being able to have a minimum of 500 feet if not 1,000 feet from those locations is pretty common from city-to-city within the state.
And then industrial areas generally lean more towards manufacturing and distribution but small communities like Ojai Their dispensaries within an industrial area just off their main strip. And then, dispensary locations right now the closest dispensary to Santa Paula is 11.8 miles in Midtown Ventura and then the closest delivery option is just about 19 miles away in Port Hueneme and that's about a 30-60 minute time for delivery.
So that's generally an overview. I'm going to pass it on to city manager Dan Singer, just talk a little bit about the next steps in council process.
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Thank you Mr. Mason. Mr. Mayor members of the Council and the community, I'm going to talk a little bit about the policy considerations and really the decisions that are potentially before the Council tonight First of all, just an overview and for the community's sake. There's really three ways in which local laws can be established. The first and the most common is a course by simple majority of the elected body.
In our case three of five council members. But a second option is a citizen initiative, usually a petition that is signed by at least 10% of the voters that can place something then on a subsequent ballot. And finally, if not by citizen petition, the city council can also choose to place a measure on the ballot or general election or special election. Such was the case just a year and a half ago when the council decided to put Measure R, the tax measure on the November ballot.
So tonight the standing committee which is made up of Council Member Chavez and now Mayor Juarez have been meeting multiple times over the course of years but most notably over the last six or so months Have considered those different options and are really recommending tonight that the council as a whole take up the issue of whether or not to place a measure on the ballot this November.
So, a couple of things impacting that and Mr. Mason went over a lot of the pros and cons and the things we hear from other communities. We've held meetings with some of our neighboring cities to learn about their experiences And we've also looked at crime data and speaking both with the chief of police in Port Hueneme as well as looking online at available data.
So, we've done some basic research on that and as Mr. Mason was suggesting generally When communities have legalized dispensaries, crime is either neutral to even being slightly positive. In some cases significantly positive but generally speaking it's been kind of neutral to positive. You may hear from community members that these dispensaries attract crime. But they're required by state law to have security systems, to have an actual security operator and obviously it's in their interest to protect their investment.
And as Mr. Mason pointed out what we've learned from other communities is that those dispensaries will be the first kind of rat out, if you will, any illicit behaviors that they observe. So that can have a positive ripple effect. So there's really three recommendations that we're making with council tonight and after you hear from the public and ask your questions, we're happy to respond to questions that you might have The first option is a fairly in-depth and informed option. Now I'm gonna go over these three options in reverse of what your staff report says, and the reason I'm presenting it in reverse order is because from staff's perspective, it would be most desirable, and I think from the subcommittee's perspective to really fully engage the public To do that and to really get the technical experience and expertise that we need, we're suggesting that the council if you're inclined to place this on the ballot, do so in a really informed way.
And that could involve public opinion survey, it would involve community outreach, hiring of a consultant who's been through this process numerous times before and I've included a proposal in your agenda packet Some help with discussing the tax structure. As Mr. Mason has pointed out, we have a lot of flexibility but there's also trends that we wanna be sensitive to and then of course working with BBK and legal experts in the actual crafting of a measure and understanding the election process if the council were to put something on the ballot.
If we're gonna take this more extensive approach The greatest consideration is it would be most community focused. It would provide us with the opportunity to really garner public input, especially with the community survey because that would be done by your registered voters that are most likely to vote in a general election. And from that information I think we can make a much more informed decision so that council's presented with feedback from the community This approach though, also costs the most. It takes the most amount of time and probably is gonna run in the neighborhood of about $90,000 when said and done which includes the ballot measure and the cost of that legal expenses of writing that measure, the consultant helping with the process, the tax analytics as well as the community survey.
So the downside is it's the most expensive But it's also the most thorough and most informed. If however, the council is not inclined to do the full boat but you still want that basic community survey data especially in order to craft ballot language then we're probably looking at a process that would cost in the neighborhood of about $50,000. That's not the only option. If council were inclined to put this on the ballot, but you didn't want to spend much time or effort. You just simply wanted to have our legal counsel put something together that we think represents the city well. The council would consider that in June of this year place it on the ballot for November.
That process is gonna run about $25,000. So it's not free no matter what we do But there's obviously tiers involved with how in-depth we get, either with basic approach or the more extensive approach or anything between. I would point out as Mr. Mason indicated that were a tax measure to be brought forward or were the council to adopt dispensaries eventually that's a new form of tax for us.
We estimate that's probably around $300,000 to $600,000 range based on the performance of others in our region. And so the investment now is something that we would reap the benefits of if we were to receive that revenue going forward. I'll finally end by just saying this is a core economic development The council has identified economic development as one of your top priorities in your strategic plan, which is not to say or marry the five of you that having to be cannabis.
Suggesting that, but rather this is an opportunity to look at an industry that creates jobs. That is secure that brings in vacant where you have vacant buildings. You have tenants and obviously brings revenue to the city that could be used for a variety of important community purposes. So that really summarizes our staff report. We're happy to answer any questions. I know you'll be eager to hear from the community before you take action, but with that we're happy to answer questions council member.
All right well thank you Mr. Singer. I just want to remind the audience that there are seats up front so you don't have to stand it looks like we may be here a while and we can also bring out more chairs. Please have a seat if you'd like And I'd also just like to add a couple of things for clarification, Mr. Singer and then we'll turn it over to council for comments but when the standing cannabis committee met, it wasn't just those options about doing the research and put it on the ballot. There's also the option of recommending the council not enacting an ordinance or as years ago enacting an ordinance so those are also two extremes of the decisions that this council could make tonight. And one thing I do wanna point out I remember hearing it, but at the end result if a survey were to be conducted and it's overwhelmingly under accepted.
The council at that point could say it's not worth putting into the ballot. Now conversely, if the survey comes back that it's overwhelming 75% of the public things are going to vote for it. That's another option that the council could say well if there is overwhelming support that's corroborated by data Thank you, Mayor. Just one quick question for clarification on the revenues projected at $600,000
0:36 – 0:4410 turns
Is that annually and it's based on how many dispensaries?
Yes, so that would be an annual estimate. It's really not based on the number of dispensaries though the largest factor is going to be a demand and B your tax rate. Whether you have one large dispensary or five smaller dispensaries ultimately demand is what's going to drive the sales and your tax rate is what's that revenue. And interestingly, both Ojai and Port Waidimi who have been at this the longest encouraged us if we were to move forward to consider a low kind of nominal tax rate I think because of pressures that they're seeing. And I say that's interesting because theoretically we would be in competition with them you would think that they would tell us to have a high tax rate so nobody would want to come here but they did share that information with us
Comes from Charles.
Just to point a clarification for our legal counsel, if a council makes a decision on its own, wouldn't another council be able to reverse the decision? Can you explain a little bit regarding council decisions? So let's say a council made a decision to just move forward with these options. Couldn't another council come back and reverse it?
If this is a ballot measure and it's approved by the voters, then it must be repealed by the voters. However, if the text of what is ultimately adopted in that measure gives council in the future ability to repeal also something for the voters should decide then it's possible for our future council to appeal whatever comes forward
But a more stable position would be that the voters ultimately cement them versus a council that changes per elections.
Yes, if the voters want to retain control and they adopt approval of ballot measure then that ballot measure can remain silent on who in the future Council. Thank
you for clarification. Thank you Council Member Chavez. Okay, so at this point we're going to go ahead and we don't have no more. We don't have any more comments from Council at this time we may have later but we do have 37 speaker cards, and in some council meetings they The chair might choose to lower the time, but in the interest of the topic that is such important as the community we're going to allow three minutes per speaker. Now I would caution that if similar people have the same thoughts or are going to repeat the same letter, I might ask that if you could go ahead and conjoin yourselves and say, you know, we wrote up the letter so that way we don't have to hear the same letter Three or four times. You're more than welcome to read it if you like, but I'm just giving that disclaimer.
So what I'd like to is call out three names at a time and then what I'd like is for the first speaker to come up and then the other two line up behind for everybody's time. So the first speaker will be Robert Gagian followed by Michael Nelson followed by Suzanne Chen. And do we have the time? None clerk? Very good thank you.
Mayor Crosswhite, City Council, staff. I want to thank you first of all for your long and dedicated service my name is Robert Bagdasian and my wife Mary and I have lived in Santa Paula for 27 years and raised our five children here some of you on the council and city staff will recall that seven years ago a group of residents we call Safeguard Santa Paula And over 1,100 petition signers had concerns that the city council would vote then to lift the ban on marijuana retail stores.
Fortunately two of you on the 2019 council here tonight and the whole council voted four to one to keep the band in place supporting the health and safety of Santa Paula and our youth. During one of the many city council meetings in 2019, the head of Ventura County Public Health at that time Dr. Robert Levin gave a report to the council clearly stating the disastrous health and mental health damage marijuana psychoactive THC chemical causes in developing brains up to the age of 25.
Safeguard Santa Paula and our petition signers agreed then and agree now that the health and safety for Santa Paula is a smart public health policy, business policy and ethos for the city of Santa Paula to embrace and not compromise on. We already have problems in our schools with students vaping marijuana and tobacco during and after classes. We should not as a city promote and enable the presence and ignore the use of these harmful THC products that work their way down to our youth.
As the tobacco industry does The marijuana advocates and proprietors dismiss the real health and safety concerns of their products because their bottom line is to increase consumers and make profits. With medical marijuana delivery available to Santa Paula residents in retail stores as close as 12 miles away, there's no compelling need to have retail stores here.
And any tax revenue generated for this city will not outweigh the human health and mental health costs. Also, based on the dramatic decline of marijuana tax revenue locally, marijuana tax income does not seem like it will significantly improve the city's fiscal situation. Over a few days we recently collected over 1,400 signatures from Santa Paula parents, grandparents and young adults many of them here today and you can see the list of the names on our poster there They signed this petition in support of the ban on marijuana retail stores and ask you not to approve and promote a costly ballot process.
We will present to each of you a binder that has the names and current information that we hope you will consider. Thank you very much
for your consideration. Thank you, Mr. Big Asian. We have next Michael Nelson can be followed by Suzanne Shannon and after that Rose Chacon.
0:44 – 0:503 turns
Mr. Mayor and members of the council, my name is Mike Nelson I've been here in Santa Paula for the past 25 years and I'm asking the City Council to uphold the ban on marijuana stores in Santa Paula and for good reasons this ban protects our youth from the known negative impacts on teens from retail marijuana stores Last year, there was an excellent article published in a scientific journal called Substance Abuse and Misuse.
The title of the article is Local Cannabis Policy and Adverse Adolescent Mental Health Outcomes. It was authored by 14 different doctors and medical researchers from six different research universities and medical institutions across California. So that's a lot. There's a lot authority behind this report The report clearly states that local policies that prohibit marijuana sales and decrease retail marijuana availability are associated with a lower prevalence of teenage marijuana use.
So, that's definitive. The article goes on to say that local policies that prohibit marijuana stores were associated with a lower prevalence of psychotic disorders in teenagers However, having a greater retail availability of marijuana stores was associated with the greater prevalence of psychotic anxiety and depression disorders in teenagers. In other words, if we want to increase marijuana use among teens and depression and psychotic orders among those teens then we should open more marijuana stores in Santa Paula.
However, I know that the City Council does not favor that and will vote to uphold the ban on marijuana stores in Santa Paula. Another report was issued last year by a San Diego County government drug agency and in it Dr. Relit Lev, an ER physician and an expert in marijuana use disorders said Marijuana is a risk factor in suicide. She said that in 2023, 38% of suicides of those 25 and under had THC for marijuana in their systems at the time of death.
In the same report Dr. Natalie Louds is a pediatrician from the Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego She said the fastest growing group of new users of marijuana is 11 to 13 year old females. Exactly what we don't want. She believes that this is due to marketing by marijuana sellers. My time up? Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Okay next we have Suzanne Chen followed by Rose Chacon then followed by Carmen Patron.
Good evening. Suzanne Chin here, Santa Paula resident. I'm concerned that the council will be swayed by promises of increased revenue and donations for projects and campaigns, and pave the way to lift the ban on having marijuana retail in our city. I have researched on how dispensaries or retail are allowed to exist, extolling the recreational use of marijuana as beneficial to a city's population.
The staff report fills me in two things, the lack of sufficient financial argumentation on why it would be worthwhile to even consider this item to go forward on November's ballot. You have presented a downward trend of retail store sales from surrounding communities They have adopted them, but now there is a push to spend the money of up to $90,000 hiring a seemingly pro-retail consultant without public opinion.
Then and only then will a financial study become available. I think that information should be made available for public scrutiny now. There is no intention, I'm sorry. There is no mention of the health and safety of children in Santa Paula in promoting the presence of a retail sales store zoned right across the freeway from my neighborhood which is teeming with families, young families and the density of that will be over 1200 homes across the freeway not to mention the housing that's being built there.
You will recall that the tobacco industry was discovered to have intentionally marketed cigarettes meant to cause addiction. Now we know that the same industry is actively investing in the marijuana industry, why? They know how to make money out of the weakness of people. Let us not be fooled into allowing Santa Paula to become a city of marijuana addicts by normalizing the use of marijuana openly It is not worth jeopardizing the health of our citizens, particularly our children. I oppose spending any money on this issue. The November ballot is a time to recognize leaders who truly care about Santa Paula and this is one issue that will make a mark.
Thank you.
0:50 – 0:556 turns
Rose Chacon, thank you very much Ms. Chen. Next we have Rose Chacon followed by Carmen Patron followed by Bob Miller.
City Council and staff, I am here as a mother. Not any particular group but as a mother of children that have grown up in this city. I am not a statistic. My children aren't statistics but my son and I wanted you to know who he was His name was Andrew and he went to Santa Paula schools, played on Santa Paula sports fields and was a part of the community. He's not a statistic.
He was born on September the 16th, 1986. He was my youngest son. He was introduced to marijuana in his middle school years and I saw a distinct change And his behavior, his demeanor. And it started a downward trend that I was unable and my family was unable to stop. He thought he was partaking in recreation. It was not recreation. It became a dependency, a dependency that he returned to over and over again Became a nightmare, and marijuana became the focus of his life.
