CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL | |
PUBLIC COMMENT | |
CLOSED SESSION ITEMS/CONFLICT OF INTEREST DECLARATION | |
RECESS TO CLOSED SESSION | |
CALL TO ORDER / FLAG SALUTE / ROLL CALL | |
CLOSED SESSION REPORT | |
PUBLIC COMMENT | |
AGENDA APPROVAL FOR CITY COUNCIL | |
CONFLICT OF INTEREST DECLARATION | |
PRESENTATIONS | |
1. Quarterly Employee Recognition |
|
2. Down Syndrome Awareness Month Proclamation |
|
3. National Community Planning Month Proclamation |
|
CONSENT CALENDAR AGENDA | |
PUBLIC HEARINGS | |
7. Adopt a Resolution Granting Special Use Permit No. 21-23 for the Tree Factory’s Day of the Dead Celebration with Ancillary Food Trucks, Vendors, and Live Entertainment | |
8. Annual Development Agreement Compliance Review and Finding of Exemption From CEQA | |
RECESS THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING AND CALL TO ORDER THE SUCCESSOR AGENCY TO THE PORT HUENEME REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY AND THE HOUSING SUCCESSOR AGENCY SPECIAL JOINT MEETING | |
ROLL CALL | |
BUSINESS ITEM | |
9. Joint Resolution Regarding Property Conveyance | |
ADJOURNMENT OF THE SUCCESSOR AGENCY TO THE PORT HUENEME REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY AND THE HOUSING SUCCESSOR AGENCY SPECIAL JOINT MEETING | |
RECONVENE CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING | |
CITY MANAGER COMMENTS AND REPORTS | |
COUNCIL MEMBERS’ REPORTS AND COMMENTS | |
REQUEST FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS |
Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to the closed session portion of the City Council meeting. | 00:01:53 | |
I'm calling this meeting to order. The time is now 5:30 PM. | 00:01:59 | |
Madam Clerk, can you please take roll? | 00:02:02 | |
Council Member Gamma. | 00:02:05 | |
Here. | 00:02:07 | |
Council Member Hernandez here. | 00:02:08 | |
Council Member McQueen Lushan here, Mayor Pro Tem Perez here and Mayor Martinez present. | 00:02:10 | |
We will now hear public comments soon, participants. | 00:02:17 | |
Please use the Raise your Hand feature if you'd like to comment. You will have 3 minutes to provide comments. | 00:02:20 | |
Madam Clerk. | 00:02:25 | |
Do we have any public comment tonight? | 00:02:26 | |
No public comments for closed session. | 00:02:28 | |
Mr. City Attorney, can you please read the closed session item into the record? | 00:02:30 | |
Martinez There are two items of business on closed session for tonight. There's public employee performance evaluation of the City | 00:02:35 | |
manager pursuant to Government Code Section 54957 B One. | 00:02:39 | |
And then public employment employee performance evaluation of the City Attorney pursuant to the same code section. | 00:02:44 | |
Thank you, Mr. City Attorney. | 00:02:54 | |
Council will not will actually. | 00:02:55 | |
Do any council members have any conflicts to disclose for the listed closed session agenda items? | 00:02:58 | |
Alright, so Council will recess to closed session. The time is now. | 00:03:05 | |
5:31 PM. | 00:03:08 | |
We'll be back at 6:30. | 00:03:11 | |
Welcome everyone to the City Council regular meeting. I'm calling this meeting to order. The time is now 6:35 PM. | 01:06:23 | |
Well everyone, please stand and join us for the flag salute. | 01:06:30 | |
Ready. | 01:06:39 | |
Begin. | 01:06:39 | |
I pledge allegiance to the flag. | 01:06:41 | |
Of the United States of America. | 01:06:43 | |
And to the Republic for which it stands. | 01:06:45 | |
Decent. | 01:06:48 | |
Invisible. | 01:06:50 | |
Being justice. | 01:06:52 | |
Right. | 01:07:02 | |
Madam Clerk, can you please take roll? | 01:07:03 | |
Council Member Gamma. | 01:07:07 | |
Council member Hernandez, Council member McQueen Lejean, Mayor Pro Tem Perez. | 01:07:09 | |
Here and Mayor Martinez. | 01:07:14 | |
Miss. Mr. City Attorney, can you please? | 01:07:17 | |
Provide the closed session report. | 01:07:20 | |
Martinez There was no reportable action taken in closed session tonight. | 01:07:22 | |
If. | 01:07:26 | |
We'll now move on to public comments. | 01:07:26 | |
Public comments are limited to 3 minutes. | 01:07:29 | |
Madam Clerk, do we have any public comments tonight? | 01:07:33 | |
Yes, our first public comment will be from Jasmine Keys. | 01:07:37 | |
Hi, good afternoon. | 01:07:49 | |
Um, I'm addressing you all today on behalf of Onami High School. I'm the band director there. | 01:07:51 | |
And I wanted to come and basically want to allow the band to come and hopefully play for you guys, just for a quick minute. | 01:07:56 | |
But also I wanted to inquire and reach out, hopefully for the consideration. | 01:08:02 | |
Of the Community Community Benefit Grant. | 01:08:07 | |
When You Me band is rebuilding themselves, they're very dedicated group of kids. | 01:08:10 | |
They're very hard working and very passionate. | 01:08:14 | |
For music, and this grant will help them in furthering their endeavor in musical. | 01:08:16 | |
In everything that they're doing, they've improved so much since the beginning of year that I worked with them. | 01:08:21 | |
And I'm really looking forward to continuing working with them. Hopefully with your guys support the community support, we can | 01:08:25 | |
rebuild this program in support of Wanami. | 01:08:29 | |
OK. | 01:08:34 | |
Thank you guys. Have a good rest of your night. | 01:11:11 | |
Thank you to Miss Miss Keys and the Wanami High School Band. | 01:11:18 | |
Everyone. | 01:11:22 | |
Becky burning. | 01:11:28 | |
Good evening Mayor, Mayor, Pro Tem, Council members, staff. | 01:11:38 | |
And the audience? | 01:11:42 | |
I'm here tonight on behalf of Roku API Outdoors. | 01:11:44 | |
And this Sunday is our Spooktacular fishing. | 01:11:47 | |
Day with our families. | 01:11:52 | |
And we're requesting that all the. | 01:11:54 | |
Participants wear a costume. | 01:11:57 | |
And we would like for you to register online if possible. | 01:12:00 | |
If you have your own gear, you can bring it. If not, we will furnish it. | 01:12:04 | |
Thank you. | 01:12:08 | |
Thank you, Miss Becky. | 01:12:10 | |
Francis Anderson. | 01:12:13 | |
Good evening, Mayor and members of the council. | 01:12:22 | |
I have heard a lot of chatter lately about a $3,000,000 error in the budget of the city. | 01:12:25 | |
And I wondered if you could comment on it or tell me what exactly is going on, if it's true or if it's not true. | 01:12:31 | |
And what's happening? | 01:12:37 | |
Thank you. | 01:12:39 | |
Thank you Mayor, if I could. So the the Council is not able to comment on items on public comment. | 01:12:42 | |
But we did post the statement today on Facebook that you can review that speaks to. | 01:12:48 | |
The the issue you raise. | 01:12:55 | |
In short, you know, I'll try to paraphrase what the comment says is we looked at the budget. We were looking at the budget for | 01:12:58 | |
sustainability for not just this year, but. | 01:13:03 | |
Years into the future Four years Five years into the future. | 01:13:08 | |
And what we? | 01:13:12 | |
Found was that we needed to make some adjustments. | 01:13:14 | |
To start making some adjustments now to better, better to be better positioned five years into the future, six years into the | 01:13:17 | |
future. | 01:13:20 | |
And so we brought some projects. | 01:13:24 | |
To the Council in September that we recommended postponing or shifting around to try to be better positioned, positioned for the | 01:13:27 | |
future. | 01:13:30 | |
So. | 01:13:34 | |
Since it's not on the agenda, I can't dive into the detail, but we did post some information on that today and if you still have | 01:13:35 | |
questions, you can submit a question on e-mail and we can get you more information. | 01:13:41 | |
But it's something we're working on. We're trying to be prepared and and be proactive. | 01:13:46 | |
We have one public comment for item number 2, but I will call her up now, so because it's a presentation. | 01:13:57 | |
So, Jasmine Duran. | 01:14:04 | |
Good evening. My name is Jasmine Duran, and I'm the Advocacy Coordinator for Autism Society of Ventura County. | 01:14:15 | |
And a member of ASC's advocacy committee. | 01:14:21 | |
ASC advocates for local public policies that improve the lives of individuals with autism, and the Advocacy Committee is a team of | 01:14:24 | |
autistic individuals and family members that meets regularly to review agendas and advocates for the quality of life issues for | 01:14:30 | |
those with disabilities and their families in Ventura County. | 01:14:36 | |
The Autism Society of Ventura County and Advocacy Committee supports the proclamation recognizing October 2023 as Down syndrome | 01:14:43 | |
Awareness Month. | 01:14:47 | |
Down Down syndrome is an important disability for us to learn about and focus on. | 01:14:52 | |
According to National Institute of Health, approximately 16 to 18% of people with Down syndrome also have autism. These | 01:14:58 | |
intersections are not shared as often as they need to be. | 01:15:03 | |
And we are here today in hopes to bring awareness to this intersectionality. | 01:15:09 | |
Locally, Rainbow Connection Family Resource and Empowerment Center had its first ever Down syndrome Awareness Walk and Resource | 01:15:14 | |
Fair at. | 01:15:18 | |
Hello Koi Park, formerly known as Oxnard Beach Park this past Saturday. | 01:15:22 | |
The event brought together the community to participate in a walk around the park. They also had games, tractor pool rides, Jolly | 01:15:28 | |
Jumper, DJ dancing and even karaoke. | 01:15:33 | |
AVC is proud to have participated in the resource fair. We even had our own board member, Michelle, participate in the walk with | 01:15:38 | |
her children. | 01:15:42 | |
We look forward to watching this event continue to grow in the years to come. | 01:15:47 | |
Individuals with Down syndrome play many roles in our community. Brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, parents, students, volunteers, | 01:15:51 | |
interns and they work in various industries including hospitality, tourism, food and beverage, customer service, critical services | 01:15:56 | |
and many more. | 01:16:02 | |
I would like to take a moment to highlight one particular individual with Down syndrome who is breaking down barriers and defying | 01:16:08 | |
