Hello Honorable Supervisors,
Accountability has long been requested from the Board for MCD operations, policies and procedures both regulatory and adopted on the fly by the MCD Director of the time. It is beyond time for the Board to do the difficult task and ask, specifically, why other jurisdictions with smaller teams are able to get more permits issued than Mendocino's Department of Cannabis. How do other jurisdictions get more grant money out faster to more applicants with less overhead than the MCD? How do other jurisdictions manage to treat their applicants with grace, respect and consistency, without blaming the applicants for the department's sluggish behavior. When the Planning and Building department, with fewer hires than requested by the MCD, can process and complete more than 3000 permits a year, why can the MCD not handle 800 without continually pointing fingers at applicants, some of whom have been asked to re-file their applications three or four times over?
Further, I would like you to take a quick glance at the budget/s submitted by the MCD for this meeting. They are formatted in such a way that it is almost impossible to relate the sums of money requested with the use for those funds. Such documentation would be immediately declined by the MCD and the applicant refused. Will the MCD's budget/s be similarly refused?
Will the Board hold the MCD accountable for the lack of permits being renewed, for the portal'd applicants being ignored instead of permitted, for applicant documents that 'expire' during the MCD's delay, for lost grant opportunities that had no good reason to be lost beyond the MCD's failure to incorporate requested aspects of the grant itself (such as feedback incorporation and building barriers instead of the state recommendation to reduce barriers.)
Again I ask that the BoS hold the director accountable for the department's lack of discernible progress and loss of an estimated 2 million dollars in grant funding with this performance evaluation and further, refuse to pour more direct grant funds after the ones she's already spent without significant forward progress.
Thank you.
Please see the attached letter MCA sent to Governor Newsom and DCC Director Elliot requesting urgent intervention to prevent the vast majority of locally licensed operators from being removed from the program due to programmatic and administrative failures that have been completely outside of their control. Significant, immediate changes are needed locally while State issues are being addressed through the legislative cycle.
By every observable metric the actions of the Mendocino Cannabis Department have failed to meaningfully move permitting forward, while at the same time delaying much needed grant funding from waiting licensees. We are aware that many local operators are concerned about retaliation from the County and MCD and therefore are hesitant to speak up publicly. We represent the voices of over 100 of your locally licensed cannabis businesses. For how long will the Board tolerate and endorse this failure? We urge you to act immediately to course correct the administration of the department to get operators licensed.
Hello Honorable Supervisors,
Accountability has long been requested from the Board for MCD operations, policies and procedures both regulatory and adopted on the fly by the MCD Director of the time. It is beyond time for the Board to do the difficult task and ask, specifically, why other jurisdictions with smaller teams are able to get more permits issued than Mendocino's Department of Cannabis. How do other jurisdictions get more grant money out faster to more applicants with less overhead than the MCD? How do other jurisdictions manage to treat their applicants with grace, respect and consistency, without blaming the applicants for the department's sluggish behavior. When the Planning and Building department, with fewer hires than requested by the MCD, can process and complete more than 3000 permits a year, why can the MCD not handle 800 without continually pointing fingers at applicants, some of whom have been asked to re-file their applications three or four times over?
Further, I would like you to take a quick glance at the budget/s submitted by the MCD for this meeting. They are formatted in such a way that it is almost impossible to relate the sums of money requested with the use for those funds. Such documentation would be immediately declined by the MCD and the applicant refused. Will the MCD's budget/s be similarly refused?
Will the Board hold the MCD accountable for the lack of permits being renewed, for the portal'd applicants being ignored instead of permitted, for applicant documents that 'expire' during the MCD's delay, for lost grant opportunities that had no good reason to be lost beyond the MCD's failure to incorporate requested aspects of the grant itself (such as feedback incorporation and building barriers instead of the state recommendation to reduce barriers.)
Again I ask that the BoS hold the director accountable for the department's lack of discernible progress and loss of an estimated 2 million dollars in grant funding with this performance evaluation and further, refuse to pour more direct grant funds after the ones she's already spent without significant forward progress.
Thank you.
Honorable Supervisors,
Please see the attached letter MCA sent to Governor Newsom and DCC Director Elliot requesting urgent intervention to prevent the vast majority of locally licensed operators from being removed from the program due to programmatic and administrative failures that have been completely outside of their control. Significant, immediate changes are needed locally while State issues are being addressed through the legislative cycle.
By every observable metric the actions of the Mendocino Cannabis Department have failed to meaningfully move permitting forward, while at the same time delaying much needed grant funding from waiting licensees. We are aware that many local operators are concerned about retaliation from the County and MCD and therefore are hesitant to speak up publicly. We represent the voices of over 100 of your locally licensed cannabis businesses. For how long will the Board tolerate and endorse this failure? We urge you to act immediately to course correct the administration of the department to get operators licensed.
Sincerely,
Mendocino Cannabis Alliance
e: info@mendocananbis.com