He went to counseling. He developed weight problems. He tried but was unable to stop. He went through stronger drugs. For a while he was clean. Went to Santa Barbara to culinary school. And tried to hold down a job too, wasn't able to do that. And backed up into a corner and not wanting to disappoint us, he started selling. And my goodness, he didn't realize how much money he could make.
Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at it and he was caught and arrested. Went to his first rehab Went to meetings, tried to change. Tried to turn around but he also started developing psychotic behavior. Backed to rehab again then to a halfway house had a meltdown. We were in Colorado at the time we had a home there that we spent the summers out and he came to join us.
Is that it?
Your comments just winded down a few
seconds. Bottom line, he went to Colorado where marijuana was legal and available. We came back to California. We got a visit from Archuleta County Sheriff of Colorado and to tell us that our son's remains were found where he was killed. No one talked about it. It is still a cold case Don't let the children of Santa Paula become statistics. You all know the right thing to do, please do it.
We have Carmen Patron follow Bob Miller and then Ricardo Soto.
Hi, my name is Carmen and I'm a young person from Santa Paula. As someone who sees for the first time what youth in my community are exposed to, I am concerned about a lot of marijuana retail stores in our city. When these stores are visible it can send them a message that marijuana use is normal and not risky. The reality is many teens already think marijuana is harmless.
Even though there are real risks, especially for young people, increased availability could also make it easier for youth to access it. Retail stores also mean more advertising which increases exposure and can influence how young people view marijuana. The brain is fully developed by the age of 25. Retail accessibility can lead to earlier or quicker use that disrupts these developmental mindsets.
I ask that you please consider the impact on youth as you make your decision. Thank you for your time.
0:55 – 1:006 turns
Carmen Patron followed by, and now we're gonna have Bob Miller followed by Ricardo Soto and then Rafaela Resendez.
Good evening. Thank you. I've lived in Santa Paula for more than 30 years. My name is Bob Miller. I came before you to ask that you continue to ban marijuana retail stores from Santa You're going to hear many compelling arguments against retail marijuana stores this evening. I would like to add one more that may not be so obvious, that is the presence of dangerous pesticides found in marijuana products.
I know that regulated marijuana is sometimes tested by the California labs for pesticides even that system has problems Well, my comment this evening focuses on the use of illegally grown marijuana by underage youth and how the presence of retail marijuana stores affects that usage of illegal marijuana. Law enforcement authorities such as the Sheriff of Siskiyou County, Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue are finding banned and highly toxic pesticides on illegal marijuana farms many of which are seriously toxic if consumed.
And yet its contamination finds its way to legal products When a young person sees a retail marijuana store in their town alongside their other businesses, whether downtown or on the edge of town. The message they receive is that marijuana is just another product, not something to be cautious about. That curiosity doesn't end at the door of a licensed store where they would be turned away.
It seems it leads them to a friend or a dealer, a source with no testing, no oversight and potentially dangerous pesticides We don't want to encourage marijuana use among our youth. So for the health of our city and especially for our youth, I ask you to continue the ban Santa Paula has on retail marijuana stores. Stand courageously with a majority of California cities that continue to have such a ban.
One more thing. I was a smoker. Marijuana may affect our most important relationships In my family, I saw my parents see the changes in me. I became a stranger to them. I preferred to be among other marijuana smokers and lost interest in my parents. New younger users will find it extremely habit-forming to some mentally addicting. You parents who have sacrificed and invested your lives in training your children to achieve their goals know how important Sustained motivation is.
Marijuana use can change all that. Please think about your priorities. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Miller. We have next Ricardo Soto followed by Rafaela Resendez and then followed by Leslie Resendez.
The interpreter will speak for him, he did give it to me in Spanish. So a count was done on young adults we asked about cannabis use they said they did not smoke it but they did say they consumed gummy cannabis. We asked why? They said because it was popular amongst young people and it has been seen The internet as well. Their own friends would challenge them to be popular with their friends and so they could be popular with their friends and be accepted, um, as in the in crowd. We need to not accept cannabis retails in the area if it took this long to protect people from secondhand smoke how much longer will it take to protect communities from the damage of cannabis use? Public health is helping us with technical assistance of Ventura County
Thank you, Mr. Soto. Can we have Rafaela Resendez?
Good evening members of the council. I am Rafaela Resendiz and I have been living here in Santa Paula for three years. We were collecting signatures from people who did not want marijuana at coffee shops here in Santa Paula. We collected 182 signatures Estella tuvimos muchos comentarios acerca de la preocupación de los padres y de la comunidad. Hay personas que ellos no fuman marihuana, pero se meten en problemas porque el vecino fuma marihuana entonces ellos salen positivo en marihuana.
1:00 – 1:0813 turns
And also,
if you guys authorize cannabis here in Santa Paula, then you have the
city
of Santa Paula known as a family-oriented city. Thank you very much. Yes
I have it here.
Okay, thank you. Santa Paula is known for its family-oriented city and its traditions. It impacts the identity of the city. We've got 182 signatures. We are working with our young children of it rising, the use of cannabis rising. And also the resale of illegal marijuana. It's not needed locally. Santa Paula is not a big city. It is not a change that needs to be done.
All right thank you. So next we have, gracias Rafaela. Now we have Leslie Resendez?
Good afternoon members of the council. My name is Leslie Resendiz and I am a student at Santa Paula City Council. Today, I come to ask that you think about us, children, adults and adolescents before deciding to allow marijuana use in our community together with addiction and normalization. In the Muestran que el uso frecuente del onceavo grado aumentó hasta tres por ciento.
Cuando algo se vuelve común en las calles, se vuelve común en las escuelas. Ustedes están decidiendo el negocio de hoy, pero nosotros vamos a vivir con nuestras consecuencias mañana. Por favor mantengan consecuencias para que nuestra única preocupación sea estudiar y crecer sanos.
Can you guys hear me? Good afternoon council members. My name is Leslie Rendiz, I'm a student in Santa Paula and I am 11 years old. I'm here today to ask to think about us kids and teenagers before considering cannabis dispensaries in our community. Number one the access and normalization even though they say it's for adults having cannabis dispensaries Those two words, play and study and learn. It sends a message that it is normalized and with no risk at all. In nearby cities in California who permit these sensory studies show that frequent use ensued its price 30% according to Journal of Health.
I have more information on these pages here. I'm going to leave them at the table on the side there that lists more information about the dangers of marijuana use, okay?
Thank you. Let's see if we can send this. Okay, we're going to move on to Team Beecher followed by Greg Beecher and then followed by Brittany Botts.
Council members my name is Tom Becker I was born and raised in Santa Paula and I've lived here 29 of my 30 years I lived one year in Fort Wyoming and our family walked on us by a dispensary where there was an armed guard outside. You mentioned security measures, but it felt weird walking by an armed guard. It was not a family-friendly situation. I grew up riding my bike downtown. I felt safe, my parents felt safe with me going downtown by myself or with my friends. 500 feet from schools and churches is one thing but kids in Santa Paula are all over the place, bikes, skateboards, scooters. 500 feet doesn't really cut it.
I first experienced addicted drug users when working at Blanchard Community Library and clients, usually homeless clients would come in. It was sobering to see the impact on their lives from the outside it looked like they were completely incapable of helping themselves. It's worth noting the cannabis users because there are different drug users that show up in the library but the cannabis users were always more sedate not always Usually more sedate as opposed to other drug users. But this very sedateness is what concerns me.
As the father of three young boys, I want them as little exposed to marijuana as possible. I believe and most others would agree that exposure to alcohol and tobacco does not help young people. Similarly, I do not want my boys exposed to addictive substances like marijuana that will impact their future success and their contributions to their community in Santa Paula.
My boys will not need a substance to succeed in life, and this particular substance definitely will not help them. While I have known a few successful people to use marijuana, I am aware of many others whose ambition and success in life has been gravely impacted by early addiction to the drug. Cannabis use exposes our children whom it is our duty to guide To a route that frustrates personal drive, invites the abuse of other substances and changes the social landscape of our town, armed guards etc.
While I would not choose to use the drug, I am not now condemning recreational or medicinal use necessarily. I simply disapprove of a dispensary in our city of St. Paula. If any of you here in the audience or on the council have kids or grandkids growing up in this beautiful city right now, do you want to give them one more hard decision to make in their young impressionable lives?
Is it ridiculous to ask this one question. Should my convenience or our city tax revenue overrule the formation of our young citizens and our future community contributors What message are we willing to send the young Santa Paulans who model their actions on our own? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Tom Becker. That's followed by Greg Becker and followed by Brittany Botts followed by Kay Wilson Bolton.
1:08 – 1:144 turns
Thank you Mayor Juarez and council members My name is Greg Becker. I've lived and worked in Santa Paula for more than 30 years or those 30 years, I've seen the city council and our community work hard to promote Santa Paula as a city that it's a place that it's attractive for families businesses and industry. And we want to attract new you want to attract new families, new businesses and new industry to our town in order to keep our town thriving That's why I find it somewhat surprising that the City Council is considering bringing retail marijuana stores to Santa Paula.
The California Department of Cannabis Control reports that more than half of the California cities do not allow any retail marijuana businesses. If I were a business owner and we're looking for a new community where to locate my growing business, I would not look favorably on a city that allowed retail marijuana stores I would look at the California cities that prohibited such retail stores.
Similarly, if I were moving my family to California now, I would not look favorably on a city that allowed retail marijuana stores and so many other cities in the state don't allow retail marijuana stores. So I recommend if the City Council really wants to position Santa Paula as a city that is an attractive place for new businesses and new families, that you remain with majority of California cities that ban retail marijuana stores. Thank you.
Thank you very much Mr. Becker. We now have Brittany Botts followed by Kay Wilson-Bolton then will be followed by Jan Becker
Good evening, City Council Mayor. My name is Brittany Botts. I am a fifth generation Santa Paulan and I've lived here for 37 years. My son is sixth generation. Um, I am extremely active in this community. I spent the majority of my personal time volunteering boots on the ground so to say, I love this town as an understatement. And I am tired of seeing Santa Paula miss out on economic opportunities and I'm tired of being the poorest city per capita in the county.
Reality check is it's already here. If anyone doesn't know, it costs zero dollars to get cannabis delivered here or just once again miscount on the money. That can affect streets, public safety, infrastructure. This is a really highly regulated industry and I would ask anybody who is worried about the riffraff or anything like that to take a little a field trip down there to check one out. These places are clean, they have so much security. The notion that these kids are just going to get their hands on this stuff because these places come in is just to me very much fear-mongering. A lot of these stories we hear have happened before any kind of retail cannabis was here. The kids aren't getting it from these places or getting it from somewhere else We've heard the statistics that having it regulated actually reduces grueling.
And that's what we have to pay attention to are the facts. These products are tested, pesticides are tested, heavy metals are tested, contaminants They have strict IDs, security surveillance just as we trust bonds to not allow teens to walk in and steal their alcohol which is not behind lock and key. It's the same here because these come in catastrophic things aren't just going to happen overnight.
Again, we're not stopping it. We're just pushing people to leave and take that money from us When you think about Port Huenini having multiple in the competition, what Santa Paula would get is Fillmore. We'd get a lot of Fillmore business coming this way against Santa Paula. We are in such a crucial time in this city where we're about to lose our hospital and I can't even fathom that not having a hospital and to walk away from potentially $600,000 in annual revenue is wild to me.
Besides the streets, biggest things I hear people talk about in the city are not having a big box store and losing our hospital. If we don't move with the times, we're never gonna have that happen for us. And then we've seen that time and time again. Again, we're poorer than Fillmore. I personally have a child with type 1 diabetes. It's a 24-7, 365 condition that requires constant monitoring. About a month ago my son's insulin pump malfunctioned during the night and he had to go to the hospital because he was so sick.
I couldn't imagine waiting for an ambulance to take me to another city to get help let alone drive there. We are just at such a crucial time that we cannot turn away from revenue like this, especially when you all have common sense and know that it is regulated. And it's accountable and it's legal. Thank you.
Thank you, Branding Botts. Next, we have Kay Wilson Bolton who will be followed by Jan Becker and then Al Galin.
1:14 – 1:235 turns
My name is Kay Wilson-Wolton. I'm a former mayor, a 50 year resident and the volunteer director of the Harvard Navigation Center for Families Experiencing Homelessness. Please do not bring recreational retail cannabis sales into Santa Paula. Please place priority on the views of the people who live here and please remember that none of the opposition addresses medical marijuana.
When you voted unanimously to keep our police department and not contract with Ventura County Sheriff, you did not consider a survey or a ballot measure. We elected you to leave and we ask you to do the same now. You have enough knowledge based on the research of city staff to make a decision. Since you're investing $200,000 a year in the lives of people at Harvard Medical Center any effort Since there's more available here, it is in honor to our mission of ending and preventing homelessness. Many of the guests at Harvard are experiencing addiction. In a recent poll at our weekly house meeting, all but one who was struggling admitted they started with marijuana. They liked the high too much that they moved up to something stronger for more potent experience.
Those of you who are loved and respected by youth need to consider your position on this matter and the influence your decision will have on them. This isn't about legislating morality, this is about public health and safety. Almost everyone has some tie to a person on the streets, to mental illness and to substance abuse whether it's drugs or alcohol. That alone should motivate you to intercept revenue-generating businesses that would distract us from making our city better.
Aside from all the experiences I've had at Harvard, Howard, Milton and I got our own. Our daughters started with marijuana as an older teen She graduated with a master's degree in business management. She graduated to mushrooms and more. She ended her life in 2016 with opioids. As you know, we will exhaust the income from development soon if we need to plan for that day. I implore you to stay focused on good businesses that will bring sales tax dollars into the community. Thank you.
Hello, I am Jan Becker. I've lived here for more than 30 years and some of you have seen me here before with the last time we were talking about cannabis. I have been one of the citizens who's been attending the standing cannabis meetings when I could, and I was so encouraged at the January meeting when Mr. Singer and Mr. Mason both made presentations about how cannabis is doing in Ventura County and it's crummy. It's not doing so well.
Mr. Mason reported that the Income Port Hueneme we've talked about this Went from 4 million at its height down to less than 1 million. At this point, many of the city's cannabis businesses are closing because there's not as much demand which you also pointed out to us. Funny thing was I left that meeting and I thought, whoo, I think we don't have to fight this anymore because it's so obvious it's not a great idea anymore.