stereotypes. Kayla McKeon is a 36 year old registered Congressional lobbyist in DC She manages a small grassroots agency. She's an | 01:16:14 | |
advocate athlete, motivational speaker, political intern, and most recently, she helped design the first Barbie with Down | 01:16:20 | |
syndrome. | 01:16:26 | |
She has too many other accomplishments to list here. Today. It is said to give her a bill or a ball and she will run with it. | 01:16:33 | |
Kayla's story is moving, and it brings hope to others with Down syndrome and other developmental disabilities. Autism Society | 01:16:40 | |
Ventura County longs for a society where all people with developmental disabilities of any age are encouraged to assert their | 01:16:46 | |
thoughts and ideas and contribute their unique perspectives. | 01:16:53 | |
Thank you for bringing awareness to Down syndrome with your proclamation here tonight. | 01:17:00 | |
And thank you for everything you do for those that call Port Wanami home. | 01:17:05 | |
I appreciate your time. Thank you. | 01:17:09 | |
Thank you, Miss Duran. | 01:17:12 | |
Louise Mendez. | 01:17:14 | |
Thank you, Mayor, Mayor Protem, council members. | 01:17:23 | |
City manager. | 01:17:25 | |
First of all, I am a. | 01:17:26 | |
Alumni of Union High School, Four years Marching band. | 01:17:28 | |
Oh. | 01:17:31 | |
Good job you guys. It's. | 01:17:33 | |
Takes me back really quick. | 01:17:35 | |
So I know someone else mentioned it earlier going to the public comment or that was released early on Facebook regarding the | 01:17:37 | |
deficit. I wanted to thank whoever was in charge of it for releasing that clarification because it did cause. | 01:17:42 | |
Instead of a lot of talk back and forth and that clarification was needed. | 01:17:47 | |
And one of the concerns I have about that I'd like to express to you guys is that. | 01:17:52 | |
As times. | 01:17:56 | |
Move on with inflation, bills, expenses, those all go up. The cost of doing business as a city goes up. | 01:17:58 | |
And although you guys have to defer certain certain projects. | 01:18:04 | |
I didn't see or meant hear anything mentioned about. | 01:18:07 | |
Increasing revenue for the city because with those costs. | 01:18:10 | |
You need revenue to cover them, you know, and. | 01:18:13 | |
That's part of balancing the budget and. | 01:18:16 | |
I think with some of us residents that look at certain things that are spent on, you know, sometimes even losses, you know, if we | 01:18:18 | |
go back to the beach, the beach festival and stuff like that. | 01:18:22 | |
We want to make sure that you guys are good stewards of our money. | 01:18:26 | |
And also to ensure that you guys are looking towards the future because whenever. | 01:18:28 | |
Decisions are made under duress. | 01:18:32 | |
You know. | 01:18:34 | |
Bankruptcy. Anything like that, the decisions aren't obvious. | 01:18:35 | |
Always the best ones are in the best interest, so if you guys plan ahead. | 01:18:39 | |
Those kind of hard decisions will be dealt with better by the community and probably more acceptable and easier to accept rather | 01:18:42 | |
than a big bunch of stuff at once. | 01:18:47 | |
The second part would be the CBF fund I just wanted to address. There was a lot of commentary on Facebook amongst me and my | 01:18:51 | |
friends in regards to. | 01:18:55 | |
Some of the decisions being made. | 01:18:59 | |
I think personally there there may be a. | 01:19:01 | |
A disconnect between the city and the port of Animi and even the residents as to what constitutes a public benefit. | 01:19:03 | |
I think that definition really needs to be clarified because of of. | 01:19:11 | |
Of the different things that we see. | 01:19:15 | |
We don't approve a, for instance. | 01:19:17 | |
I was looking at the budget as you put the link on. | 01:19:19 | |
Regarding what some of the things are gonna come up, I saw a $50,000, you know, budget item for a statue of Bart. Mr. Bart. | 01:19:22 | |
And where that's going to go, I don't know. That's a lot of money. | 01:19:28 | |
But I don't see a public benefit in that you don't have friends that are part of the port, but as a community resident, I don't | 01:19:31 | |
see the benefit. | 01:19:35 | |
I think Miss Hernandez mentioned one time about a colorful sign of the beach like 19 Acres has. | 01:19:38 | |
That's something that would attract people to the beach. | 01:19:44 | |
Take pictures, increase revenue. | 01:19:46 | |
In the area that we live in, so it's trying to find that connection between the council, the poor and the residents as to what is | 01:19:48 | |
actually a community benefit and how we see it. | 01:19:53 | |
And the amounts being spent on each item, so if you guys could take that into consideration, maybe back to the port and come back | 01:19:57 | |
to us and let us know, so that way there's no misunderstandings. | 01:20:01 | |
Thank you. | 01:20:06 | |
Thank you, Mr. Mendez. | 01:20:09 | |
I just. | 01:20:10 | |
Just just to add 1 point, so the Community Benefit Fund will be scheduled for an upcoming council meeting. | 01:20:12 | |
So there will be an opportunity to come directly provide input on what you know what, what's on that list. | 01:20:19 | |
And we have one last public comment, which is. | 01:20:27 | |
Or written comments It's Our city has a handful of excellent organizations that help our community with the help of resident | 01:20:32 | |
volunteers who support these organizations because these organizations give back to our community. | 01:20:38 | |
Real Guppy Outdoors, Poor, Whitening Me, Little League, VFW and Coastal Keepers are a few examples. | 01:20:44 | |
These organizations plan events, organized fundraising for their organization and operate independently, not under the direction | 01:20:51 | |
of the city. | 01:20:55 | |
These are the organizations or Port and Cannabis Benefit Funds were intended to support. | 01:20:59 | |
City staff and leaders have created organizations that have relied on the port and cannabis benefit funds. | 01:21:04 | |
REACH and Safe Port Wanami are examples of nonprofit organizations that city consultants and city leaders have established. | 01:21:10 | |
Both of these organizations were financed almost exclusively by city contracts or benefit funds, and neither of these | 01:21:17 | |
organizations generated many fundraising opportunities on their own. | 01:21:22 | |
Where are both of these nonprofits now? | 01:21:28 | |
Save Money Beach dried up within months of spending 14,000 of cannabis benefit funds that could have been utilized for long | 01:21:30 | |
standing existing. | 01:21:34 | |
Nonprofits that rely on volunteers. | 01:21:38 | |
Reached didn't fulfill their agreement with the city. Both the Wanami Beach Festival and the 75th Anniversary were fun events that | 01:21:41 | |
I enjoyed. | 01:21:44 | |
However, the contract was for three to four events. | 01:21:48 | |
Our city was a primary source of funds for Reach, and Reach didn't do any other fundraising, depending solely on city and benefit | 01:21:51 | |
funds to pay their payroll. | 01:21:55 | |
Our City Council discussed using port and cannabis benefit funds to form two additional nonprofits. | 01:22:00 | |
At the last meeting. | 01:22:05 | |
Sister city nonprofit and poor whitening meat arts nonprofits. | 01:22:07 | |
Why are we creating nonprofits in order to find uses for the benefit funds? | 01:22:10 | |
If these nonprofits are truly beneficial to our community, volunteers will gladly help organize fundraising opportunities to fund | 01:22:15 | |
these organizations, just as our existing nonprofits in our community have grown with the help of volunteers. | 01:22:21 | |
We already have organizations that are proven to be great benefits in our community, yet these organizations seem to be | 01:22:28 | |
overlooked. | 01:22:31 | |
While the prior city founded nonprofits were genius generously funded with a port, cannabis and city funds. | 01:22:35 | |
I encourage the city to support existing organizations before starting new organizations. | 01:22:41 | |
Maybe our city leaders should separate themselves from these nonprofits and let the community determine what our community | 01:22:46 | |
prioritizes. | 01:22:49 | |
Should nonprofits that are operated by city leaders receive more of the poor in cannabis funds than existing organizations that | 01:22:53 | |
are operated by volunteer residents? | 01:22:58 | |
Where is Save Whiting Me Beach Now? | 01:23:03 | |
Was the 14,000 that Save Wanami Beach utilized from the cannabis funds beneficial to our community? | 01:23:05 | |
I don't think our city is having much success in cherry picking what organizations get fundraising. | 01:23:10 | |
As both the examples above had demonstrated a waste of money and not really sure how much good they have brought to the community | 01:23:15 | |
for the amount of money they were funded. | 01:23:19 | |
Focusing on what our residents have already supported with their volunteer hours and independent fundraising would help these | 01:23:24 | |
organizations grow and in turn, help our community. | 01:23:28 | |
Ricardo Holden. | 01:23:33 | |
And that concludes public comment. | 01:23:35 | |
Thank you, Madam Clerk. | 01:23:38 | |
We're going to move on to approving the city agenda. May I have a motion in a second? | 01:23:40 | |
So moved. | 01:23:46 | |
2nd. | 01:23:47 | |
Madam Clerk, can you please take a vote? | 01:23:49 | |
All in favor. | 01:23:51 | |
Aye. | 01:23:52 | |
All opposed. | 01:23:53 | |
Hearing none motion passes unanimously. | 01:23:54 | |
Do any members of Council have any conflicts of interest to disclose for any one item on the agenda? | 01:23:57 | |
All right. Let's move on to presentation. Item number one, quarterly employee recognition. | 01:24:04 | |
By Fred Camarillo, Public Works Director. | 01:24:09 | |
And if I may just give a quick introduction before Fred, I'll I'll introduce Fred to say a few words about Rick, who we're | 01:24:13 | |
recognizing today. | 01:24:17 | |
But I just wanted to give a little bit of background. | 01:24:22 | |
On just the reminder that. | 01:24:25 | |
We've tried to every quarter. | 01:24:29 | |
Do an employee recognition to recognize employees who celebrate either their 15/20/25 year or beyond years of service with the | 01:24:32 | |
city. And this was a program that's been developed by the city's talent committee looking to honor employees who've committed | 01:24:38 | |
significant years of their career in service to. | 01:24:44 | |
The city of Portland, Miami and this quarter I'm gonna turn it over to our Interim Public Works Director, Fred Camarillo to. | 01:24:51 | |
Introduce and say a few words about the person we are recognizing today. | 01:24:59 | |
Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Protem, council members of the audience, staff. | 01:25:06 | |
Umm. | 01:25:11 | |
Rick couldn't be here tonight, but. | 01:25:12 | |
As you may remember, last year we were doing some catch ups from years that had passed by. | 01:25:16 | |
So Rick was able to attend last year, where he got recognized for his 15 years of service. | 01:25:21 | |
Um, this year it says. 20th year of service he started. | 01:25:26 | |
In July of 2003. | 01:25:30 | |
And. | 01:25:33 | |
I'm. | 01:25:34 | |
Happy to say that I've. | 01:25:36 | |
Been. | 01:25:38 | |
A friend of Rick's and have been able to work alongside Rick for those 20 years. So. | 01:25:39 | |
Umm. | 01:25:44 | |
You guys probably all know Rick's very cheerful guy. | 01:25:45 | |
Umm, very helpful volunteers. | 01:25:50 | |
For a lot of the committees that the city manager just spoke about, he's represents public works on our talent committee and. | 01:25:53 | |
He's been involved with other committees big. | 01:26:00 | |
Big well with helping getting the beach festival, the banana festival, all those things. | 01:26:02 | |
From the public work standpoint. | 01:26:07 | |
Represented so we can take care of all those things. | 01:26:11 | |
Rick is. | 01:26:15 | |
Someone who truly cares about what he does. I mean he he. | 01:26:17 | |
You never see Rick in a bad mood. | 01:26:20 | |
He's he's willing to help wherever needed. | 01:26:22 | |
And one of the questions on the questionnaire that's given out to all the employees, asking what he liked best about working for | 01:26:26 | |
the city of Fort Wayne. Amy. | 01:26:30 | |
He mentioned that it was. | 01:26:34 | |
Being able to assist. | 01:26:36 | |
The residents, the community at large, with anything that might come up that they might need assistance with, whether it's related | 01:26:39 | |
to solid waste or not. | 01:26:43 | |
And that. | 01:26:48 | |
He has enjoyed building a lot of friendships and camaraderie with all of the people that he's worked with throughout the years | 01:26:49 | |
and. | 01:26:53 | |
Please join me in recognizing Rick's 20 years of service. | 01:26:57 | |
Thank you, Mr. Camarillo. We're going to move on to item number two, Down syndrome Awareness Month proclamation. | 01:27:05 | |
Mayor Pro Tem will be reading the proclamation tonight. | 01:27:12 | |
Thank you, Mayor. | 01:27:15 | |
Down syndrome Awareness Month, October 2023. | 01:27:17 | |
Whereas October is designated as Down syndrome Awareness Month and whereas Down syndrome is the most survivable. | 01:27:20 | |
Genetic different? | 01:27:28 | |
Affecting one in every 733 live births. | 01:27:29 | |
In the United States. | 01:27:34 | |
Whereas. | 01:27:35 | |
Trisomy 21. | 01:27:37 | |
I think I'm pronouncing that correctly. | 01:27:39 | |
The most common type of Down syndrome is caused by extra by an extra third copy of the 21st chromosome. | 01:27:41 | |
And whereas the genes on the extra chromosome interact. | 01:27:47 | |
With other genes causing varying degrees of learning difficulties as well as physical disabilities. | 01:27:51 | |
The learning difficulties or degree of intellectual disability can be mild to severe, but most commonly falls somewhere in the | 01:27:57 | |
moderate area. | 01:28:01 | |
And whereas individuals with Down syndrome have physical characteristics similar to a family or ethnic resemblance, individuals | 01:28:05 | |
with Down syndrome. | 01:28:10 | |
Are just are also just that individuals. | 01:28:14 | |
The effects of the extra chromosome do not affect each person the exact same way. | 01:28:17 | |
There are common physical characteristics of Down syndrome. | 01:28:22 | |
Among individuals, however, the degree of physical characteristics also varies among individuals. | 01:28:25 | |
And whereas children with Down syndrome are educated in many different ways, however, early intervention and early education are | 01:28:33 | |
key to the individual's development. | 01:28:38 | |
Some individuals participate in special needs education and also all inclusive education settings, including extracurricular | 01:28:42 | |
programs for both of those areas. | 01:28:47 | |
And whereas many adults with Down syndrome live independently. | 01:28:52 | |
Live in living programs or with their families. | 01:28:56 | |
Many individuals have jobs either working independently or with a job coach. | 01:28:59 | |
Some individuals attend day programs that focus on special activities. | 01:29:04 | |
And whereas people with Down syndrome. | 01:29:08 | |
Often find a lot of satisfaction in the activities that they participate in and experience. | 01:29:11 | |
Most individuals with Down syndrome grow, learn, and function well within all communities. | 01:29:16 | |
One area of strength for individuals with Down syndrome is their social skills, which often exceed their academic achievements and | 01:29:21 | |
help them to achieve a happy and productive life. | 01:29:26 | |
Now THEREFORE, therefore be it proclaimed that the City Council of Port Wanami hereby recognizes October as Down syndrome | 01:29:31 | |
Awareness Month in the City of Port Wanami. | 01:29:36 | |
And encourages the community to support the quality of life. | 01:29:41 | |
For individuals with Down syndrome by promoting inclusion, acceptance, community connections, and awareness of individuals with | 01:29:44 | |
Down syndrome. | 01:29:47 | |
Proclaim the 16th day of October 2023. | 01:29:51 | |
Thank you Mayor Pro Tem Press for reading the proclamation. I also want to mention we have Chief Federico joining us via Zoom. | 01:29:59 | |
Would you like to say a few words? | 01:30:03 | |
Chief. | 01:30:08 | |
Yes, folks, in addition. | 01:30:09 | |
You know your your police chief, who's the former president of Down syndrome Association of LA, which serves families up in port | 01:30:11 | |
with me, Ventura, Camarillo and Oxnard, as well as the Ilaria. | 01:30:16 | |
And your police commissioner Cameo, AKA the Commission. | 01:30:23 | |
Are ecstatic to hear the proclamation read. | 01:30:27 | |
It's coming from a city we love and we're proud to hear it. | 01:30:32 | |
Notice that your officers are now donning on their uniforms and the City of Portland Amy a Down syndrome awareness pin. | 01:30:36 | |
And that pin holds the colors of blue and yellow, the Down Cinema awareness colors. And it has their badge, the Portland Police | 01:30:44 | |
badge embraced by the. | 01:30:48 | |
Two colored ribbon and it's being worn on their uniforms now. | 01:30:53 | |
To show or I'm sorry, to display the awareness. | 01:30:57 | |
Of Down syndrome Awareness Month. | 01:31:01 | |
I appreciate you all for this and. | 01:31:04 | |
Your special needs community, as you've heard. | 01:31:06 | |
From others and the Down syndrome community. | 01:31:09 | |
Are humbled by the proclamation. Thank you. | 01:31:11 | |
Thank you, Chief. | 01:31:16 | |
Alright, we're gonna move on to presentation item number three, National Community Planning Month Proclamation presented by our | 01:31:21 | |
Community Development Director, Tony Stewart. | 01:31:25 | |
Good evening, mayor. Council also slash city planner. So that's why I'm up here. I tried to get Jose, our associate planner, to do | 01:31:36 | |
it, but we are. | 01:31:40 | |
So I thank you again. This is Community Planning month for October 2020 third. | 01:31:46 | |
Whereas change is constant and affects all cities, towns, suburbs, counties, boroughs, townships, rural areas and other places. | 01:31:52 | |
And whereas community planning and plans can help manage this change in a way that provides better choices for how people work and | 01:31:59 | |
live. | 01:32:03 | |
And whereas community planning provides an opportunity for all residents to be meaningfully involved in making choices that | 01:32:07 | |
determine the future. | 01:32:11 | |
Of their community and whereas. | 01:32:15 | |
The full benefits of planning require public officials and citizens who understand, support and demand excellence in planning. | 01:32:18 | |
And plan implementation. | 01:32:24 | |
And whereas the month of October is designated as National Community Planning Month throughout the United States of America and | 01:32:26 | |
its territories. | 01:32:30 | |
And whereas the American Planning Association and its professional institute, the American Institute of Certified Planners. | 01:32:35 | |
Endorse National Community Planning Month as an opportunity to highlight the contributions. | 01:32:41 | |
Sound planning and planning implementation make to the quality of our settlements. | 01:32:46 | |
And environment. | 01:32:51 | |
And assurances that they are equitable, resilient and sustainable. | 01:32:52 | |
And whereas the celebration of National Community Planning Month. | 01:32:56 | |
Gives us the opportunity to publicly recognize. | 01:33:00 | |
The participation and dedication of the members of the professional planning community. | 01:33:03 | |
And other citizen planners who have contributed their time and expertise to the improvement. | 01:33:07 | |
Of the City of Port Wanami, and to extend our appreciation for their continued commitment to public service. | 01:33:12 | |
Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the month of October 2023. | 01:33:18 | |
2023 is hereby designated National Community Planning Month in the City of Portland. Amy. | 01:33:22 | |
In conjunction with the celebration of National Community Planning Month, thank you. | 01:33:27 | |
Thank you, Mr. Stewart. | 01:33:36 | |
We will now move on to the consent calendar. We will consider items on the consent calendar which will be enacted in one motion | 01:33:37 | |
unless the Council member has a request to remove an item for discussion. | 01:33:42 | |
May I have a motion and a second to approve? | 01:33:47 | |
Mike. | 01:33:55 | |
3. | 01:33:56 | |
I have one question on item 6:00 and 7:00. Should I go ahead and pull them? | 01:33:58 | |