Then just within a month or so at a meeting where I wasn't present, all of the sudden someone came and said no they're really pushing this. They want this. They want to get it on the ballot. What's the fire? Why haven't we been talking about this in a way that it sounded like it was something serious going forward? I feel like this has been slipped in in a disingenuous fashion even to the point of knowing where this meeting was going to be held for a couple of weeks we've known Not going to be held at the regular first meeting we did on the 1st, it's gonna be on the 6th. Where is it gonna be? Is it gonna be at the community center or city hall?
Did you really, did it take until by Thursday of last week to know where it was going to be so that we could let our supporters know? I have a funny feeling that there's a real driving force to push this through and Mr. Singer, you sort of alluded to that too, that it seems like there's a push to push this through. Also at that same meeting, you talked about the different things we could do besides a ballot measure and the cost at that point, you talked about being 100,000 today and there were estimates at 100,000 today, you're talking 90, 80,000 down to 50,000 40,000 down to 25,000 so they're estimates I guess. We don't know exactly what they will be but you did say the most expensive thing was what you would recommend and advised against the prudence of going with the least expensive route which would open the city up to other problems presumably perhaps not the least of which would entail lawsuits I mean, I'm not really sure.
I didn't think... I really left with great hope in my heart from that meeting which I don't have so much anymore. I too am a mother and a grandmother. I've raised my children here and my children are raising their children here several of them. Our children deserve to have us protect them from the harmful effects. Thank you. To protect them from the harmful effects that easy access to marijuana would have on their health Their safety, their mental health, their overall wellbeing. No amount of money that retail marijuana stores might bring in is worth the cost of sacrificing our children's best interests.
One last thing has there been any costs benefit analysis? How do we know this is going to make us money? We're talking about maybe funding a couple of police officers will need more probably because there are certainly plenty of articles I talk about crime does tend to follow. Those are my questions, thank you for letting me have a few extra.
Thank you Jan Becker. Just for clarity Ms. Becker had been to a couple of the canvas meetings and the one you were not at there was actually discussion about a reverse timeline if this were to go to the ballot that might be why this is contemporaneous to that timeline so all right thank you So that was Jan Becker. We have Al Galeen, it's gonna be followed by John Q. Masteller, followed by Joseph Bierhalter.
Mr. Mayor and members of the council thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this evening I come to you on behalf of the Santa Paula Ministerial Association and as a concerned grandfather with seven grandchildren in our local school district. As I understand it cannabis has its pluses and minus But the harm it can cause is well documented by addiction in the criminal system.
I understand there's also some medical attributes, but our medical system allows for dangerous drugs to be prescribed and can be delivered to one's home. Then there is the unlawful availability of drugs. As I understand it, the use of illegal and harmful drugs is a common occurrence In our schools, this should be a concern to all parents and especially to the leadership of the schools in the city.
Anything that can be done to protect the young lives is grave and immoral responsibility of elected officials. Help us to guard them from tragic temptation. Don't give them and send them down a dead end road. The main function of government is the protection of its citizens, whether it be from fire, blood, crime or for drugs. In a small town like ours, our kids don't have a lot of places to go or things to do.
That means that what we choose to bring in our community matters even more. If we don't provide a healthy outlet then we cannot beat Surprise when harmful ones become more and more visible and tempting. And then there's the argument of sales in the market that will help local coffers. Just think of this notion, can we put the lives in danger for our kids for a budget item on our balance sheet?
On several occasions, I personally have worked to increase taxes to benefit our cities and willing to do so again for the betterment of all. But the idea of allowing disabled and classified dangerous drugs being sold and supported by elected officials is a failure to protect citizens. Please keep that in mind. And so on behalf of myself, my grandchildren Not to endanger their lives for a budget item on our city's annual budget. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Gleen. We have next John Q. Mastollar followed by Joseph Beerhalter then followed by Victoria Carrillo.
1:24 – 1:303 turns
Thank you, Mr Mayor and members of the City Council for giving me the opportunity to speak. I'd like Before I give my remarks, I'd like to ask everybody in the audience who is in favor of keeping the ban on retail stores. Thank you. My name is Quincy Mastolar. I've been a resident of Santa Paula since 1990. My wife Katie and I have raised our four children here We have much love and affection for our neighbors and friends over the years. I've coached basketball, and as a father, involved in all the daily activities of our young people growing up here, I learned that our young people have a real hunger for the truth in whatever they are doing. And they can see hypocrisy easily. They don't have to pretend for hypocrisy And they're affected by it, that's it.
I am concerned about the destructive signal to our young that would be sent if the city council does not uphold the ban on retail sale of marijuana in Santa Paula. Our young people are told constantly to stay away from drugs, don't do drugs, that doing drugs is bad for you on so many levels. Why then do you want to send a signal to them in supporting of marijuana by changing the present ban on the sale of retail store marijuana here?
This mixed message will likely push some vulnerable teens to start using marijuana. And I hope all of you would agree with me and share my view that the loss of only one vulnerable teen Is a price too high to pay. We've all been witness the last few days of the American F-15 shot over Iraq and how American military spent numerous hours in manpower and assets to rescue that last, that last pilot on Easter Sunday.
I have a son who is in active duty. As a Navy pilot under CENTCOM in the Middle East, and I can't tell you how happy I am to know how far the military goes to protect its back. I invite the City Council to have the same urgency as the American military and decide that no amount of revenue It is worth losing any of our young people in Santa Paula. Please don't send this conflicting message to our young. Please uphold the ban on the retail sale of Santa Paula. We don't need to go to a ballot measure, we don't need to have the survey, save that money. You have the information you need to do the right thing. Just say no, thank you.
Thank you. We have now Joseph beer halter going to be followed by Victoria Korea, and followed by Estella career.
Mayor Vice Mayor Council. The long standing get that long standing gateway drug theory regarding cannabis has been extensively challenged and largely debunked by numerous scientific studies in public health experts. Observations of neighboring cities of legal regulated access demonstrate that these communities remain safe, including the children do not suffer social or structural degradation due to the presence of dispensaries.
Legal dispensaries operate much like other professional businesses they are safe secure well lit heavily regulated and professionally managed furthermore they bolster the local economy by generating Tax revenue and revitalizing vacant storefronts. While products like alcohol and other drugs could be debilitating, cannabis is frequently utilized for its therapeutic benefits in medical applications.
Some people might even argue that most cannabis use is medicinal in some nature. Although a cannabis tax structure was approved by voters eight years ago the city has yet to receive any revenue because this city staff and Council remain caught in repetitive debates on the matter. This issue transcends city staff opinions, it is fundamentally about personal choice, medical necessity and respecting the democratic will of the Santa Paula residents.
The core question is simple, do the residents of Santa Paula deserve a voice in our democratic society? Should this issue be decided by select few or by the majority? We continue to delay for another eight years while neighboring cities continue to reap the economic benefits. We waste thousands more in tax dollars for a survey. And since I had the time, I did wanna complete another resident just bring up Dr. Levin and he was my boss when he was here for the county. And we all agree that Use under 25 and under is not good for brain development, but he did wholeheartedly medicinal use. He did agree with medicinal use for people.
And I also bring up the fact that this isn't just about money it's just a business and i don't understand why we have to keep you know we have an economic development director that's not doing economic development It's just a damn business, and everyone wants to make it like it's the double. Okay? Just one dispensary with minimal amount of revenue could save Harvard Shelter for example because that seems to be a big issue every two years.
1:30 – 1:369 turns
Couldn't finish up. I'm good. Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you very much Mr. Beerhalter. Okay next we have Victoria Carrillo who is going to be followed by Esteban Carrillo followed
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Victoria Carrillo and I'm a sophomore at Santa Paula High School. I was born and have been growing up in this beautiful city for 15 years. I have a question. What if one decision you made today could affect your memory and mental health and goals for years to come? For many teens, marijuana is a choice that quietly takes much more than it gives.
According to school surveys in California, in 7th grade 3.6%, 8th grade 7% have used marijuana. In 9th grade 9.7%. 10th grade around 16% and 12th grade around 26% students were impacted by marijuana use. These numbers that grow and will continue to grow is the rate of marijuana easily accepted. Studies find that teens who use marijuana are more likely to have suicidal thoughts or attempts than those who don't.
What starts as curiosity can lead to negatively impacted behavior. As teens' brains are still developing, the use of marijuana can affect things such as memory loss long-term, worsen mental health, increase anxiety and panic attacks, increase risk of psychosis and lead to dependence or addiction along with harming physical health. As a community it is our mission to protect our teens and youth instead of exposing them. Having a substance as dangerous and life altering as marijuana is an easily accessible risk for health, education and future.
Now, this isn't just about rules or laws. It's about real people, real children who have big dreams and futures. Those who choose stars, our youth deserve support, clarity and opportunity not substances that hold them back. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your career we have now Esteban Carrillo followed by Lupa Nava and then followed by Andrea Rodriguez
Good afternoon, my name is Esteban Carrillo. I'm 13 years old and I'm an eighth grader at Isbell Middle School. Suicide, brain damage, altered senses these are all effects of marijuana. Our community is a beautiful one with a vibrant young demographic. Our kids can be affected by these things. Would you let your son or daughter smoke even if it was legal? Legalizing drugs doesn't make them safer, it makes them more accessible. Accessibility and safety are not the same thing Even if you take precautions and only take certain amounts, one in 10 people can become addicted to marijuana and can't stop using it. Marijuana leads to memory loss, anxiety, and respiratory issues.
Having drugs be more accessible is not a solution. Even if we closely monitor vendors and how much they sell, legal marijuana sales only amount to 40% of the total marijuana sales in California. Instead of trying to make the problem more controlled, let's focus on taking it about completely But I'm not letting our youth reach this problem. Instead of hoping that others take care of the illegal marijuana problem that we have, we have to do it ourselves.
I don't want to live in a community where drugs are legal. I don't want to live somewhere where my peers have easy access to something that can ruin their bodies and minds. Do you think I want to see my peers which are already suffering from poor mental health take drugs? Do you think I enjoy knowing that they might ruin their lives because of a decision you might make tonight?
Do you think I enjoy the thought of people committing suicide because of the effects of marijuana? We constantly tell kids not to do drugs, but then we turn around and legalize it. And suddenly it's okay because it's making us money? Would you rather be part of the marijuana industry for extra tax money which isn't a stable market and is declining or would you rather keep your kids safe and community healthy Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Carrillo. We have Lupe Nava followed by Andrea Rodriguez who will be followed by Chris Weinkamp.
Good evening Council. Thank you for this quorum here. My name is Lupe Nava and I've been a citizen here since 1991. Kids grew up as citizens. I work in a medical office. I see people come in who have very, a lot of medical issues and I ask them, I have to know if for legal purposes that they use marijuana. So people use it in their leisure and they already take anxiety medications and they're doing their own doctoring. They don't understand how much it impacts those medications that they're already taking, plus throwing in marijuana which just exasperates even more.
Marijuana and then yes there is medical issues that people can use but what is the percentage of our whole town What is that percentage that really need it? They've already have access to it. We've had, they can get it delivered to them. I believe we are a small town compared to the other towns. Ventura is three times bigger than we are. Oxnard four times bigger.
I believe we do not need it here in our beautiful town Please listen to the citizens. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Lubinov. We have Andrea Rodriguez followed by Chris Wynkamp followed by Mary Bogajian.
1:36 – 1:414 turns
Thank you all for listening. My name is Andrea Rodriguez. I'm a mother and I've lived here 12 or 13 years. I do not want my own children to have Marijuana, I do not want them ever to use marijuana. The only arguments I'm hearing for it are money related. That is not worth it to me. The money is not worth it. Things that I do not want my children to have, I keep as far away from them as possible.
I do not want them to have access to the TV in the middle of the night. I take the remote away with me. I do not want them to have a breakable glass when they are toddlers, I put it up high. I do not want them to have marijuana, I want it as far away as possible. As far as money? I offer this suggestion of a hotel. We don't have good hotels here that attract visitors.
I am from a big family, and when they come we always have an issue. Hotel taxes bring in a lot more money than marijuana tax. So I offer that as a suggestion, and I thank you for...
Thank you, Andrea Rodriguez. We have Chris Wynkoff followed by Mary Bagajian followed by Wendy Zepeda.
Hello, thank you members of council for inviting us to speak tonight. My wife couldn't make it to this meeting but I recall that when this issue came up seven years ago she told a little story which i'd like to try to reconstruct for you now if I can. The story was she was driving with her kids I think she was in one of the neighboring cities and they saw a car cut off another car and our kids were shocked and horrified and they said that would never happen in Santa Paula In Santa Paula, we look out for each other. And they were like 10-12 years old but that was their impression of our town which they are lifelong proud residents in Santa Paula, we take care of each other.
Now to tell you another story about two years ago and my house was broken into it happened on a Sunday in broad daylight middle the day when we had taken our kids to the beach The burglars swept in and out real fast, and they took a couple of wallets. They took the sets of car keys, anything that looked like it might contain something of value, including the cases that contained my wife's hearing aids and my disabled son's eyeglasses.
My elderly mother who was sleeping in the next room thankfully was not harmed. But when the police came, they could tell right away what had happened. They said this is the work of drug addicts. It happens here all the time. They break in, they break out real quickly. They're just trying to get a quick score to help meet their addiction which is consuming them and destroying them.
They said that's why there are bars on all the buildings anywhere around Main Street because this is a real occurring issue in our town. The next day we got notification that one of the smoke shops in town, someone had gone in there and tried to use our stolen credit cards fraudulently. And I being having educated myself by watching TV police shows over the years Suggested to the officers, hey, why don't you go to the smoke shop? Maybe they have security footage. You can look at the security footage, find out who these people are, track them down.
The officer who was gracious and polite and wonderful had a thank-you but I wouldn't do any good. People in the smoke shops, they don't cooperate with the police. And I thought that was amazing to think. Now these stores don't sell marijuana. They do sell paraphernalia And it's clear that at least this store had a vested interest in enabling the addiction and enabling the addicts criminality.