Or can I ask the question? Six would be pulled 7 hearing. Yeah, would wait for the public hearing. Sorry about that. | 01:34:02 | |
Umm. | 01:34:11 | |
Number six, that's the bubbling springs. | 01:34:12 | |
Create clearing project. Yes, question is about. | 01:34:15 | |
Are we going to? | 01:34:19 | |
Have Can you answer the question now or can we just have it pulled? | 01:34:21 | |
Whichever council prefers it, we could do it either way. I just have one question. So. | 01:34:24 | |
Just answer the question. Yeah, it can. It can be done either way. The only reason to pull it is really if council wants to have a | 01:34:29 | |
discussion regarding, OK, that's that's fine. Thank you. | 01:34:33 | |
Umm. | 01:34:37 | |
So the question is, so we had a cleaning last year. | 01:34:39 | |
We're having one this year, I saw. I see that there we have permission to do it to. | 01:34:42 | |
For the city, the city has been granted permission to clear for five years. | 01:34:49 | |
This year it's 225 K I'm not sure what it was last year. Is the plan to do it for five years? | 01:34:54 | |
And is the cost each year similar? | 01:35:01 | |
Taking us for five years over one around $1.2 million. | 01:35:05 | |
So the answer is it's a little bit complicated and. | 01:35:09 | |
I'll do my best to answer and then if if Public Works wants to Fact Check me, they can. But it's it's the exact same question that | 01:35:14 | |
I had when we talked about it. | 01:35:18 | |
O. | 01:35:23 | |
My understanding is the cost this year is similar to the cost last year. I was hoping that each year the cost would go down, but I | 01:35:24 | |
think we've seen so far that that hasn't been the case yet is essentially. | 01:35:30 | |
And the answer I got. | 01:35:35 | |
But we're also making sure to do it completely this year because we won't be able to do it all five years. Mostly we are planning | 01:35:37 | |
to try to continue to do it. | 01:35:42 | |
But. | 01:35:47 | |
When we're doing the Bubbling Springs project. | 01:35:48 | |
We won't be able to to get in and do it during that period. | 01:35:50 | |
So I think what will end up happening is we're going to do it the first two years. So we already did it first year. This is the | 01:35:55 | |
second year and then we probably we won't be able to do it the third year because we'll be in the middle of construction. | 01:36:00 | |
But then we'll do it the 4th year and the 5th year again. | 01:36:06 | |
We hope the cost goes down, but right now we're not, we're not expecting it to go down. So potentially it would be a four year | 01:36:09 | |
project over five years. | 01:36:13 | |
At about 800 to $900,000 and I hope this doesn't turn into a discussion, but another question came up. Is this something we're | 01:36:17 | |
going to have to continue to do in the future? | 01:36:21 | |
I don't think it has an end date. You know the it's the question comes. | 01:36:27 | |
Back to well, there's, there's a couple questions there, one is. | 01:36:33 | |
Hopefully overtime as we if we continue to do it, we get a lot of the invasive species out and maybe it isn't as substantial. | 01:36:37 | |
But. | 01:36:45 | |
Once the invasive species are there, I don't know that the expectation is that we'll ever actually eradicate them, you know, so. | 01:36:47 | |
So I think my hope and was talking with Public Works was that overtime it would go down, but we haven't seen that yet at this time | 01:36:54 | |
so. | 01:36:58 | |
Thank you. | 01:37:02 | |
The the one last note, if I can add to that though is that. | 01:37:04 | |
The there was funding for this project in our drainage. | 01:37:08 | |
Fund, so it's not a general fund project, it's specifically from our drainage fund, so. | 01:37:13 | |
We're expecting to be able to do it through the drainage fund, so. | 01:37:20 | |
All right. Can we have a motion a second to approve the consent calendar? | 01:37:26 | |
Move to approve. | 01:37:30 | |
2nd. | 01:37:31 | |
Madam Clerk, can you please take a vote? | 01:37:33 | |
All in favor, aye. | 01:37:35 | |
All opposed. | 01:37:37 | |
Hearing none motion passes unanimously. | 01:37:38 | |
All right. So we're moving on to public hearing. | 01:37:42 | |
Public Hearings Item number seven adopt A resolution granting special use permit #21-23 for the tree factory State of the dead | 01:37:44 | |
celebration. | 01:37:48 | |
With ancillary. | 01:37:53 | |
Food trucks, vendors and live entertainment. | 01:37:55 | |
Madam Clerk, do we have proof of publication as required by law? | 01:37:59 | |
Yes, Mr. Mayor. | 01:38:03 | |
Will staff please present the report? | 01:38:05 | |
Air Pro Tam. | 01:38:16 | |
General public. | 01:38:18 | |
All right, before you tonight is the Tree Factory Day of the Dead celebration. This is Special Use Permit 2123. | 01:38:31 | |
O The request, UM is to hold a public event known as the Tree Factory Day of the Dead Celebration. This event will be featuring an | 01:38:42 | |
art contest, food vendors, Day of the Dead displays, and live entertainment. | 01:38:48 | |
The event will happen on November 2nd, 2023 from 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM. | 01:38:55 | |
6275 visitors and it is open to the public. | 01:39:00 | |
The live entertainment lineup includes Mariachi as the. | 01:39:10 | |
Down. | 01:39:15 | |
And the live entertainment is scheduled to only happen between 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM. | 01:39:15 | |
A little bit about the proposed event site plan area. | 01:39:25 | |
As you can see on here, most of the event will be taking place on the northern part of this parking lot. | 01:39:29 | |
There will be 3 canopies, each of which will have different display areas. | 01:39:35 | |
One will feature the food vendors and other will feature the chairs for guests to view and then the other one will feature the | 01:39:40 | |
event itself. | 01:39:45 | |
Featuring the live entertainment and other altars and pictures next to it. | 01:39:50 | |
As part of the event Umm. As can be seen here, Umm Channel Islands Blvd. Is down on the South and. | 01:39:58 | |
There is the 2 buildings there. General parking will generally happen within the South and northern West side of the. | 01:40:06 | |
Shopping center. | 01:40:15 | |
With the main event happening on the northeastern quadrant. | 01:40:16 | |
Why this item came to council was because the special use permit will have outdoor entertainment and there is proximity to | 01:40:22 | |
residential uses to the north. | 01:40:27 | |
And this project is considered to be exempt under Sequa as the project use is existing. | 01:40:32 | |
And it is minor. It is a minor temporary use of the land. | 01:40:37 | |
The conditions of a of approval ensure that the environment is protected. | 01:40:41 | |
Fiscal impact. There will be no direct impact to the city's general fund. | 01:40:48 | |
It is anticipated sales tax revenue will be created by the food retail vendors and additional sales from the Tree Factory cannabis | 01:40:53 | |
dispensary during the events. | 01:40:57 | |
Strategic planning consistency. This has 21 optimal levels of service for residents and businesses. | 01:41:04 | |
This will support and establish programs and events that create a strong sense of community, pride and a connection to our history | 01:41:11 | |
and heritage. | 01:41:14 | |
And. | 01:41:19 | |
Innovate and opportunity Retain and maximize opportunities for local businesses as the backbone of our community. | 01:41:20 | |
The recommendation is to adopt resolution on conditionally approving special use permit 21-23. | 01:41:29 | |
And find the project categorically exempt from Sequa. | 01:41:36 | |
Staff is available for questions and the applicant will be resenting their own presentation of the event. | 01:41:41 | |
Questions. | 01:41:54 | |
Um. | 01:41:57 | |
The public hearing is now open for public input at. | 01:41:59 | |
7:10 PM. | 01:42:03 | |
Are there any public comments regarding this item? | 01:42:06 | |
No public comments. | 01:42:11 | |
OK, so before we close it, should we do the? | 01:42:13 | |
The presentation. | 01:42:16 | |
Yeah. | 01:42:18 | |
OK. | 01:42:19 | |
So. | 01:42:20 | |
Miss. | 01:42:21 | |
Maria Valdez and Tree Factory you may. | 01:42:22 | |
Present. | 01:42:26 | |
Good evening, honourable Mayor. | 01:42:44 | |
Mayor Pro Tem, City Council. | 01:42:47 | |
We appreciate the opportunity to come before you to discuss the proposed the other Los Muertos event. | 01:42:48 | |
Tree factory is a local. | 01:42:55 | |
Dispensary here in Portway Nimi. | 01:42:56 | |
We are a family business. | 01:43:00 | |
Raised here on B Street. | 01:43:02 | |
Our. | 01:43:04 | |
Parents. | 01:43:05 | |
Migrated from Mexico in the 70s. | 01:43:06 | |
And have been residents of Port Wanami ever since. | 01:43:09 | |
And to us, the city of Port Winnie is our home. | 01:43:13 | |
We are from the community. | 01:43:19 | |
And for the good of the community, you'll find us at almost every event giving back. | 01:43:21 | |
These are just a few of the photos that we've participated in. | 01:43:25 | |
And one of the most memorable is when Tree Factory founder David Garcia received a phone call that the Little League. | 01:43:29 | |
Um. | 01:43:35 | |
Field was in desperate need of maintenance and so David rallied the troops because within a few hours there was going to be a | 01:43:38 | |
Little League team. | 01:43:41 | |
Her. | 01:43:46 | |
Performing there. | 01:43:47 | |
And so we were out in the fields, we were preparing the fields and the smiles from the families and the players was so heartfelt | 01:43:49 | |
and appreciative. | 01:43:52 | |
And it really does take a village and we are honored to be included in this village. | 01:43:57 | |
What is the other Los Muertos? | 01:44:03 | |
It's a tradition that started with the Aztecs over 3000 years ago. | 01:44:07 | |
It is celebrated in different countries. | 01:44:11 | |
It's not. | 01:44:15 | |
Mexican Halloween. | 01:44:16 | |
It is a sacred event, passed down generation to generation, that our family celebrates. | 01:44:18 | |
And this is a family driven event. | 01:44:24 | |
Where Tree Factory invites the community. | 01:44:27 | |
To celebrate those no longer with us. | 01:44:29 | |
The community participates in bringing pictures of their loved ones. | 01:44:32 | |
For our ultra. | 01:44:35 | |
To commemorate. | 01:44:37 | |
This is a video of what we've done in the past. | 01:44:43 | |
It started very small, very small during COVID, so it was very small. | 01:44:46 | |
You just have to. | 01:44:50 | |
So. | 01:45:35 | |
What we will we will be offering is. | 01:45:37 | |
We will be having free food for the. | 01:45:40 | |
Guests.com. | 01:45:43 | |
We will have folkloric dancers. We're going to have a mariachi. | 01:45:44 | |
We always do a moment of honoring. | 01:45:48 | |
Umm. | 01:45:50 | |
The community brings pictures. | 01:45:51 | |
And we put them on a list and we just commemorate. | 01:45:53 | |
And then we will also have Aztec dancers that. | 01:45:57 | |
Will basically explain what the. | 01:45:59 | |
What Day of the Dead signifies during their dances. | 01:46:02 | |
The chair of the charity benefiting from this event is a Southern California Stars. | 01:46:09 | |
This is a local youth basketball club. | 01:46:13 | |
That doesn't turn anyone away, regardless of finances. | 01:46:16 | |
Many of these participants are students from EO Green Barred and Whitney High School. | 01:46:19 | |
The focus is on skill building, leadership, but most importantly their future. | 01:46:24 | |
When participating at tournaments, you'll see them touring universities, showing these youth that they deserve every opportunity. | 01:46:30 | |
We're proud to support their mission, create change and empower our local youth. | 01:46:37 | |
Thank you again for your time. | 01:46:45 | |
We appreciate your time and consideration. | 01:46:47 | |
And hope that you approve our community event. | 01:46:50 | |
This is an event that I would like to continue to have every single year. | 01:46:52 | |
So if I can get some sort of approval where? | 01:46:57 | |
Maybe I don't have to come every single year, I would appreciate it, but if not, I completely understand. | 01:47:00 | |
So again, thank you for your time. | 01:47:06 | |
Thank you, Maria. | 01:47:09 | |
This council have any questions for the applicants? | 01:47:12 | |
Just want to congratulate you on a beautiful video that was really nice. | 01:47:16 | |
Any questions? | 01:47:23 | |
No. | 01:47:25 | |
OK. I think that seems easy enough. So I guess we don't have any questions for you tonight. | 01:47:27 | |
I'm gonna go. Excuse me. | 01:47:33 | |
I'm going to close the public input unless we have any public comments. | 01:47:35 | |
And then? | 01:47:40 | |
Think we'll get going, so, OK, so public input hasn't concluded. I will now close the public hearing. The time is. | 01:47:42 | |
716 PM. | 01:47:48 | |
We have before us a recommendation adopt A resolution deeming a temporary event exempt from the California Environmental Quality | 01:47:51 | |
Act and conditionally approving special use permit. | 01:47:56 | |
#21-23. | 01:48:02 | |
Tree Factories Day of the Dead Celebration event located at. | 01:48:04 | |
437 and 453 W Channel Islands Blvd. And take such. | 01:48:08 | |
Additional related action that may be desirable. | 01:48:13 | |
You know what, I do have a question. | 01:48:16 | |
How many for how many years would you want this permit? | 01:48:19 | |
For three or five? | 01:48:24 | |
Three or five? | 01:48:25 | |
And then a question for staff is, is that something that we can do? | 01:48:26 | |
O. | 01:48:31 | |
I'll let Tony respond to. | 01:48:33 | |
Technically, whether we can do it or not, I was actually going to make the point, but I was going to do it right after the item | 01:48:35 | |
that. | 01:48:38 | |
In the next. | 01:48:41 | |
Item which is cannabis. | 01:48:42 | |
Program discussion. | 01:48:45 | |
We were going to, there's actually a recommendation included in that item. | 01:48:46 | |
That. | 01:48:50 | |
We get direction to look at how to make some of these things easier and and simpler. | 01:48:51 | |
So we are actually looking and are planning to recommend. | 01:48:57 | |
Making some changes to make. | 01:49:02 | |
Make it work. | 01:49:04 | |
Better and easier in the future, so that's something on our list. | 01:49:05 | |
But as to whether or not we can change that at this time in this permit, I think I know the answer, but I'm going to ask Tony to. | 01:49:08 | |
To confirm, so this this particular. | 01:49:14 | |
Application would be for this year only, but like we've done for say Wheelhouse and whatnot, we do approve multi year. | 01:49:18 | |
Events, so assuming that things don't change for the you know to make things simpler. | 01:49:25 | |
But assuming that we don't get any complaints on this particular event. | 01:49:32 | |
The next time around we could definitely make it a say A5 year approval so that. | 01:49:36 | |
Our folks here do not have to keep coming back to us each and every year. Is that also what we do with the Copacabana? | 01:49:41 | |
Yes, we've done that with the Copacabana. We've done that with our own the, the event that we just had with the the touch of truck | 01:49:48 | |
for instance. | 01:49:52 | |
Even the Winema Beach Festival, we've we've done multi year once we get the first one or two through the process successfully. | 01:49:57 | |
Then we can go ahead and encourage a multi year. | 01:50:05 | |
Approvals for subsequent events. | 01:50:08 | |
Are there any other questions? | 01:50:13 | |
On item number 2 takes such additional related action that may be desirable. Can you be can you give me some input on what other | 01:50:17 | |
action we can take? | 01:50:21 | |
It would really just be up to whatever you folks came up with. | 01:50:28 | |
It's kind of an open-ended question. | 01:50:32 | |
At just based on, you know for instance if we did get a lot of a lot of public comments or whatnot that. | 01:50:34 | |
Would move things in a different direction, but in this case it seems like. | 01:50:40 | |
Going with staff recommendation for the approval would be the the the way to go with this particular item. | 01:50:44 | |
OK. | 01:50:51 | |
Sounds good. | 01:50:51 | |
No further questions. | 01:50:53 | |
OK, may I have a motion in a second? | 01:50:56 | |
Move to approve. | 01:50:58 | |
2nd. | 01:51:00 | |
OK. | 01:51:02 | |
So no fighting. | 01:51:02 | |
Never so. | 01:51:05 | |
Any discussion needed? | 01:51:07 | |
I just I just have wanted to make a comment. | 01:51:09 | |
Thank you for all you do for our local nonprofits and The Little League. We really appreciate the service that you deliver to our | 01:51:12 | |
community, and I wish you the best of luck so we can see you next year and maybe don't have to. | 01:51:18 | |
Have you back in subsequent years? So thank you very much. Well, hopefully we'll see you at our event before the next time we have | 01:51:25 | |
a comment. I was happy to hear and I did not know that this is a family run event and they live in the community. So that was | 01:51:30 | |
really nice to hear. So thank you. | 01:51:35 | |
Madam Clerk, can we please take A roll call? | 01:51:48 | |
I mean roll call vote. | 01:51:50 | |
Mayor, I'll let you say who did the 2nd. | 01:51:52 | |
Umm. | 01:51:56 | |
Instagram this OK. | 01:51:58 | |
Council member McQueen, Lesean. | 01:52:00 | |
Council Member Hernandez yes, Council Member Gamma, Mayor Pro Tem Perez, yes, and Mayor Martinez yes. Motion passes unanimously. | 01:52:03 | |
We will now move on to item number 8. | 01:52:14 | |
Annual development agreement compliance review and finding of exemption from Sequa. | 01:52:16 | |
Madam Clerk, do we have proof of publication as required by law and a complete file of reports and exhibits? Yes, Mr. Mayor. | 01:52:22 | |
Or staff, please present the report. | 01:52:29 | |
Yes, thank you and. | 01:52:31 | |
Before. | 01:52:33 | |
Our community development director, Mr. Stewart, gets. | 01:52:35 | |
Started on the item. I just spoke to this, but we did want to just note in our introduction there is a. | 01:52:40 | |
This item is a review of of development agreements and a compliance review. | 01:52:47 | |
But we did add a recommendation. Recommendation 8. | 01:52:51 | |
Which? Says direct staff to return it at upcoming meeting with additional recommendations for potential revisions to the city | 01:52:55 | |
cannabis program. | 01:52:58 | |
And I just wanted to highlight that up front because I think we've heard it just in the last item, we may hear it in other. | 01:53:03 | |
Items related to the the the development agreements. | 01:53:09 | |
Just that. | 01:53:12 | |
The cannabis program and the environment and the the way cities around us are handling it is changing. | 01:53:13 | |
And so we are realizing and we are trying to be proactive that. | 01:53:21 | |
We need to. | 01:53:26 | |
Be aware of that and kind of look for opportunities to sort of change and be proactive in that way and so. | 01:53:28 | |
I'm going to. | 01:53:37 | |
Let Tony lead the. | 01:53:39 | |
Agreement, development, agreement, compliance review. But I just wanted to make that point and then it also spoke to the comment | 01:53:41 | |
made earlier about. | 01:53:44 | |
You know some of the. | 01:53:48 | |
Cannabis businesses that we've talked to have talked about things, you know, that could be streamlined or easier and we are going | 01:53:50 | |
to look at that. We do recommend that we start. | 01:53:54 | |
I'm thinking about that so. | 01:53:59 | |
But with that today, the bulk of the item is reviewing the development agreements for compliance. | 01:54:01 | |
And I'm going to hand it over to to Tony to walk us through that. | 01:54:07 | |
Thank you, James, and again, good evening, everyone. | 01:54:12 | |
I apologize in advance this, as you probably know, as you recall from other presentations, is. | 01:54:15 | |
Fairly dry, but it is a annual requirement for all of our businesses. | 01:54:21 | |
That have been in business for at least a year. | 01:54:28 | |
So this time around, we are looking at 7 businesses back Earlier this year, we looked at seven other businesses. | 01:54:30 | |
But before I get into them, just as a reminder for the public, back in 2016 the City Council opted to allow cannabis businesses. | 01:54:39 | |
To operate in the city as a source of revenue for a general fund. | 01:54:47 | |
Since we do not have a cannabis tax here in the city, we use the development agreement. | 01:54:52 | |