And that interest transcended their commitment to public good, and that is the hidden cost of allowing the recreational drug industry to take root and thrive in our community of putting the city's stamp of approval on this very destructive behavior. And now we have a very deep pocketed industry, once again trying to move in our community. I'll be real quick wrap it up. This industry says we don't have to worry because they are going to put armed guards in their shops. So use Mr. Singer's language they're going to protect their investment.
The rest of us were on our own and that's not what I want in our town because in Santa Paula, we take care of one another. Thank you
Thank you. Good evening. It's me again. I think you all know me. My name is Mary Begdazian, and I attended several of the Cannabis Committee meetings.
1:42 – 1:474 turns
I want to ask you, what has changed from seven years ago till now? The City Council back then voted to maintain the ban on retail marijuana businesses. It was the right decision then and it is the right decision now. We have drug abuse treatment programs here in Santa Paula. We need to help the people in those places of healing to succeed And those in our community who are struggling with substance abuse, we want to build up and maintain a recovery supportive community.
Bringing in marijuana stores will hurt those people who need our support. We need to support a healthier environment not make it more difficult for those seeking to be clean. My nephew I've mentioned him about him before He is a former drug addict who started using alcohol and marijuana when he was 15 because of the trauma of losing his father at a young age.
His abuse of alcohol and marijuana led him to addiction. He started at 15, which led him to addiction to heavier drugs. He was a drug addict for more than half of his 34 years Now he is against marijuana stores, especially in small towns because those stores make it easier for young people to get marijuana. We need to support our young people like him who have experienced trauma in their lives and I believe there are many in this community who have experienced trauma and we need to build a healthier community not by bringing in access to substances that will cause harm to our young people.
On another note, many people move to and stay in Santa Paula because it's a small town, a quieter, friendlier place to live and where you can get to know your neighbors. They move here to get away from the crime and drugs in its cities. They seek a quieter, slower pace of life. Let's keep our small towns safer by not allowing retail Marijuana stores, please maintain the ban on marijuana businesses. Thank you.
Thank you Mayor Brigasion. We have Wendy Zepeda followed by Jack Kennedy then followed by Ruth Ann Nelson
Hi council members I'm a longtime resident of Santa Paula and a child educator here Appreciate your taking the time to listen. I do have to say I'm disappointed kind of angered to have to be here Because seven years ago, Santa Paula citizens made it clear that we don't want pot stores in our city. And that's still true. We don't want children exposed to the public enabling, which is what recruiting imposters does, the public enabling of the use of this mind-altering drug. Which statistics show would dramatically increase the likelihood that the children of Santa Paula will have cognitive disabilities, behavioral problems and permanent mental problems including not only addiction but things like schizophrenia.
We don't want to enable and increase the likelihood of drug-impaired driving on our streets. Officers who brought that up as a concern. We don't want the increased demand which will be created by the advertising, a storefront presence is and I wanna note that what you said Mr. Singer emphasize that legalizing pot stores makes the city interested in desirous of high demand. You want to increase demand in our city Especially my young children.
That demand will fuel the illegal market and no reporting by the cannabis stores is going to offset that potentially citywide issue. We don't want our ER to be further taxed by the increased cannabis related emergency visits which statistically occur near pot stores, you can look that up. We don't want businesses that of their very nature attract crime, hence the requirement for extra security.
And we're distressed to hear that despite the fact that we made it clear that we don't want this, the council is nonetheless considering spending the neighborhood of $100,000 in an effort to get cannabis stores in our town. And that is basically what it is because it will cost zero nothing just uphold the ban and do what the citizens want. Please don't use our tax dollars to try to push this project. Please do the right thing and the fiscally responsible thing. Thanks very much. Appreciate you listening.
Thank you, Wendy Zepeda. We have Jack Kennedy followed by Ruth Ann Nelson and then after that Abel Montiel.
1:47 – 1:534 turns
Thank you for your time. I'll be brief about three minutes. So I've been here for five years. I moved up here from Eagle Rock which is a suburb of LA and I was actually really okay with them opening a marijuana retail shop in my neighborhood. I thought it'd be good for the community And within a month, our cars started getting broken into. Catalytic converter on my roommate's car got stolen two times in six months. These are crimes that you don't report to the police when your car gets broken into. You don't call the police. I don't know. You're just kind of like, well, my computer got stolen.
And then it culminated with an actual shooting between the armed security guard At the marijuana store and one of the patrons, you know so there's a reason why like all these marijuana shops do have armed security guards like he said. Because there's crime that comes with stores that comes in from other parts of city and from other cities and that's just. That's just the way it is, you know and I, you know, maybe it's the statistics sales wise but I saw firsthand so.
And then another thing I wanted to ask about when I asked about but talk about briefly is the survey that we're potentially going to do. Yeah, I looked up the company grassroots lab that may be hired to do this survey. And on their website, on their clients is the California Cannabis Association. So this is a publicity company that gets money to do PR for the California Cannabis Association. How could this survey be a kind of neutral survey? I mean it sounds like more of a propaganda campaign to hire them.
You get the answers you want when you put that survey out. I mean, you might as well get like Cheech and Chong to do the survey. So thank you very much.
All right, thank you very much Mr. Kennedy. We have Ruth Ann's gonna be followed by Abel Montiel followed by Sienna Marie Sesma.
Hello council my name is Ruth Ann Nelson. I've lived here for 25 years And I really don't agree with having a store selling marijuana in our city. I think it is the most insane idea that you guys come up with and I'm not alone. Um, I know that you have a money problem and I know that we just gave you guys raises and this is what you're coming up with and it just doesn't sound like a really good idea to me.
I really don't, I don't think I've ever heard anybody say, I am so proud of my dad. He smokes marijuana or my grandma is so cool she smokes marijuana. I mean does anybody ever say I'm so proud of my kid because he smokes marijuana? Do you ever hear those words? This council, you guys are committed to making us a beacon of light A beacon of hope, of goodness in our city. And what you're doing is saying let's get some drug addicts here to sell marijuana so we can be something.
That is ridiculous and I really considered this. I thought wow these people are actually for putting marijuana In a store in our town and that made me think, how many people on the city council smoke marijuana regularly as otherwise why would they want this. And so I propose that we have drug testing for City Council members know that we can know how high they are during the week to make these decisions.
And you guys are here because you love our city, supposedly. It's not a healthy, wonderful thing to have marijuana. Everybody knows it! It's a no-brainer. I mean that 11 year old knows more than you guys. You guys got to start thinking a little bit on a higher level than getting people high to pay our bills. That's ridiculous, and I really propose that we do drug tests all of you because what kind of people would put that on a ballot?
It's crazy. It's insane. We have children here, I'd rather have a poor city with people with nothing, barely any cops than having a rich city with everybody high, you know, having their marijuana on the streets. It's ridiculous. It is insane and you know it or maybe you don't know it and if you don' t know it then you need to be tested. I really believe you need to be tested. It's just so obvious that our country is going down the tubes because of this problem.
I have a brother who started smoking marijuana in high school. He lost his ambition, he went to college, he lost his ambition. His only ambition was to have a burrito and a Coke and get through the day. And you know what? He could've been something so much more but he started smoking marijuana and he died on fentanyl two years ago. If you guys want that on your conscience, I pray that the Lord will just put dreams in your heads tonight of who's gonna be hurt by this marijuana so that you can change your mind about the whole thing. And I exhort you to change your minds and start thinking clearly. And I really hope that none of you are smoking marijuana because I don't want council members smoking marijuana. They need to be clear-thinking All
right, thank you Ruthann Nelson. Next we have Abel Montiel who's going to be followed by Sienna Marie Sesma followed by Dominic Andres.
1:53 – 2:0812 turns
Mayor Juarez and council members. Seven years ago when marijuana was considered in Santa Paula I decided to collect signatures. I collected over 800 signatures in one day, overwhelmingly from the Hispanic community. Their question to me is what is the City Council considering this? What are they thinking? Don't they have enough problems to solve? Surely, there's bigger issues. There's a lot more things that their children could be devoted to instead of this.
What do they want? Do they want to ruin our kids? Hispanics are largely conservative family people. I was encouraged couple weeks ago, I saw other people collecting signatures And the table was swarmed by people signing those signatures. Other people have presented them tonight and I would ask you to consider not putting it to a ballot, not to wasting money time Surely we're doing this or the council's doing this because they've been approached by an applicant who wants to put a store.
Should we be going through all of this to benefit? Oh yeah, the city will benefit a little bit. I'm sure they'll make some money but largely that owner is gonna benefit the most In our citizens, some of them will succumb to it. Not all. I have many friends that recreationally smoke marijuana, customers, acquaintances and it's readily available. It's a phone call away.
If not a phone call away, I would ask the City Council to consider Being a little tougher on the drug dealers here. Everybody here in town knows if you want to get any kind of drug, go to Veterans Park. Just signal the guy with the backpack, go in the restroom and get your drugs. It's right across from the council chambers right next to the police department but yet Just about every time I drive by there, and I drive by there a lot.
There's two or three guys with their backpack. And I know having been a 63 year member or citizen of Santa Paula growing up on 14th street where I grew up with guys buying spray paint, spraying it in a bag Getting high on that, and then bothering us kids as we were going to school and coming back. A lot of us lost our innocence because some of these guys would run around with some other clothes not on.
And it was dangerous for us. We didn't realize how dangerous it was then. But that was the reality of our youth there If you
could wind down your comments.
Sure, so I ask you to consider not putting it to a vote. Most of the businesses fail. I assume that this business who has proposed to open here will not do as well as they think they will. Thank you very much.
All right thank you. We have Nexiana Marie Sesma followed by Dominic Andres followed by Rebecca Bagajian
Before you start the timer, I just want to say that I rewrote my talk but most speakers got almost four minutes so I'm going to try to wrap it up to three but I would request the same extra allotment. Good evening Mayor and City Council. My name is Sienna Marie says I'm a former Santa Paula resident and professional who has worked across California in cannabis licensing compliance and community facing implementation for over eight years. I'm here to offer perspective grounded in real world experience, and facts, the amount of misinformation relayed today It's got me trembling. There were so many lies and so many falsifications of actual facts. Cannabis already exists in every community, including Santa Paula. The question is not whether it exists, it's whether cities choose to regulate it, benefit from it and can keep control locally or continue allowing surrounding cities to capture that value and continue allow illegal sales.
Local tax revenues support services and infrastructure without even raising taxes on residents. I also want to acknowledge something in your staff report. Yes, this is an involved process and it does require both time and specialized experience. What I've seen in cities that do this well is a thoughtful approach that combines regulatory understanding, community outreach, and clear communication so residents feel informed, they feel heard, and they understand the safety process.
License operators must meet strict state requirements, product testing, age verification of 25 years of age or older. Have strong security presence and ongoing compliance oversights. Teams do not have access to dispensaries. They just like they cannot go into a bar. There's IDs that can't go in with the gentleman's false identification or credit cards. They do not have access.
It's about safe access. Many adults and seniors use cannabis as a regulatory alternative to pain, sleep and quality of life. Dispensaries are extremely discreet that do not have blatant advertising in front of the outside by law. That is a law like your liquor over 11 liquor stores who not only advertise alcohol but also advertise all kinds of other things that are bad for children and human beings in general.
A ballot measure is a public survey that allows the city to hear directly from residents and make an informed data-driven decision, and to deter the illicit market that sells to the children. The dispensaries do not. I respect the different perspectives here. I'm simply sharing what I've seen works where regulation education and local control lead to better outcomes. And I'm gonna say right here that I am very proud of my 82 year old mother that is a cannabis consumer And she has never taken an opioid, she has never taken a pen identification and she's never taken diabetes drugs or anything that a doctor has ever prescribed her because she uses it for medicinal purposes. I stand here as a proud 61 year old woman who is a businesswoman and I do business with the cannabis operators throughout the state of California and not one of them are drug addicts.
Some of them have never even used cannabis. They are business people, they're professional And they are here to offer a service to the people who want legal and safe access to cannabis, not to children. They cannot even go into the dispensaries like they can go into your liquor stores and buy all those candies and sugars that give them diabetes. Let's take control of a plant medicine, not take control of people's livelihoods in a way that could benefit our community. Thank you.
Thank you, Sienna-Marie Sedna. We have Dominic Andres followed by Rebecca Bagajian Hello,
ladies and gentlemen of the City Council and audience. My name is Dominic Andres for the sake of sake of time I'll go straight to my point. I don't think our city should allow local retail sales in marijuana. However, I don' intend to focus on the substantial downsides of doing that You're likely aware that the heaviest use of cannabis in schools is among already high-risk populations, of which our city has a disproportionate number. And that local retail will likely increase positive perception of this potentially addictive drug among teens, a drug that greatly increases the risk of serious mental health disorders.
Instead I'd like to focus on the alleged benefits of bringing these dispensaries to Santa Paula. Two of the major benefits proposed earlier are these, the tax revenue that could be generated by the dispensaries and the increased convenience to local cannabis users. Of course, it's easy to see why the city would want more tax revenue or money that could be used for public projects and public works. It's also understandable that the city would like to make the lives of her citizens more convenient.
However, there is one fact that poisons both of these alleged benefits. It is that roughly 20% of marijuana users account for 70% and more of the profit of retail businesses. And who are these 20% of users? Daily or near daily users. By definition, people with a heavy cannabis habit about half of whom are clinically addicted that is by clinical standards addicted.
So regarding the first benefit mentioned above tax revenue since business taxes are roughly proportional to profits a substantial part perhaps a majority of the tax money we might get from this would be from addicts or heavy users 35 to 40% of that money would be directly generated by addiction just to emphasize this Statistically, any recreational marijuana business is making a third of its profit from exploiting clinically recognized addiction. And thus, a third of the tax revenue that pro cannabis users emphasize as a benefit would be from that same source roughly speaking.
Even if we got that money and even if it works out which people have discussed, it might not do want to build up our city on funds that come largely from the heaviest marijuana users from addiction and from those who bear the brunt of this drug's potential dangers and harms? I don't think any amount of money is worth getting As for the second benefit, those most affected by the decreased friction of local retail are those same heaviest users as their use patterns multiply the effect of even small changes to access. You know 10 minutes easier not walking down the street or something instead of ordering or instead of driving to another city.
Therefore lowering friction tends to increase use where it is already the highest and thus increase primarily overuse and discharge. To recap then, the two main benefits of bringing recreational dispensaries to our city are taxes funded by the exploitation of addiction and heavy use habits often in high risk populations. And a lowering of friction to the very users for whom added friction often moderates frequency. Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Andrews we have Rebecca Bagajian followed by Pedro Chavez followed by Anna Marie Grumman.
They told me Rebecca wasn't here so.
Rebecca is not here? Okay. Is Rebecca Bagagian here? Okay, we'll keep it here just in case she returns. Pedro Chavez? The other one.
Thank you. Good afternoon Council thank you for allowing me to speak my name is Pedro Chavez not the mayor but I did want to go on record that Pedro Chavez is against this ballot measure just for the sake of it. So I'm an immigration lawyer. I've been an immigration lawyer since 2019, where I was a staff attorney at Catholic Charities San Diego, the largest land port of entry in the United States and in the Western Hemisphere. I was their only Spanish-speaking immigration lawyer for about a year.
Started a nonprofit in Tijuana in 2020 that helps refugees find free lawyers. Been invited to speak on NPR, invited to teach at UCLA I have accumulated over 100,000 followers on social media and various platforms. People have called me an immigration expert. I would've left a long time ago if somebody had mentioned this in the other comments. Marijuana is the most dangerous thing to my clients, to the undocumented, to mixed status families, to people that have gained their citizenship through naturalization.
A month doesn't pass that I don't hear a consultation where someone has used marijuana once and they cannot answer question 26 of the I-485 application for a green card, where they are asked if they had ever violated the Controlled Substance Act. The Controlled Substance Act of 1970 makes marijuana a Schedule 1 drug. It is illegal under federal law. And one use, one admitted use of that drug renders somebody ineligible for a green card for the rest of their lives. I am a very good immigration lawyer. I cannot solve this problem.
I have DACA recipients that come to my office and I cannot do anything for them. I have people that have gained citizenship by lying and I tell them that they could be denaturalized. There's nothing I can do. I would prefer if you guys started a gambling ring in Santa Paula. I can fix that. I can fix a casino on Main Street, I can fix a ton of strip clubs on Main Street, I am a very good immigration lawyer.
I cannot fix a single use of marijuana. It doesn't matter when it happens There is no statute of limitations. It doesn't matter if it happened as a child, it doesn't matter how often it's an adult. This is the situation for mixed status families that cannot vote for you and because of marijuana use they never will be able to vote for you. That is what I deal with on a monthly basis.
I probably have over 100 more than that consultations where I've had told them very bad news that I cannot help them. As an immigration practitioner that means that I make less money so you can say that my Purpose for being here is also selfish. But I'm telling you right now, you guys are going to have lawyers look over this. If you choose to ignore this issue and focus only on the citizenship issue, your lawyers will have very good answers for you. But if you choose to fix on the mixed status families, on the undocumented, on the DACA recipients, on people that have gained citizenship through lying, your lawyers will either be disbarred or they won't be able to solve your problem.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chavez. We have Anna Marie Grumbin followed by John Proctor who will be followed by Francesca Grumbin.
2:08 – 2:1620 turns
Hi it's Anne-Marie Grumbine. I'm just coming back. I was here with my family seven years ago as
well. There should be five Grumbining cards in there so can we just combine them all together?
We're actually going to hold off on theirs because Gabe also owns one.
Basically, we are against bringing in
dispensaries in our town for the
recreational purposes and sales. At the end of the day, we agree with everybody who's spoken. It's been established obviously I think we all can agree that marijuana use in young people has a negative impact and that's been proven by study after study and that's indisputable that there is severe negative consequences on young people. So the question of whether the young people can get into these dispensaries They can access that.
That's kind of scooting around the issue, which is that when you as a society set a standard and say that something is okay for adults to do and should be legalized and brought into our town and say that that's okay because we're gonna make money off of it, you are sending a message to the youth in your town that that is an okay thing to do. And that message they absolutely will take from the adults, especially you are all obviously, you know, you are city council members. You are people that should be looked up to as mentors in our town and so they're looking to you as well to set a standard in our town and we have entrusted that to you.
And so for the sake of our children We're asking you to please consider that aspect of it, that it's not just about money and what you're going to gain. We have to talk about standards and what that sets in the negative impact that it has on our children.
Yeah. And just a few more notes on that. So it seems like it really comes down to Some of the other issues are distracting right like well access, of course there's access everyone has access. it's really a matter of the tax revenue versus the impact that will have on the Community that's really what it comes down to write all the other things aside. Because there are solutions and other things for those but it really comes down to is it worth it, right? Is it worth taking the money whatever that money is. It might be a little bit of money Usually this over exaggerate in terms of budgets of how rosy the picture will be for how much money you'll get for something I work with city staff so I know I know how projections work out in reality So there's always a projections and then there's a reality next year or two and they go well didn't really work out as we thought or hoped But it's the money and then the consequence of it.
And one of the things I think has been touched on a little bit, which is really important for us, is also the effect especially on young men that this has had. And the reality is my wife's brother is a psychiatrist in addictions, runs an addiction clinic as well as her father's psychiatrist so that they're thoroughly...
And we have five sons between the age of 17 and 24 who have been around this issue,
so. Yeah we're approaching it both from something that we've seen in our family all the five sons are older than our daughters here but has seen it affect young men even just from in terms of dip and you know energy and sort of love of life and the ability they have they're not now able to fulfill because of what marijuana can do Um, to them as well as, uh, psychotic episodes and things like that. That young men especially are very prone to the stats are there all the studies are there we know it from our side and as well even within the family of all these doctors and discussions that happened with it so. The reality is, you're going to increase the usage. And so the question is how many is it worth it per year of young men especially because they are at the highest risk?
Of having that little increase in marijuana or big increase in marijuana within the community what is that effect that's going to happen to the young men and especially our youth in our community because you are going to set the stage for it. It is going to increase and you are going to have more per year having serious bad reactions.
I would just like to add speaking to the hospital issue. I'm very, very sad and disheartened about the idea of losing our local hospital where my three daughters were born there. Absolutely loved it. I love our little hospital. We've been there for episodes. They literally saved our children's life in acute circumstances where we needed care. So I agree with the idea of saving the hospital but I will never think that a compromise should be made in this area for the health and safety of our young people to be sacrificed for that, even though we have absolutely taken great pride and had those services, those health saving services impact us.
We look for other ways to do that. So I do encourage you to please find other ways to also save our hospital and keep it in our town. Thank you.
All right. And we don't love Kmart as much but All
right, well then we started reading off from the hospital. I was gonna bring you back but so we have Annemarie Grumbine, right? We also had Francisca Grumbine. Okay. Then we have Anthony Grumbine. Okay. Isabella Grumbine and Teresa Grumbine. Alright. Well thank you all for being part of a public comment tonight. Thank you for your comments.
Oh, actually we're going to feed Teresa's time to Gabriel. He came down and talked to
you. He filled out his own
card? No but we still have like 10 minutes left so...
I'm gonna put you back at the end of the line if you just turn it in. Okay all right thank you.
All
right now we have John Proctor who is going to be followed by Josh Idley and we'll have Bruce Marshall
Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council and staff. I would like to recommend that you do go to this ballot with the caveat, it said something about a survey. If that is overwhelmingly one way or the other, you should make a decision whether you want to go forward with the ballot. I don't know if that's how this is working. By way of introduction, 73 year resident, my family goes back to the 1880s I've got real roots here. A lot of what we heard tonight, I just find conflicting messages with the idea that we don't want some of drug use or whatever regulated in an environment where it's controlled. It sounds like the subtext is here let's keep all the drugs in illegal channels.
Let's make sure that we keep shirts on the black market. We've heard many comments about Oh, it's easy for everyone to get stuff. So I guess if that's the prevailing wisdom that it should be all illegal activity, then you should not go forward with this but I recommend That the fairest way to do it is to get a public poll and that would be through an election.
If you think there's not overwhelming evidence through a survey, that it's not worth going forward. Thank you.
Thank You Mr. Proctor. Okay we have Josh Hidley followed by Bruce Marshall
2:17 – 2:224 turns
Thank you city council manager and staff. My name is Josh Hitler I grew up in the area brought my three kids up here in Santa Paula, they raised lambs for four H, we love this small town. I'm here to speak alone in considering this. Why is this issue coming up again. at the City Council meeting seven years ago. What's changed since then? I haven't heard any economic impact study that you guys have done, but a lot of talk about the potential revenue for this although very diminished from the years ago. We've heard very little about the potential crime health and other negative impacts from opening this up.
If you've ever known anybody that lives next to or near a dispensary, we had somebody talk about it earlier from Eagle Rock. You know that it increases crime. I have several friends that live in Ojai and have businesses near dispensaries in Ojai were around the change in Carpinteria when they started doing that and they have nothing but bad things to say about it. These places Required to have security guards, that's pretty great. Armed guards? I mean there's a reason for that.
We don't want that in our town. Why does everybody agree that a 500-feet buffer, maybe even 1,000 feet? Maybe that's good. Buffer from schools and churches and other things like that. There's a reason for that. This is bad for kids. It's bad for our town. We don't want it near things we like. We don't want it near things we wanna protect. Let's just not have it in our town at all.
Bringing this into Santa Paula will increase crime and danger to our kids. It'a cash business. Please, Vote to pay grassroots labs to assist in the ballot measure. I mean, that seems like a joke name actually. Don't vote to spend any more money on this to put this on the ballot. This is an issue in demand for the city for the community. Let people collect 10% signatures to put it on the ballot. You guys don't need to waste any money on this or any of our money on this.
We should not allow this industry here, and we should put a moratorium on this question. I don't believe we're considering spending any more time or money on it. Thank you.
Bruce Marshall followed by Paul Blewett who will be followed by 5A Weisbecker. Paul Marshall? Bruce Marshall? Bruce Marshall here. Thank you, sir.
Good evening. Most of the people that have been here before me have prepared remarks. I didn't even know I was going to be talking until I got here and started listening to things that were going on. I hear from everybody here is a great organized group when everybody's saying the same thing. No, no, no, it's terrible. It's terrible. All scared. I hear fear.
That's what I hear every speaker. I'm sorry to say it sounds like they're just terrified of reality of millions of people virtually every place that marijuana goes on the ballot and wins when he gets A broad spectrum of people to evaluate it and make a decision, guess what? It wins. And that's just the way it is. I checked before I came here and there are at least 12 liquor stores in the city of Santa Paula that dedicate themselves to selling spirits and wines and beers and everything.
Bonds and Superior and these other places. And then every little tiny store sells beer. Okay, well guess what? I don't drink. Personally, I don't drink so I walk by the beer. I walk by the wine. I walk by the stuff and it means nothing to me. I can have a guy with a push cart in front of my house. Beer! And I wouldn't buy it, okay? So this whole fear of oh if somebody sees it then they're going to buy it is ridiculous.
And guess what? Fillmore has legal fireworks right? Santa Paula doesn't. How many people from Santa Paula even the people that are opposed to this go to Fillmore to buy fireworks to bring them back to Santa Paula to throw them off? It's just ridiculous, this is like Reaper Madness 1934. That's what I hear! This panic, oh my god you know they're gonna have marijuana we're going to keep it out of the city and if we don't let them do it then guess what everything will be just fine and dandy well it's not people are getting their pot anyway if they want it they're going to get it people in dry states drive across state borders to get it Come on, put it on the ballot. Let people decide. This is an adult decision and let the adults decide.
Don't be afraid of what the people decide. Get out there and let people think.
Thank you. Thank you Mr. Marshall. We have Paul Blewett followed by Vibey Wisebecker and then Joe Hidley.
2:22 – 2:284 turns
Good evening, thank you very much for having us here. Like Bruce I didn't prepare remarks either, I just was thinking about this as I was sitting here listening and I came to Santa Paula in 1980 my parents moved here, I went to high school. We love this town we've been here off and on and we've been here for the last 10 years settled. Four of my six kids and their families have moved back to this town because they love Santa Paula they love What it is, this little town. Even with its roads, we'll have done Virginia Terrace and was like going through Lebanon but anyway, we love this town and we like the character of this town.
And for us, we are very much opposed to me and my children. And for the sake of my 10 grandchildren who live here soon as well. We do not want to bring retail marijuana into this town. We wanna prevent that from happening. I do, uh, I wanted to bring up one story that happened fairly recently. And that was in, I think it was November 18th of last year at about eight o'clock a fellow from Oxnard came to the dispensary in Ojai and went to Ojai for that purpose ended up carjacking A car and almost killed several people in Santa Paula in a chase that occurred there. I mean, I'm sorry, you know why? In the chase that occurred there as a direct result of his going to Ojai for the purpose of purchasing marijuana at that dispensary. I would hate for something like that to happen in the city of Santa Paula.
I love the character of this town. I feel safe here. I'm glad that my kids and my grandkids are here. And I think when you listen to the people that are making comments tonight one thing that you should keep in mind As many of the people that are against this, our family people. They have children, they have grandchildren here and they're very much opposed to this. And I think that as city council members you have to take that into account not the people that are here who are in the business of doing this or in the business of promoting it but the people who actually live here and are raising their families here. Thank you very much.
Thank You Mr. Blue we have Vibey Weisbecher followed by Joe Hedley
Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. I'm Bebe Weiss-Becker. I am a resident here at Santa Paula and a homeowner. I have an engineering background and I write artificial intelligence algorithms for a living. My husband and I moved here five years ago and we love this town and we love these people and I love that this is up for debate even though there are two sides that we can still talk about I'd like to offer a practical perspective on the cannabis dispensary in Santa Paula.
Cannabis is already here. The real question is whether it exists, whether it's regulated controlled or left in the hands of illegal market. Licensed dispensaries are among the most tightly regulated retail environments that require strict 21 plus ID verifications. Just to enter have security cameras face And they also face severe penalties for any violations, the businesses themselves.
In contrast, illegal sellers they don't check IDs and if we truly care about protecting our youth regulation is the safer path. We also have the ability to control where the dispensaries can be located keeping them away from schools and parks and neighborhoods this allows a system To design prioritizes community safety. So you have options, acknowledging some of the concerns that we've heard about cannabis dispensaries here in town.