As the mechanism to ensure that the cannabis businesses pay their required obligated payment towards our general fund. | 01:54:57 | |
And the development agreements also include remedies should the applicant default. So I won't get into all of that. | 01:55:04 | |
Right now, but it is in the staff report. | 01:55:11 | |
And also mention this staff report. There are some things that the developers agree to, such as to pay that contractual payment. | 01:55:16 | |
Most of the time it's 5% of their annual gross revenues, less taxes paid to the state. | 01:55:22 | |
To maintain all books and records and pay for up to two audits. | 01:55:30 | |
Per year and to obtain their certificate of occupancy, in other words, open their business within one year of the agreement | 01:55:33 | |
becoming effective. | 01:55:37 | |
In exchange for these provisions, the City agrees that at the time that the agreements are approved of, the development rights in | 01:55:41 | |
place will be vested. | 01:55:45 | |
And more specifically, what these development agreements require the applicants or the developers as we call them to do for us is | 01:55:51 | |
that they complete, as I mentioned, the development and open their business with one year. | 01:55:57 | |
Of the development agreement taking effect. | 01:56:04 | |
They provide a long term source of employment opportunities. | 01:56:07 | |
They provide the city directly with additional revenue in the form of an increase in certain taxes, mainly sales taxes, from the | 01:56:10 | |
products they sell. | 01:56:14 | |
They also provide that contractual payment towards the city's general fund. | 01:56:18 | |
And they provide certain community benefits, for instance the ones that you just heard about from a tree factory. | 01:56:22 | |
So this evening, the seven businesses that we're looking at are Blue Diamond LLC, which is a delivery only business. | 01:56:30 | |
Front door enterprises or Eco meds, Also a delivery only business. | 01:56:38 | |
PH Investment Group LLC AKA Element 7 and they are dispensary. | 01:56:42 | |
Freedom First Associates Association, also known as Skunk, masters a dispensary with a lounge. But we'll only be discussing the | 01:56:48 | |
dispensary today that because the lounge is just open for business, so next time around we'll we'll look at that as well. | 01:56:55 | |
Innovative Concepts Investment Group, LLC, AKA iheart Cannabis. | 01:57:03 | |
PH Organic Team Incorporated and Tradecraft Farms. | 01:57:08 | |
I'm not gonna go into the 1st 4 Blue diamond, Eco Meds, element 7 or Skunk Masters any further to save time and also because they | 01:57:11 | |
are all in compliance. | 01:57:16 | |
However, as you can see, iheart, cannabis and tradecraft farms are in partial compliance, so we do need to discuss where they're | 01:57:22 | |
not in compliance. | 01:57:26 | |
And pH Organic Team Incorporated is not in compliance with their development agreement at this time. | 01:57:31 | |
So real quick, these are just the locations of the four that are in compliance. | 01:57:38 | |
And they're moving on to the businesses that are impartial or out of compliance. So the first. | 01:57:45 | |
Just going alphabetically, is iheart, Cannabis or ICIG? | 01:57:50 | |
And the reason why they're not in compliance is because they have not paid their 5% towards the cities general fund for the months | 01:57:54 | |
of May through August of this year. | 01:57:59 | |
In addition, previous payments were also not made regularly. | 01:58:04 | |
So the Terminal condition #12 other development agreement requires this payment to be made on a monthly basis. | 01:58:08 | |
And just a reminder, the primary purpose for allowing the operation of cannabis businesses is they are a source of revenue for the | 01:58:16 | |
general fund. | 01:58:20 | |
And if we're not getting those payments, then it has a negative impact on our finances and our ability to provide the services to | 01:58:24 | |
include the health and safety of our public. | 01:58:28 | |
So as I mentioned, the development agreement does have a potential remedies. Item number 22 or condition #22 in the development | 01:58:35 | |
agreement states that a developer is in default. | 01:58:40 | |
If they happen to. | 01:58:46 | |
Be or have one of the following events or conditions occur. In this case, it's the finding and determination by the City Council | 01:58:49 | |
made following a periodic review such as tonight's. | 01:58:53 | |
Under the procedures provided in the agreement that, upon the basis of substantial evidence, the developer has not complied in | 01:58:59 | |
good faith with the material requirement of this development agreement. | 01:59:04 | |
So with that, consequently, the Council has a few few options here as far as what they want to do about this. | 01:59:12 | |
First would be to demand full payment from the developer by a certain date, say by the end of the month. | 01:59:20 | |
They could allow a one time payment plan with fixed terms and conditions. The payment plan would be based on the unaudited gross | 01:59:26 | |
receipts. | 01:59:29 | |
We are in the process of conducting audits of all of our businesses, so if the audits do. | 01:59:33 | |
Determined that additional funds are due to the city. Those would be made outside of this payment plan. | 01:59:39 | |
And the reason why I mentioned is payment plan because as you may recall when we had the last review, we had one of our. | 01:59:46 | |
A dispensaries who was out of compliance as well and so the council allowed them to do a payment plan. So. | 01:59:52 | |
To be consistent, we're offering that alternative here again this this time around. | 01:59:59 | |
But three, if you would so choose, you could revoke the development agreement subject to the procedure set forth in the agreement | 02:00:04 | |
and our adopted requirements and procedures. | 02:00:09 | |
Or for again, kind of like what you were asking about whether the last one mayor, if you want to take another action, what we put | 02:00:15 | |
that out there for you as well? | 02:00:19 | |
Staff is recommending, however option number 2 with payment will due by the end of this year. | 02:00:24 | |
So that would be the first business that we have. | 02:00:30 | |
That we need to bring in to compliance. | 02:00:34 | |
The second one is pH organic team. Now as you recall, this business is not in compliance. | 02:00:37 | |
They were approved back in 2019 to operate a micro business consisting of a retail, dispensary, cultivation and distribution | 02:00:42 | |
operations. | 02:00:46 | |
And the location is 475 W Channel Islands Blvd. which is where the Mandarin Chinese restaurant is, for instance, just to the | 02:00:51 | |
immediate east of the Hardy Mall building. | 02:00:55 | |
The developer did submit plans into Plan Check in June 2020, which is within one year of the development agreement taking effect. | 02:01:01 | |
However they. | 02:01:05 | |
Been playing check ever since. | 02:01:10 | |
A lot of that has to do with the fact that. | 02:01:12 | |
They are working with Edison regarding upgrading the electric feed for the building. It's an old building, was developed back in | 02:01:15 | |
the early 1970s. | 02:01:19 | |
Cultivation takes a lot of electricity. | 02:01:23 | |
As they are finding out. And so they are still working more on Edison's schedule than their own. | 02:01:26 | |
However, due to a lack of business operations, they have not been a source of employment opportunities or tax revenue. | 02:01:34 | |
Or nor have they made payments to the general fund, and they have not made, obviously, any charitable contributions as well. | 02:01:41 | |
So we did meet with the applicant or the developer, I should say, and they did propose a timeline. They're assuming that Edison | 02:01:51 | |
are hoping that Edison will approve their power upgrades early next year. | 02:01:58 | |
Which will allow them to then to commence construction on that. | 02:02:06 | |
So they're also hoping to get the build out of at least the dispensary done by March of next year. | 02:02:09 | |
And by next fall have the rest of the build out completed. | 02:02:15 | |
However, again, just for the record, as we mentioned before, we've got the terms of the development agreement and in this case, | 02:02:23 | |
the term #7 is the deadline for project completion. | 02:02:27 | |
Even though they're in plan check, they are not completed within one year of approval obviously. | 02:02:33 | |
And then of course, we have default and Remedy #22. Again, I won't read all of this, but basically again, it's the finding that | 02:02:40 | |
they're not in compliance. | 02:02:44 | |
Or made a good faith. | 02:02:49 | |
Of material requirement of the development agreement and they've also not made their their payment, so to speak, with what all | 02:02:51 | |
that next paragraph talks about. | 02:02:55 | |
And so again the City Council may ought to, may opt to to do the finally the following. | 02:03:02 | |
They may revise the terms of the development agreement. | 02:03:08 | |
Basically that would extend it out from. | 02:03:11 | |
2020 out to October 2024. | 02:03:15 | |
And this is per the timeline proposed by the developer. | 02:03:19 | |
You could again revoke their development agreement, or you could take another action as. | 02:03:23 | |
May be desirable. | 02:03:29 | |
Because of the delays from SEC schedule that they're out at the developers control, we are recommending. | 02:03:31 | |
One more try here and that they be able to develop the project out by October of 2024. | 02:03:38 | |
And then our final business to discuss this evening is tradecraft Farms or trade Craft Farms port winning the LLC. | 02:03:47 | |
They are also a micro business or were approved as a micro business consisting of a retail dispensary, cultivation and | 02:03:54 | |
distribution again. | 02:03:58 | |
They're located at 2597 Bulker Drive. | 02:04:03 | |
And they have been in business as a dispensary and a small portion of their cultivation component have been operational, but the | 02:04:07 | |
rest of the cultivation component has not been built out. | 02:04:12 | |
And the the the distribution operations have not commenced at this point. | 02:04:18 | |
So. | 02:04:24 | |
They have not completed build out within one year of their approved development agreement, which was back in 2019. | 02:04:26 | |