So you already had this in addition to dispensary generate tax revenues, but you can reinvest that in our city and I'm preaching to the fire here. Support youth programs. You know, we're concerned about you here. Let's use that money and invest it in youth programs so that they are not attracted to these things. And also we're talking about regulations here and we should have a grown up conversation about what it is that we're talking about here. We're talking about a highly regulated industry that is bringing business to our town.
I think we should all remember that and try and internalize In seven years, things change. Contexts change, people change, environment change, politics change and in fact our very president is de-scheduling cannabis so I think we all should take heart to that. So it just comes down to a simple choice. Do we want an unregulated system with no oversight or have a controlled accountable one that benefits our community? That's something that we all need to consider. Thank you
Thank you. We have Joe Hidley, who's going to be followed by Al Escobedo.
2:28 – 2:4212 turns
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. My name is Joseph Hidley. I grew up in Santa Paula. I've spent most of my time here. When I was 16 or 17, my friends and We heard that weed was being legalized and distributed by dispensaries in Omaha and places like Oxnard. And we would go there and ask people of age to buy weed for us, and then bring it back to us. That has had a terrible impact on my life, and I was a child. So yeah, I've been struggling with addiction Since then, and I do not want that for a younger generation growing up in Santa Paula.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. We have Ellis could be done. I believe we have one more speaker card Madam Clerk from the Grumbine family. Okay. All
right. Some of these people live somewhere that I don't know The two people here that know what they're talking about, that's the mayor and myself. He was a police officer. I lived in the streets. You could get a gun, you could shoot somebody when he's coming to pick them up. If you want drugs, you can get them right now. If you want prostitution, you can do it today. I was raised in that. I'm not scared because I got raised there. I just didn't become a drug addict. I became one with my wife being the business owner but she wasn't there. My sister-in-law My mother-in-law was with the police department. How is that possible? There's people that are rich here, that I know and their kids are drug addicts. I was poor. My brother has fully tattooed.
I have no tattoos other than my back by last name because I had to put it. He never arrested me once. No one police officer in his time and I grew up on Las Piedras Park where people get shot and stabbed and I saw every day this weekend I was in car shows and I was in places, and they're doing heroin from a human. So Charlie, I don't do that shit. You could do it. I'm not doing it. That's, I don't get involved in that, but I do not going to say that. Don't know where to get it.
What's next door to me? 26 years, I was older. The med connect is next door. There's a church next door, there's a church next door. Why are you guys scared? My wife was scared. I'm not too scared of those people. My wife said, you're just not scared. I got raised with these people. I just didn't do what they did. Now what is it this man looks at me? He knows what these streets are about and so do I. He patrolled them and I ran the streets.
You want drugs? I could get you those drugs today. I'm not going to get them because that's the kind of person that I am, and I'm not going to defraud my mother-in-law. Not then and not today but the drugs are out there and they're there. You know where to pick them up, Carlos, and so do I. But here these people are scared with this. I am not supporting it because I don't do drugs but I know where to get them and I know what to give To get them, I just won't get them and I won't touch them. At the clinic next door, we did heroin. You want to see all the syringes that I have in my house that I picked up? They're still in the back and they're shooting right there. You say you want something? Charlie, I don't do that shit. They passed out late.
I had a call anymore. In 26 years, you know how much they offered me to buy razors to cut my hair? And these photos in the store, it's there. You just think you don't see it. I saw it for 26 years. I saw since I was an infant. I grew up on Las Piedras Park just like that man said. And I know where to get everything. You want a gun? I'll get you one before this meeting is over." I'm not getting it because I don't get involved with that, but every single person here lives in somewhere and land is Santa Paula. There's crime.
There will be crime all the time. Like you say, if you get it from him, you'll get it from me. You better get it from me because you're going to get it. If there's a drug addict, it's because you are a drug addict. I chose not to be and my wife chose not to be, but she had a sister And you know who she was. I wasn't that, and that is what it is in this town. So don't say there's crime. There will be crime and there will be drugs.
It's just who we want to be and where we end up.
Thank you very much. Now we have Gabriel Grumbine, and that is our last speaker, I believe, Madam Clerk. I'll call again Rebecca Bagajian if she returns. If not, that'll be the end of public comment.
Thank you, members of City Council. I was just informed of this meeting tonight. I didn't know it was happening but I was a resident of Santa Paula for about 15 years. My family spoke earlier tonight, the Grumman family and I just wanted to say with my friend Joe Hidley, I've also been addicted to marijuana for a while and it's caused tremendous emotional mental strife in my life, and I would not want that for anyone of the younger generation. And just because it's sold elsewhere doesn't mean that allowing it in town won't make it easier for kids to get. And I've had so much suffering from addiction in my life, and I don't want that for anyone else.
And
I just ask you to please take a stand for the people of this town who you represent, and don't allow this to enter the city. I care very much about the people here And I just wanted to stop by and give my opinion. So thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Grumbine. Calling last time Rebecca Bagation. If not, that'll be the end of public comment. We're going to take a quick five minute break and stretch our legs. Thank you very much. You do. Okay, no worries. No, no, take your time this is worthy of... Okay we're gonna go ahead and get started again if you'll find a seat. Did you happen to write opposed or not opposed? I did. Oh,
you did.
Oh good because
I lost my computer. Oh did you? Yeah. Is she meeting us? I was just
going to come.
2:42 – 2:495 turns
Okay,
welcome back. We're back on the record for action item 5A cannabis ballot measure discussion. There's been a presentation by Economic Development Director Jane Mason and our City Manager I'm going to open it up. And again, I want to thank all the public speakers who had sometimes opposing comments on the subject but truly appreciate your time that you take came out this weekend and it took a little longer than it normally would but it's a really important decision we'll have to make so thank you for your input and I'll open up the dais to count comments from council.
Council Member Chavez do you want to start or?
If I start, I have about five to seven minutes. So just forewarned.
Okay we're going to let Council Member Cornejo she's got a few minutes of comment that she'd like to share with us.
I've been thinking about this because it's been brewing for a long time, but and these are random thoughts. It's not a presentation start to finish, but it's just some of my thoughts of the things that I've been thinking about as we've been navigating this issue. First of all, I'd like to know how much city administrations and staff time has been spent over the past year on the cannabis issue?
Meeting preparation, discussions with consultants, research running ad hoc meetings. Staff discussions strategizing on putting cannabis dispensaries on the ballot in November. Including talking to the clerk's office, parks and rec for tonight's meeting. Consultation with the finance department, consultation with the police department probably work by our fellows from AmeriCorps. And I might add and I'm worried about it AmeriCorps Fellows has federal funding and using our fellows for this project, we put that very successful program at risk since cannabis is not legal at the federal level at this time. Our director of community and economic development had about $80 an hour plus benefits and city manager at about 110 an hour plus benefits when they're working together were spending well over $200 an hour for them to work on their projects Let's just say we average 125 an hour plus benefits and maybe 60 hours, probably more.
We've spent already eight to $10,000 on this getting to this point in order to push us on our city. Why are all these resources not being spent on economic development? The council has repeatedly placed economic development at high priority for the city, and yet that department limps along with unfilled positions and regularly upsets individual residents and developers for slow service on their projects which would largely improve our city.
Over my years on City Council I've spoken to a number of police officers some not all who say they favor cannabis dispensaries and again some not all Because of the revenue generated that would help pay for additional police officers. This is not an official position by the Police Department, but a desperation I detect to improve the department. They also, officers expressed privately their serious frustration at the lack of economic development in Santa Paula as they see that as a path forward to hiring the proper number of officers in our growing city. They're looking at all options.
Cities in the county that offer cannabis dispensaries are Ojai, Ventura, Oxnard and Port Hueneme. Less than half the population in our county. And yet they are all reducing or stopping approval of additional dispensaries because, as they are stating, the market is saturated and the revenue is not as high as when they originally started down this path. Simi Valley, Camarillo, Moore Park, Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Fillmore do not offer cannabis dispensaries.
Over half the county believes the negatives outweigh the tax revenue gained by having them. I've been approached by a few residents that do not like driving to Ojai or Ventura for the Canada's products that give them medical relief. My answer is within the past year, our city approved due to state mandate that cannabis be available for delivery If this delivery is not working for those in need, then we should investigate to see if service can be approved to save them trips out of the city. I'm not unsympathetic to the need and the fact that we could have deliveries and they should have deliveries here if they need it.
Let's address revenue per our staff report, Ohio's cannabis revenue from three dispensaries totals 160,000 a year or 53,000 per year per location in their city. Our staff recommendations have jumped from one dispensary on Main Street to multiple throughout the city. That revenue could easily be eaten up with administration regulation to capture the tax revenue and police department enforcement in the areas promoting cannabis.
What message does this send of our parents and our youth? Is it enough revenue to discount the concerns of hundreds, if not thousands of Santa Paulans that do not want cannabis promoted in our city? Is it enough revenue to justify bringing controversy to our community? Shouldn't we be focusing on plans and issues that we agree on, like economic development and the availability of good healthcare.
I beg staff and my fellow council members to think bigger than this. Spending all this time and resources for a comparably small financial gain and dragging our city into an issue that divides us is a disservice to our residents. We have other options. Cannabis dispensaries should be a last resort, not a priority. Lastly to my fellow council members, if you want this so badly why not just put this to a vote of our council? We don't need to spend all this time and resources on more consultants and push surveys to do the job we were elected to do. We need to get a backbone and take responsibility for these decisions.
Thank you Mayor.
2:49 – 2:597 turns
Remember there, there's two sides to this so let's listen to all kinds of comments please. Someone
else.
Good.
I understand frustration. I've been frustrated myself on economic development and we've been on the same page on that issue. However as a council, he went through a strategic planning process. That included talking about all available options for raising funds. We moved from having a standing, from an ad hoc committee to having a standing committee. So both Mayor Juarez and I have served on a committee trying to get answers to various questions regarding this issue.
I deeply disagree with my colleague here In particular, because to put this issue to rest once and for all that needs to be taken to the voters. The voters can decide all the energy that's spent on the issue. That's what democracy is supposed to look like. Use it, put it to the ballot and then put it to rest not going through a process of a council to make that decision. I think ultimately the people need to decide and answer the fundamental question do they want a cannabis dispensary? Go to the ballot, vote and I believe we should respect the will of the voters on an issue that's complex because we can see it from all different angles.
And so there's times when we have to put those questions up to the voter so they can make the decision about what kind of city they want to live in. My question to you is if this is an issue of morality and conscious You should be able to make those decisions personally, talk to your neighbors, rally support and do it at the ballot box. That's the ultimate straw poll that's gonna essentially set the tone regarding this issue neither make it happen or not make it happen but ultimately I strongly feel that the people need to makes a decision.
And yes we all were part of a conversation regarding making our committee a standing committee and we've done the work behind the scenes. Whether like it or we don't, we spent the time engaging with residents. Sometimes we agreed on something sometimes we don't but I love that the fact that we can come together and have dialogue about these issues be kind to each other about those issues and ultimately make a decision that's in the best interest of the city. In this case i believe that the best interest is for the voters to cement this into The reality, or else what's gonna happen is you're gonna get another council. They had to come in here and they have majority vote that's gonna make it happen by regulation. And I think the best way to cement and send a voice to anybody so when everybody now and in the future is to stand up and mobilize a vote and make that happen.
So at that can be cemented as a value for some of them.
Thank you customer chose consumer Nellis or likes mirror crossway Okay,
well thank you everybody for being here and thank you everyone who came up and spoke. I heard all of the concerns about our youth in our future and the comments that were made about if this were to pass as it means us as council don't care about our youth I'm a mom of three girls. They're 19, 16 and 12. I grew up here in Santa Paula on the east end of town on 14th Street. Viedras Park was a place where I hung out, rode my bike, scraped my knees when skating.
I had good and bad experiences at that park. There are some community members who have shared their experience here in Santa Paula in raising their children or growing up here or having grown up here and left and came back I think that maybe depending on our socioeconomic backgrounds and how we grew up or the different parts of Santa Paula, we all got a different version of this wonderful place.
I had some pretty unfortunate things that I saw growing up as a kid, that like anyone else could have steered me in a negative direction. Or I could have made the decision to follow people that were making those choices of smoking or not in middle school or in high school and I chose not to, that was a personal choice but now as a mom, I feel that my job is to educate my daughters the best that I can because I can't protect them from the world forever I'm grateful that as a council, we can sit and we can talk about things that we don't all agree on. And I don't have I don't feel that I have any say over what we do as a council or a city myself.
I'm grateful for the chair that I sit in and for the seat that I have on this council, but I talk about transparency and accountability and how I think us as a council have a responsibility to the people we serve. This is obviously a very hot topic for a lot of us But again, to me being a mom and raising three girls. My job as a mom is to educate them the best that I can and I can't be everything for my daughters. If I don't have an answer, I'll go out and seek it in my day work. I get to work with youth. I get to come back to our schools and I get to partner with tobacco use and prevention education which comes from our Ventura County Office of Education.
And an interesting take that we have is I remember the DARE program, you know, say no to drugs. That was a thing that was championed and what Tapo does is there's no judgment in the way that they speak for youth. It's all about education and our youth understanding the dangers of any drug and the consequences it may have on their mental wellbeing, physical wellbeing and long-term consequences can come with that.
As a council, we can't dictate what goes on in the classrooms or in our homes. As parents I'll speak for myself, I do the best that I can. In the role I sit in right now as a Councilwoman, Councilmember, I want to again say that as a council I'm grateful that we can have these conversations and agree or disagree whatever it is but we're able to talk about Whatever the topic is and we're able to, how do you say it?
Agree to disagree. And we can move on from whatever topic it is. I agree with Council Member Cornejo about the cost that comes with our staff putting time into this but I also agree with Council Member Chavez That we have a job to do, as a city and as a council. And whatever it takes for the appropriate steps to be taken so that like Council Member Chavez said this be cemented.