And because of that lack of build out there are. | 02:04:33 | |
There is the potential for additional employment opportunities that have not been realized. | 02:04:36 | |
There's also the potential for additional monthly contributions as well as sales contributions, sales tax contributions. | 02:04:42 | |
That also have not been realized. | 02:04:50 | |
And while the developer has a robust um. | 02:04:52 | |
History of charitable contributions. Again, not knowing what the full potential of the revenues from the business is, there could | 02:04:57 | |
be an additional. | 02:05:01 | |
Ability for more charitable contributions as well if build out was realized. | 02:05:07 | |
And so again per the terms of of the development agreement, again I. | 02:05:15 | |
Apologize for this being dry, but we do have again. | 02:05:20 | |
Terms and Condition #7, which was the deadline for project completion not occurring within, not completely occurring within one | 02:05:23 | |
year. | 02:05:26 | |
Of the development agreement taking effect. | 02:05:30 | |
And so again our item number 22. | 02:05:34 | |
Again, is the finding that they have not complied in good faith with the material requirement of the development agreement. | 02:05:38 | |
And again, the 2nd paragraph alludes to not making the full contributions to our general fund. | 02:05:44 | |
Now staff has met with the developer several times with regard to all of this and finding out when build out would finally be | 02:05:52 | |
realized. | 02:05:56 | |
And during those discussions, one of the things the developer mentioned was that they would like to see the the cultivation | 02:06:02 | |
operations. | 02:06:06 | |
Payment toward the general fund be reduced from 5% to 1 or 2%. | 02:06:12 | |
And so based on these discussions and knowing that we needed to to move forward with this to get this here to you this evening. | 02:06:17 | |
We asked that the applicant provide the following, which was first a detailed plan. | 02:06:25 | |
For build out assuming that the 5% cultivation. | 02:06:32 | |
Payment stayed in effect. | 02:06:37 | |
But as option B to that we build out with the cultivations operations being reduced to 2%. | 02:06:40 | |
With the assumption that there might be a difference in the time timeline for build out. | 02:06:49 | |
And then we also asked for backup data to support the need to reduce the contribution requirement for cultivation. | 02:06:54 | |
And again, that kind of goes ties in with what Mr. Vega was saying earlier. | 02:07:02 | |
The applicant, based on this, submitted a letter which reiterated their desire to have the cultivation contribution reduced. | 02:07:07 | |
And indicated that if it was, they could complete build out by the end of summer of 2024. | 02:07:17 | |
So that would have been in response to item B, so to speak. | 02:07:24 | |
However, their letter also stated that at the contribution did not occur or the reduction did not occur, then they would be quote | 02:07:28 | |
UN quote. | 02:07:32 | |
Simply have no incentive to build out any further cultivation in the city of Port Wanami because financial solvency is logically | 02:07:37 | |
and mathematically impossible. | 02:07:41 | |
In quote and this statement was made rather than providing A detailed plan as we had asked for. | 02:07:46 | |
And it indicates basically a refusal to comply with the terms of the development agreement unless the revenue contribution is | 02:07:52 | |
reduced. | 02:07:56 | |
I also want to note that there was no financial data such as the performa or anything else to support. | 02:08:01 | |
Whether or not they could not. | 02:08:09 | |
Build out with anything. | 02:08:13 | |
Greater than the 2% payment for the cultivation. | 02:08:15 | |
Also the plans that they showed were a little incomplete in that, especially in sheet 2A2 which is in your packet. | 02:08:19 | |
Portions of the floor plan weren't specified whether they be built out as far as phase one, phase two or at all. So we had a | 02:08:26 | |
question about that. | 02:08:31 | |
So with all that, consequently you may again opt to and we've got quite a few options here. | 02:08:37 | |
The first is 1A, which is revised the terms of the development agreement to accommodate the new timeline again out to October | 02:08:43 | |
2024. | 02:08:47 | |
A1B would also be to along with the development agreement being amended, it would be to demand full payment of their. | 02:08:52 | |
Called. I forgot to mention that they have not paid any of the cultivation even for the contributions, even though they have been | 02:09:02 | |
in business with at least partial. | 02:09:06 | |
Operations. And so we recommend that you either demand full payment of that no later than October 31st. | 02:09:12 | |
Or 1C would again to be more consistent with the other. | 02:09:19 | |
Businesses that we've looked at for non payment which is to provide a one time payment plan again with the fixed terms and | 02:09:26 | |
conditions based upon an audit. | 02:09:30 | |
Um, and. | 02:09:34 | |
And that would be, again, if the audit shows that there are additional monies owed, those would be due to the city outside of the | 02:09:38 | |
payment plan. | 02:09:42 | |
Your second option #2 would be to revoke the development agreement or three take another action as may be desirable. | 02:09:47 | |
All those staff is concerned about that statement that they wouldn't build out if they didn't have the reduction in the | 02:09:55 | |
cultivation contribution. | 02:09:59 | |
Because the business has well, because the developer has been in business with the dispensary. | 02:10:04 | |
As well as part of their cultivation operations and have been paying. | 02:10:09 | |
Some monies towards our general fund, as well as providing again a fairly healthy amount of charitable contributions. | 02:10:14 | |
We recommend option one, which is extending the development agreement out to October of next year, as well as require a payment | 02:10:22 | |
plan. | 02:10:26 | |
And so with all of that, I won't read this because James just mentioned it earlier. But this again is the side note about we will | 02:10:33 | |
be coming back to you hopefully at the second meeting November 1st in December. | 02:10:39 | |
With some items to discuss making our. | 02:10:46 | |
Business is a little bit more attractive in our growing cannabis. | 02:10:49 | |
Regional cannabis market here. | 02:10:55 | |
The project is exempt from Sequa, which states that Class 9 consists of activities limited entirely to inspections to check for | 02:10:58 | |
performance of an operation. | 02:11:03 | |
Or quality, health and safety of a project. | 02:11:08 | |
With regard to fiscal impact, we do have a review fee now that is collected for all of these reviews. So it pays for time staff's | 02:11:13 | |
time on this because it is a fairly substantial amount of work they have to put together here. | 02:11:19 | |
However, as I mentioned, because we do have two. | 02:11:26 | |
Businesses that are partially in compliance because they have not made their full contributions to our general fund and we have | 02:11:29 | |
one that's not built out at all and therefore not making. | 02:11:34 | |
Any contribution? | 02:11:39 | |
We do have that negative impact on our general fund right now. | 02:11:40 | |
And so with that, Mayor, did you want me to read this or did you want to read this? | 02:11:47 | |
If you if you give me the option, I'm going to make you read it so. | 02:11:52 | |
All right. But if you if you want, I I can read it that's OK. I'll I'll read it if you want. I just I I know it's a long one. | 02:11:56 | |
But in fact I'm gonna read this one because I don't have #8 on there but. | 02:12:04 | |
The IT is recommended the City Council. | 02:12:09 | |
Opened the public hearing and take testimonial and documentary evidence to close the public hearing and consider that evidence. | 02:12:11 | |
Three adopt resolutions determining that the following dispensaries are in compliance with their respective development | 02:12:19 | |
agreements, and those, again, would be Blue Diamond LLC's Freedom First Association. | 02:12:24 | |
Front Door Front Door Enterprises, LLC and pH Investments Group, LLC. | 02:12:30 | |
And for adopt resolutions determining that the following cannabis businesses are impartial compliance with the development | 02:12:35 | |
agreements, that is Innovative Concepts Investment Group, LLC. | 02:12:40 | |
And Tradecraft Farms Dash Portland, Nemia, LLC. | 02:12:45 | |
And five, adopt A resolution determining that the following cannabis business is out of compliance with their respective | 02:12:48 | |
development agreement. | 02:12:51 | |
And that would be Portland Winema Organic Team Incorporated. | 02:12:54 | |
And six make determination that the project is exempt from Sequa. | 02:12:58 | |
And takes such additional related action that may be desirable. | 02:13:02 | |
That's including the which course of action to take regarding the three businesses who are out of compliance with their respective | 02:13:06 | |
development agreements. | 02:13:09 | |
As per the options noted in the staff report. | 02:13:13 | |
And eight direct staff to return back to the City Council at an upcoming meeting with additional recommendations. | 02:13:16 | |
Four potential revisions to the City Canvas program. And with that that concludes my presentation and I'm happy to answer any | 02:13:24 | |
questions. | 02:13:28 | |
I do believe that the team from Tradecraft is here if you've got questions for them. | 02:13:31 | |
And we may have additional applicants as well from the other two businesses. | 02:13:36 | |
OK. | 02:13:40 | |
Thank you, Mr. Stewart, for the presentation. Does Council have any questions for staff at this moment? | 02:13:41 | |
I'm just curious as to why it takes so long. | 02:13:51 | |
To get the power upgrade with SCE. | 02:13:55 | |
And it seems like with. | 02:13:58 | |
The cultivation operations that we haven't had. | 02:14:01 | |
Much success. | 02:14:04 | |
Other than tradecraft, so. | 02:14:06 | |
I I saw this long presentation that. | 02:14:08 | |
I'm not sure if it's tradecraft or another one that is waiting for a power upgrade. | 02:14:10 | |
From FCE it's going to happen in March of 2024 it just. | 02:14:15 | |