Then I feel that we should give our community the opportunity to do that. Whatever that may be. And if that means taking it straight to putting it on the ballot, then I'm just going to echo again what Council Member Chavez said and mobilize and encourage people to go out and vote. I understand this is a very hot topic but I don't want to be one of five people that make a decision right now that can be undone in a few years by another council who just comes and decides they don't care what anybody says, and they're going to do what they want.
So as you can all see it's a very tough spot to be up here as a Councilwoman. I didn't run for council because I had all the free time in the world But I did it because I care about my community. Before this, I served as a school board member and I've ran the youth center at Piedras Park. I ran a mentoring program for the district. I understand what it is to support our youth. I work with the County Office of Education and my work every day is in championing our students and their parents and providing the connections to resources that they need along with staff and our educators that serve our students.
I am a youth person on this council. I think that we all could agree that every time there's an opportunity to work or partner with students or our schools, I'm all about it. I hear the concerns as parents but again us as council, we can sit and make a decision one way or another which we're not going to be everyone's favorite. That's just how it goes with our job as a council member but Like Council Member Chavez said, another group of five people that get elected can come in and undo whichever way we go. But if our voters come out and speak and they cement something, it's something that put into place by voters then that could look different I hope for whatever it is at the community here in Santa Paula 1.
Those are my comments.
Thank you Council Member Novellos. Vice Mayor?
2:59 – 3:0517 turns
I want to ask how did you come across the consultant that was proposed in the staff report?
On the cannabis side, so much as of service to cities. So they're an expert in that field. We could use anyone but it was clear as the staff report says that Mr. Mason and I don't have the experience that we would need to really navigate this space. So I talked to somebody at the League of Cities and they recommended this firm.
So it's true that they help cities, but then they also advocate for the industry.
I don't believe so. That's not to say that they haven't been paid to do work in the industry, but most of their clients are
cities. When is the deadline for a language
Council would need to make a determination to place something on the ballot by your second meeting in June, at the latest.
Is that the final language of everything or is that just the decision? Like I'm just trying to understand we're at April 6th so if the council were moving forward with this are you saying we've got like six weeks
I believe that would be when you would need final, final language. The city clerk.
Vice Mayor just so that you are aware of what will have to happen if the council does decide to move forward with ballot measure, we have to have a resolution authorized by the full council that we can then take to the county before June 29th is that deadline. The county obviously recommends coming much earlier in case there's any kind of issues so you will have to come up with the ballot measure wording that will be included in that where we will then Supply everything required for a ballot measure at that time, if that is your choice to move forward on that. But I know there's a lot of things that are going to be happening well before then but as a clerk, that is the final deadline to have our resolution complete.
So
it would only be a few weeks to try to get the ballot language right if that were the direction that the council was wanting to go?
A few months from now, but only a few weeks if you were to do public polling. The ballot language itself is not terribly complicated. We would not be the first community to forge this path. So the question is nuanced If the council is inclined to place something on the ballot, the question is do you want public input about what they would favor or disfavor? What they would tolerate or not tolerate as part of that. So the ballot measure most of the language is going to be pretty boilerplate to most other communities that have permitted it.
What won't be is where you allow them how many you allow And any other regulations that you might want to place on the measure. And that's where the kind of, the attitude survey would be helpful.
But you have to have all of those decisions done in June?
Correct.
So what other work would the city not get done between now and then? I mean even if you have a reconsultant whoever it is
It would be a big undertaking. And that's why our recommendation, if the council chooses to move forward is to allow us to work with consultants that have experience in part because we just don't... We have limited time. So there's a lot that wouldn't get done if you were relying on Mr. Mason and I to do this.
Just for clarification in terms of process, If we put it on the ballot, if it goes to the ballot, shouldn't we wait and see what the people say? And then have an opportunity afterwards to determine through regulation how to. You don't necessarily have to go through this consultant option with all this public education, correct?
I think that's a question for your city attorney. I don't believe that is correct. If what you're putting on the ballot is just a litmus test, do you favor it or do you not? I suppose you could do that but It's my understanding you have to actually bring an ordinance forward. The voters have to know what it is they're supporting, it's not just a litmus question.
3:05 – 3:1218 turns
So you would have to bring forward an ordinance that would then be codified if the voters vote yes majority on them. The ballot question is very simple, it should be do you want Legal retail cannabis permitted throughout Santa Paula, subject to the regulations adopted by City Council by ordinance. And then there's an ordinance attached to this document that could be very specific or it could be general.
And the more general it is Unless it does what Council Member Chavez was talking about in terms of codifying exactly what the decision was.
Yes, correct.
Give me a second. Are you done?
She needs a second. Oh go ahead.
Can we talk about the option that was presented in the staff report regarding BBK? Regarding what? That's like another option. Because there's an option to go with this other company, right? Which costs a lot more but there's another option in the staff report. Can you talk about that other option?
So Mr. Mayor and members of the council, the options are To go from a very basic work with BBK to construct the language necessary to place us on the ballot and do very little else with it. We're not recommending that option simply because it seems like a good bit of effort for marginal effect. But that is an option, it's absolutely an option at the council. You could direct tonight that your law firm construct a ballot language that can be brought back to the council before June, that could be done very easily.
What we could use help with would be if the council doesn't favor doing a community survey would be still soliciting input from the community about Where they have concerns, do they not want this on Main Street? If it's to be permitted. Do they only want it in industrial zones? Do they wanna make sure that there's only two or three license, not 13 like Port Waimea had?
Those kinds of questions we could use more feedback on. And that's where this grassroots labs firm would help us in navigating that space, creating materials, FAQs and et cetera. But those are all options that the council has. We're not saying it's a one size fits all. So I hope that answers your question Council Member but if not we can dive into it further.
An option two, for instance sets higher survey firm to conduct local payment survey. We turn to council to consider next steps based on results. Strong support considered adopting an ordinance. Moderate support place measure on ballot.
So what Mr. Mason was suggesting is if you did a survey And we bring back the results of that survey. This would be a survey probably of three or 400 registered voters, most likely to vote in the general election. It would be a random poll. The survey firm would come back with the results and if those results were overwhelmingly let's say negative then council could say you know what? This community doesn't want this. We're not moving forward and you make that decision, you put it to bed.
If the community, if the survey results Remarkably positive, you could place it on the ballot or you could say let's just adopt an ordinance. If it's 50-50 or somewhat neutral what Mr. Mason was suggesting is use that then to place it on the ballot and let the voters decide. So those are just like the illustrations that we were laying out as options that the council has.
I just want to make sure I understand whether it comes back if we do a survey like that and whether it comes back in favor or against as a council, we can still adopt an ordinance using those responses?
Correct. At any time, a majority of the council could look to adopt an ordinance. It would require public hearings and publication And as council member Chavez was saying earlier tonight, it could be overturned by
a
future council.
But to say that the whole purpose of this is to have input from our community? That would be one of the options in here. It's just a survey and then us adopting an ordinance.
Yes, that could be an option. Council Member Cardinal.
A couple of things, I'm worried about surveys geared towards ballot measures because they end up asking the questions that support the end game which is to put it on a ballot. I don't think 300 people is enough of a sampling we've already heard by my count of these totals of people who come here and brought lists of people who have signed pretty close to 2,000 people So I would think that if you're gonna try and overturn that opinion, you're gonna need to survey 5,000 people.
I just don't think 300 people being from an outside firm who is doing push surveys to ask the right questions, get the right answers to get it on the ballot. I'm very concerned unless we do it just right. And so therefore I'm not interested And I'm also concerned that we have not been spending more time working with the over $4 million a year that we're getting from Measure R to do some of the things that we need to do. If we have higher priorities that we are not addressing, you need to look at our budget.
We don't need to look at tearing our community apart and having a fight from April until November over this issue. Why are we doing something that's going to have people fighting over this? We have so many things that unite us. We're such an amazing community. There's so many positive things that we can be working on together, I think we're all going to regret the atmosphere that this is gonna cause between April and November. And I'm very sorry about that.
Thank you, Council Member Pernell. Vice Mayor Croswell, are you ready to continue? If not, I
can.
3:13 – 3:226 turns
I come with a history of law enforcement here in the city and I could tell you stories of how way back in the 80s and 90s Santa Paula had a really bad reputation for gangs drugs and just crime in general And you can attribute that to a lot of things, the culture and people growing up. But I also recall at that time we had as many bars as we had churches and now I think we have one actual bona fide bar so I don't know what the correlation is to that but I'd always had...
People have heard me say that I've always had the mindset in speaking to people that marijuana was a gateway drug My opinion on that has changed, but not the fact that you have people with addictive personalities. It occurs every day to different people for different reasons whether it's PTSD or mental or whatever. That's where the safeguard of families should come into play on that. I'm not gonna sit up here and tell people how to run their families but some of it is a personal choice.
A real quick question for Mr. Singer before I continue and that's, I know this is a construction project so I don't know that we're obligated to have bought to bid for the company that was going to do the survey or was it a sole source kind of thing?
That's correct it's a professional service if the council didn't want to use this firm we can go out to bid seeking qualifications and making a selection process Take longer than the time frame we have available. So, right there's no requirement under your purchasing ordinance to
do that. Thank you. And when we started the cannabis committee and then it became a standing Cannabis Committee. You know we had parameters what was our mission was to go in and see what was best for the city. Way back when when we started doing their research with the Green Mile, the projections are really high. And I think at one point it was like 4.2 million and now the projections from Wene'mu is about 900,000.
Members of the public have talked about the way you know it seems like that intensity of money coming to a city has declined tremendously So I don't know, is it worth the cost of everything that we've done for the benefits that we're going to reap someday? I'm talking a little bit about the perception of our city. We want to be a destination city. Do we want it to be known as a place to buy cannabis? I am not sure.
And as I said before, I was a police officer and so I've seen a lot of things. And my opinion for the longest time has been no to cannabis. It changed because I see need and the need is governed by medicinal marijuana or it can be delivered. I think right now we have dispensaries that are close enough that if you want it, Whether or not we want our city to be a destination city to come by your cannabis products, I'm not sure. But again getting back to the standing committee When we met, there was all the options. And as I mentioned before, the two extremes are not endorsing an ordinance or producing one or producing one. Those are the extremes right here in the staff report it writes on behalf of the campus standing committee staff or the city council take the following actions and it goes into the things we can do.
We're not limited tonight to making that decision this council right now tonight could say we're gonna keep the ban on it Or we're gonna put it on the ballot, or we're gonna do the research. There's just a bunch of options and I'm quite frankly leaning to the fact that initially I thought give it to the voters because that's what we did with Measure T. That's what we did with Measure R and overwhelmingly people supported it. And they came to pass and quite frankly just like at the state level this could quite frankly pass citywide 10% of the voting sampling. It could definitely pass and it'll send a message go ahead and enact it.
If it came back with a low approval rating, you could not even put on the ballot. But on the other hand, if it came back with a tremendously high approval rating, you can either put it on the ballot or just enact the ordinance right there. Don't worry about the extra $25,000. I am right now leaning towards not endorsing this, not moving forward just because I don't know that we want to be known as yet another city that engages in the sale of cannabis but I would like to hear some more from my fellow council members.
I'll add something in terms of this process the option one it's called the basic approach Council directs placement of the cannabis measure on the November ballot. Council directs staff to place ballot measure, works with BBK to establish ballot language. Staff prepares facts and fiscal analysis. City clerk coordinates ballot process and conducts election, right? That's the most basic approach to this.
We're not gonna cement this issue until the voters make a decision. And so I think it's in the best interest that goes directly to the ballot. Why are we doing surveys? You know, there's not enough of a sampling anyways. We need to just go to the voters and have them voted no or yes. And if they vote yes then we have some work to do but if they vote no then it's cemented and it's not going to come back.
I think at the end of the day, I feel like people need to make that decision.
Thank you Council Member Chavez. Vice
Mayor? One thing I do want to clarify on this Ad hoc versus standing committee. I actually argued that we abolish the whole thing, but there was a desire from some council members to continue that conversation and so I said at a minimum then it needed to be a standing committee so that those meetings would be agendized and members of the public could attend because the length and duration of an ad hoc committee is limited and the ad hoc had exceeded its work as an ad hoc committee Which doesn't need agendized meetings. So that was part of my lead transition to having a standing committee, was because there wasn't a majority of the council at the time that were willing to completely get rid of the committee.
But at that point then there had to be accountability to the public to be able to attend those meetings. I have I really wish I could eloquently talk about this right now, but that's just not gonna happen. I am concerned about there being unintended consequences for us moving this forward. I know people who have thought, you know what? It's okay, I'll just take it, go meet a party.
In college, it was fine. And then they went to apply for a job and they were honest on their application. So I just feel like there hasn't yet been enough education for our young people in our community to be able to make decisions Us putting this out, and maybe the majority of the public would say yes. Maybe they'd say no, I don't know. But I'm very concerned that the messaging around it wouldn't fully grasp all the issues just like the immigration lawyer had talked about people who are naturalized citizens who maybe had to lie on their application if that ever came out.
They could lose their status. It could harm their families. There are things that I think people don't fully understand yet about this issue. And, I just have a lot of concerns. It's a very short timeline between now and when this would have to go on the ballot if you were putting it forward. You would wanna make sure you had crossed all your t's and brought all your i's.
And then make sure that you had the right information going out about And I'm just, I don't think that we have that. And I know some people up here have said well, using our personal views to represent what the citizens might want and I understand that. I also know that we were elected to represent the residents of this community. And even people that I know that support to be able to make their own free will choices on this topic have told me, yeah.
But I don't know if I want to discuss raising my community because they see the character of Santa Paula as a family friendly and a vibrant place and it has that small town feel. And even if they support individuals using him, they don't all support their actual being The town, especially downtown. So I just have a lot of concerns.
3:22 – 3:2812 turns
Other council members.
This was originally brought to us some years ago when we were given a list of several revenue opportunities for our city. That through what has been happening countywide and watching what other cities are doing, looks like at this time is not such a great revenue opportunity for the consequences of having our community arguing potential concerns of parents. Real concerns I don't want to discount the fact that we probably have as I said one to 2000 people who already care enough about this issue that they've come to us and said please don't.
It matters and I. Other people's opinions matter as well, I understand that. But this matters a lot to the people who've come to us and it doesn't... This isn't going to stop others from using it and I fully support making sure that medicinal medical use of cannabis is delivered properly and is available to the people that need it. I don't have a problem with that.
I just feel that for all the chaos that this brings And the potential problems that we don't see, whereas Council Member Crosswhite said potential unintended consequences. It's not worth the risk or the amount of revenue that we would get.
Thank you, Council Member. At a recent council meeting there was public speaking and one of the members got up and seemed very upset in the fact that we have zoning in the blue for commercial areas where If the city were to enact a recreational canvass, it would be limited to those areas. And I remember the comment from the speaker is that we don't want to be put in timeout in the blue area. We want to be downtown because we're a respectable business.
Again, the unintended consequences, do we want to open that door where our downtown merchants now Are going to be up in arms trying to promote their business, promote tourism, the beauty and history of Santa Paula. And now we get a new fight with those that want to move their cannabis business downtown. I don't know what that would take obviously would take a rezoning or whatever it might have been as a variance from the councilor from the city. But again, I don't know if we wanna open that door because somebody found a walkthrough. That's just my comment.
I have a question to our city manager. When is the deadline by when we'd have to decide if it's going on the ballot or not, June?
Yeah, the 29th of June.
So I'm the newest council member and I've never been to one of these meetings but was it because of the way that the committee meetings happened that this wasn't brought up until now as a special meeting
I'm wondering why we're bringing this up to the council?
Well because i'm thinking of the timeline that is being given for all of the work that's being talked about, like for it to go on the ballot and whether we'd use a third party or what that means as far as time. If that was known, was there a reason why we're just doing the special meeting now? That's what I'm wondering. I don't know who that question is
from. Can you share with the council member the timeline in terms of meetings that we've had and so on for the last three years?
Yeah, I mean, the effort really ramped up in the fall and the committee Tried to get information, took a little while for staff to produce that. We had a series of meetings, the holidays were in there. I mean it would have been helpful to go faster but the availability both committee members and staff made things move slowly so-
I'm not asking you to place blame on anybody. I'm just wondering because I've had nothing to do with that committee. Right. So I want to understand Because that's a really short timeline to do something right. Whether it's an outside group or whatever we want to call it, whatever process we want to choose. And I hear what my fellow council members are saying.
I understand the, you know, do we want to be added to that list or not or concern around it? But also hearing that timeline and I don't know what then the right or the best thing to do is, because are we going to be hosted by this big problem and what it's gonna do for the conversations we've had? If we only have from now until June, it's already April. So what does that even look like? What would it cost them? Are we really gonna do justice to the topic? Because it is an important topic.
I donno if that's a question or just a comment by me but I'm just trying to understand
It's a point well taken. There's not a lot of time between now and when the decision would have to be made for this November's ballot. It was the committee's intention to make sure that the full council had an opportunity to do it with enough time that could be done, but it is tight. If you favored Council Member Chavez' suggestion of going with the basic, we have plenty of time.
3:28 – 3:368 turns
So Monica, to our attorney for a matter of protocol. This is basically giving staff direction on what's in the staff report but we're not bound by just items one two and three even the council at this moment could say put it on the ballot or draft an ordinance or keep the ban correct? Those are still options
So the council tonight is discussing whether or not to place a ballot, uh, measure on the ballot. If there's going to be a suggestion or direction for an ordinance through the traditional means where it comes out of city council, then that's a separate topic. Okay. But tonight the council can't decide yes or no we do not want to place this on the bill.
or do the research?
Or the incidental.
Okay, all right. We can continue with discussion.
If I can say just a few things. Of course. One, I just want to ensure that folks understand that we have a tough choice in terms of regulation and setting policy. This issue has been discussed three years now I think it's, in my view, it's been exhausted to a point where why are we afraid of having the voters decide that thing? I don't understand why we would be against that simple act because that would set in stone the will of the people.
And then something that is, in your words, divisive, oh, That personal choice of one going into a ballot and just making that choice, I think that would serve us well in making sure that all the voices are heard not just one segment of the population. It's people that are in favor that reach out to me that don't feel comfortable coming to a council meeting.
So you can represent a dynamic of people that's extremely diverse. And so what a better way than our own democracy in allowing that decision to be made, because it's about getting our citizens and voters out to make sure that they express what they're willing to fight for. I think there's enough passion of the community to be able on both sides to come to the ballot box and make that decision. I do want to reiterate that I tend to be realist and try to be pragmatic I'm not going to live in a bubble.
Cannabis is legal, right? On December 18th President Trump signed Executive Order 14370 aimed at simply assigning to the Attorney General that they reclassify it, the drug itself, right? We aren't getting zero zero for what the existing system is providing, which is right now. I don't think any of us are in favor of people doing drugs. Okay? However, there are people that use cannabis for medical purposes of recreation.
If you look at the numbers and you look at the age groups it isn't just smoking. There's creams lotions your grandmother could be using it right or arthritis We have to think about representing everyone. And the question is, should they have access to that locally so that we can have the Robin Hood effect from something bad that we think that many of us think is bad? Let's take some of that revenue and put it to hiring three new police officers to take care of the harvest because a harvest has increased our population.
We have zero investment essentially in anti-drug programs. We don't do anything now So this talk about, wow, this is gonna be a huge issue. Well we're not mobilizing about the 31 faculty dispensaries that already exist that are within 500 feet of the school. We don't talk about those things that are in our faces because you wanna live in this bubble of this idea that doesn't really exist.
I believe in being pragmatic about using resources for the betterment of society, in this case our police department to fund half of those three officer positions. To fund our parks and recs because having more recreation for our young people is a trend from there getting into. So I just want to make sure that I understand folks feelings regarding this issue.
We have to, at the end of the day make tough choices about regulation and in an environment that's legal we're still being decriminalized and we're not getting anything from it. We can turn a blind eye and it's going to continue because we have done nothing about illegal drugs that exist already right? How many drug busts have we had in the last two or three years?
You don't even have a department to deal with Drugless, right? Because we were blind to it. We go, we don't see it all. We live in this bubble. I think if I feel that the voter at the end of the day will tell us whether we're right or wrong and in this case with such a visible issue, a complex issue, I think at the end of the day that people should tell us no, we didn't. We want it on yes, we want it.
Right? I think, I would recommend that we go with the most simplest choice. The ballot language has been repeated across the state. Anything new we have checked. That can be recreated. So it's not much that has to be done but let's just ask people and have them decide so that we can do the right thing because if they say no then that sends a clear message. That's not what we want in our community Right now it's just based on our five individual voices, hearing from different parts of the community. But let's hear about, let's hear from everyone.
Let me just follow up real quick Council Member O'Connell regarding the action that has been taken by the President to reduce it. It's already legal in California. Marijuana is legal, but federally it's still known as a Schedule I drug. Federally it's not allowed. In fact that's why a lot of banks can't transport or have money except under certain circumstances from cannabis retail and sales.
So that's the clarification on that. I do have a question about the ballot language If this council were to say, staff go forth and put together a ballot initiative obviously we write the language for it in the proposal for passing. Who writes if allowed the opposition? Sometimes you'll have the opposition language. We wouldn't be required to do that or could somebody how does that work in a ballot?
I'll let the city attorney respond but Accompanying the ballot measure would be an independent analysis that the city attorney would write. And then any citizen group could come forward with a rebuttal against or a message in favor.
3:36 – 3:4425 turns
The council could designate somebody to take a position on the council's behalf, or just have a member of the public submit opposition argument or support argument.
Thank you comes from Cornell you had a couple,
not just a couple comments and let me think back on what they were sorry. We have had this committee, but this is the first chance we've had to even discuss this. They have been meeting for three years and we have not. And I think it's too soon. And to talk about two or three points sitting here if I can make myself clear about it. Divide ourselves into districts so that each of us has the opportunity to listen to everyone in our district and be able to have the ear of all of our constituents, and be able to act on their behalf. We could eliminate city councils if we're going to put everything on balance.
You know, we could vote for everything. We can have the people vote on everything. But to pick one that is so controversial and has so much concern on both sides, where we've heard from the people that are concerned that do not wish this in our community. We've heard from the people that wish they have access. I do see that those who want access have access. It's not super convenient but perhaps that's not as great a cost As the people who wish that it not be in the community, affecting as they see their families and their ability to raise their families.
So this is a very complicated issue. It's just come up to us. I was pretty upset to see that it was coming to us not as a discussion but as a decision on a ballot measure. I think that came awfully fast for we have not even had a chance So I just feel like it was almost being pushed at us as a done deal. This is where we're headed, this is what's gonna happen and I just feel that had enough public comment to hit the break here.
We didn't want it before, we may not want it now, please don't do this to us. And so I just don't wanna see it on the ballot.
Not
really
at this time. I don't think that at this point, I'm inclined to move forward with this tonight.
Okay so anyone else? I mean, we have like we can get consensus or if it comes down to it somebody can make a motion and whether it's passed or defeated. I'm hearing from council members that myself included that probably shouldn't go forward with the ballot measure nor the I think if I understand vice mayor move forward with the ballot measure but I'm not sure about the research was that also your discussion?
Personally I don't feel that that's where I want us to spend our time or money right now
Read
the one.
Okay, so I'm hearing three council members that are opposed to moving forward with both the research for the ballot initiative and or writing the research and or writing the ballot initiative language. And here too that may be for it.
I think it'd be great if we go on record. Sure. Because that closes the issue.
Sure, absolutely and so I guess my I would write I would suggest it for me somebody wants to move like example the staff direction is like one provide directional staff so we can move on that and then it's either passes or is defeated.
I'll jump in. Thank you. Last three years of conversation I'd like to make a motion that we go directly to put the item on the ballot in regards to cannabis and let the voters decide. Yes, sir?
So just one, you don't want to include two as part of it or just do one at a time? Just do one at a time. All right so let's move by council member on...
What do you mean?
Well because each of these is a different direction. So the first is provide staff, second is a public opinion survey and then the third is to utilize that grassroots lab.
Can we just read option one basic approach council directs placement of cannabis measure on the November ballot?
And then we'll decide if we proceed. Yeah.
I motion that the council directs placement of cannabis measure on the November ballot. Option one.
Roll-call vote Moved by Pedro Chavez · Seconded by Nelson
Show transcript
No. Second and make a comment, vote no. Go on record. My God!
Let her make the decision.
Okay I'll second it and then we go into discussion.
All right so this has been moved by Council Member Chavez to move forward with recommendation number one provide direction to staff and seconded by Council Member Nelson. I'll open up for discussion from the council.
I think where my like uncertainty lies is not in me Feeling like all of the made possible misinformation or lack of is something that I am aligned with, or I agree with. I think then it comes back to education. My issue is like council member for networks that I feel like are being a council member that this is the first time I'm being approached with this and we're pushing it as hard as it's going on a ballot.
That makes me feel very uncomfortable because I feel like as a council, we haven't had enough time to have conversation. I've had a lot of community members come to me and tell me one way or another. I don't think that this is a topic I concentrated any conversations I've had on. I talked to people about a lot of other concerns around the police department, or different departments in the city, or other things that we should address. And being a council member, we have really hard choices to make but I really hoped that before we got to this point tonight, we could have more conversation on what this meant.
I just do feel so uncertain because it feels like it's either you jump off the cliff or you don't with putting it on the measure or not. I don't know how I feel about it just being so straightforward. I feel like we're skipping some steps in conversation Just that, I feel like it deserves more conversation for us to be able to talk about these things like we've done for other difficult topics. And I don't think we're getting that. All
3:45 – 3:4937 turns
right, anyone else?
So where does that take us in terms of committee since Mr. Mayor you sit on the committee through the chair? Where do we go?
Well, we're
gonna-
Call
for the question. Well there's- Just we're done then right or is this going to continue? No, no. We're in discussion. I'm saying in general are we going to continue on wasting time on discussion if we're not willing
to stay on topic?
We're in the
middle of a motion so yeah but you're going on too.
The solution of a standing committee is a separate topic.
Okay Council Member Cunillo? Council Member Chavez? Okay, then it's been moved by Council Member Chavez to approve recommendation number one in its entirety and then seconded by Council Member Cornelis. Madam Clerk would you please do a roll call vote please?
Roll-call vote Failed 1–3 Moved by Pedro Chavez · Seconded by Gabby Ornelas moved by Council Member Chavez to approve recommendation number one in its entirety and then seconded by Council Member Cornelis. Madam Cler · 1 under review
Show transcript
I have a 1-4 no so that does not pass and I have that down as option one and I'm trying to understand if you still planned on doing option two and three on here
Well, I think that since that is a recommendation. I would entertain a motion if anybody wants to recommend or move up number two.
What would be the point of doing that if you just killed one out already?
Well, because it's a totally separate direction. One is write the ballot initiative and
that was to assert- I would just point out that although it didn't say it in the staff report, the reason it was in the order is kind of meant if you didn't move forward with one there wouldn't be the necessity for
that yet. But it doesn't say that cuz it says and. No,
it should have said
or
and if
then. Yeah, I saw that at the end with a semicolon and And then or if, yes.
May I recommend that a motion be made whether to adopt staff's recommendation 1, 2 and 3? And then council can vote no if that's their opinion and then make a second motion to decide whether or not to place a
ballot. Point of order, one has already been defeated. So should we just say I would entertain a motion to approve recommendation number two and three?
Just because staff recommended doesn't mean that we have to adopt it, correct?
Correct. It's just a
suggestion for
a motion.
Yeah. Why do you have to authorize the City Manager Security Financial Public Opinion Poll Survey? That's number two.
Right.
No action on the item is action.
Right, okay so I entertain a motion if there's none then it dies for lack of a motion so all right item number two then die anything else from our legal?
Point of clarification can you share if it would be appropriate this time to dissolve the committee?
It is not it is not. Okay
And I would like to clarify that even though the committees has existed for three years, we certainly didn't have regular meetings. There was months when we didn't have a meeting so again just for the public's benefit, a standing committee and you know add on committees, you should meet regularly in.
Why did why was there not regular?
I truly appreciate the public's input this evening and time.
Thank you for your comments and your adherence to not booing or clapping or whatever. We appreciate it. And with that, we're going to go ahead and adjourn the meeting this evening at 10-12 hours. Thank you. We're adjourned.