Mike. | 02:14:20 | |
How can we? | 02:14:21 | |
Help to make things I know we can't. | 02:14:22 | |
Do electrical work obviously, but is there anything that we could do to to help? | 02:14:25 | |
Help move these businesses forward. | 02:14:30 | |
Additional. | 02:14:32 | |
We have tried to prod SCE as well but they do work on their. | 02:14:33 | |
Own. | 02:14:39 | |
Very. | 02:14:40 | |
Frustratingly slow time frame. It's not just this, it's all kinds of developments. | 02:14:41 | |
We give our applicants if they do need to do something with SCE. | 02:14:46 | |
Months of and sometimes in case, years of heads up. SCE is very, very slow there excuses that they're understaffed. I mean, it | 02:14:50 | |
seems to be the constant. | 02:14:55 | |
And this has been happening again for years. It's not just our cultivators. I've experienced this in other cities I've worked for | 02:15:01 | |
as well. | 02:15:04 | |
It's just unfortunately a fact of life with SCE that you wait on them. | 02:15:08 | |
So I imagine it must be frustrating for you as well. | 02:15:14 | |
And if I could just add, we just installed the sidewalk at Scott St. and we. | 02:15:19 | |
Were held up by SCE and our, you know, we ended up sort of working around SCE. | 02:15:26 | |
So that's partially why you know when Tony and I were reviewing these. | 02:15:32 | |
Umm. | 02:15:36 | |
We understand that because we've been there, we've been there on our own projects and that's why, you know, we took the approach | 02:15:38 | |
of saying we recommend giving a, you know, set extension to allow for that SCE work to occur. | 02:15:44 | |
Thank you, Mr. Stewart for your presentation. I also had a question regarding electricity. Is, is this location in a shared? | 02:15:56 | |
Space is in a building, right? It's the Harvey Model building. | 02:16:04 | |
Or one next door to it. So it's the two, the long two-story building next door to it and yes it is, it's a multi tenant building, | 02:16:08 | |
OK. | 02:16:12 | |
So. | 02:16:16 | |
There is other cannabis businesses in that building, are they not? | 02:16:17 | |
Not in that one. This would be the only cannabis business. They would be taking up several suites. | 02:16:20 | |
Two on the bottom floor. One would be the for the dispensary and distribution operations, the other would be for just their | 02:16:27 | |
offices. | 02:16:30 | |
And the entire 2nd floor would be remodeled for the cannabis operation. | 02:16:34 | |
So the. | 02:16:40 | |
Tenants downstairs don't have the same electrical needs that they would upstairs because they're not cannabis businesses. | 02:16:41 | |
And specifically, not cultivation, not cultivate. OK. | 02:16:49 | |
Thanks. | 02:16:53 | |
And then I had a question about tradecraft. | 02:16:53 | |
Is there any? | 02:16:57 | |
Reason and and I guess this is their business. I'm not trying to tell them how to do their business, but if they believe that. | 02:16:59 | |
It's not economically feasible to have a cultivation operation or that it's not supported with a 2% tax. | 02:17:06 | |
Um, on their revenue. Why do it? | 02:17:16 | |
Is it possible that they could change their business model and not do the cultivation? | 02:17:19 | |
Or the micro business operation? | 02:17:25 | |
So that they could be. | 02:17:28 | |
More successful at just. | 02:17:30 | |
Their sales that they're doing right now. | 02:17:34 | |
So yes and no, yes. | 02:17:36 | |
They could come back for amount, basically go through the process again through you with modification for the new plan. | 02:17:40 | |
The no part is that the DCC, the state Department of Cannabis. | 02:17:47 | |
Requires that you either have a standalone. | 02:17:54 | |
One component business they a dispensary or you have a micro business with at least three and for some reason they don't allow A2 | 02:17:58 | |
part business. | 02:18:02 | |
So. | 02:18:07 | |
Basically if. | 02:18:09 | |
Tradecraft wanted to lose the the cultivation altogether. Or they can come back and just ask to. | 02:18:11 | |
Amend all of their approvals for a dispensary. | 02:18:18 | |
Um. Or they would need to? | 02:18:22 | |
Continue to move forward with their micro business. | 02:18:25 | |
That all said. | 02:18:30 | |
One of the things that we're going to be looking at again because we've had a request from one of our other folks that wants to | 02:18:32 | |
have. | 02:18:36 | |
Standing alone. | 02:18:41 | |
Dispensary and standalone distribution so they can. | 02:18:43 | |
Basically distribute their. | 02:18:47 | |
Their product that they make elsewhere to their dispensary. | 02:18:50 | |
So that's something that we're considering allowing. | 02:18:54 | |
Because right now the only reason, the only way we can allow distribution in the commercial zone, which is where all of these | 02:18:58 | |
businesses are. | 02:19:01 | |
Is as a ancillary used to the main commercial as. | 02:19:05 | |
I don't think anybody was here back in 2016 or 2017 when we. | 02:19:10 | |
Came up with this plan with the idea was that we wanted to when we came up with our ordinance. | 02:19:13 | |
It was not actually within the zoning ordinance because otherwise if we had changed it, we would have had to go through a Coastal | 02:19:18 | |
Commission. | 02:19:21 | |
At the time we were trying to. | 02:19:24 | |
Move things forward. So distribution could only be ancillary based on our existing land use tables. | 02:19:27 | |
But. | 02:19:33 | |
Spoiler alert. We've got several code amendments for various things, mainly housing, that are going to be coming to you within the | 02:19:34 | |
next few months. | 02:19:37 | |
They'll all have to go to a Coastal Commission, so we might as back any changes to our. | 02:19:41 | |
To our land use tables on that as well, so now is a good time to start looking at that so. | 02:19:46 | |
That Long story short, that could be an option where they have basically two separate businesses. | 02:19:52 | |
Two separate licenses. | 02:19:58 | |
For instance. | 02:20:00 | |
Just one more question for those businesses that are in partial compliance or not in compliance. | 02:20:01 | |
Is it your experience or staff experience that these? | 02:20:08 | |
Businesses are working in good faith that they really are trying to comply with the development agreements. | 02:20:13 | |
We have to decide, you know, how lenient we're going to be. So are they really willing to work with us? | 02:20:21 | |
Are they aggressively pursuing? | 02:20:27 | |
The. | 02:20:29 | |
So I would say that, you know, for instance, again we've got the SEC problem which is kind of stalled that project altogether. So | 02:20:31 | |
and I do know that they've been working with SCE for a long time now. I do get the emails and whatnot so. | 02:20:37 | |
I do see the back and forth there. | 02:20:45 | |
I know that iheart cannabis, he has made an attempt. I got an e-mail from him Friday actually he said that he. | 02:20:47 | |
Found some funding, so hopefully we will see him come into compliance very soon. | 02:20:55 | |
And hopefully stay there. Again, in a small business, we'd like to make sure that he stays open if possible. | 02:20:59 | |
And tradecraft again, like I said, they have been in operation. They've been doing well as a as a dispensary. | 02:21:05 | |
If if we were looking at them just as a dispensary, we could easily say that they were in full compliance. | 02:21:13 | |
It's. It's the rest of the. | 02:21:18 | |
The issues we have and like I said, there was the tone in their letter that is a concern that they are not wanting to or willing | 02:21:21 | |
to build out. | 02:21:24 | |
But assuming we can continue working with them like to do so. | 02:21:29 | |
Thank you. | 02:21:35 | |
Mr. Stewart, you said that tradecraft is here. | 02:21:37 | |
Correct. I would like to ask them why? | 02:21:40 | |
They responded in a way that they did and why they refused to provide the documentation that you requested. | 02:21:44 | |
If they can speak to that. | 02:21:53 | |
Yeah, you have to come up. | 02:21:55 | |
Should we open the hearing at this point or, yeah, open the hearing? Yes. So we'll move. | 02:21:58 | |
We will ask some more questions afterwards, but we'll open the public hearing. | 02:22:04 | |
For public input, the time is now 7:50 PM. | 02:22:09 | |
OK. | 02:22:21 | |
I don't know. | 02:22:21 | |
Is that true, Mr. | 02:22:23 | |
The council can continue, but it's good practice for council members to request permission to leave during A. | 02:22:26 | |
Public hearing. | 02:22:32 | |
Alright, we will continue proceed. | 02:22:34 | |
You're OK to talk? | 02:22:37 | |
Thank you very much. Thanks for having us, Mr. Stewart, Honourable Mayor. | 02:22:39 | |
Yeah. Thank you. | 02:22:43 | |
First of all, I want you to know that Tradecraft Farm takes this this meeting tonight very, very seriously. We understand the | 02:22:44 | |
gravity of everything that's going on. | 02:22:48 | |
And we take our responsibility and the in the city of Port winning me very seriously. | 02:22:52 | |
I will. I will. | 02:22:58 | |
Address the the comment that that you're referring to. | 02:22:59 | |
Only this incident and I think it might have been taken out of context, but I understand that it was quoted. | 02:23:04 | |
The point is. | 02:23:09 | |
Is that in 2016? | 02:23:10 | |
The cannabis business was a completely different beast. | 02:23:12 | |
It was tremendously. | 02:23:16 | |
By leaps and bounds different. | 02:23:18 | |
It has as of late. | 02:23:21 | |
Crashed and burned, death spiraled. | 02:23:23 | |
Exploded, impacted, and completely obliterated for the last 2 1/2 to three years. | 02:23:25 | |
We have struggled very, very hard to survive. | 02:23:31 | |
That's the truth. | 02:23:35 | |
At some point it is. | 02:23:40 | |
My job as the CEO and as the founder, the cofounder of the company, is to keep the ship afloat, right? | 02:23:42 | |
Because we have many many employees. | 02:23:48 | |
Umm. | 02:23:51 | |
And sometimes I have to make very tough decisions on whether. | 02:23:53 | |
We. | 02:23:57 | |
You know if, if, whether we keep that ship afloat. | 02:23:59 | |
There's there's different cities that we're in. | 02:24:02 | |
Ort Why nemi? | 02:24:05 | |
You know. | 02:24:07 | |
Cultivation is very, very difficult. | 02:24:09 | |
Because it doesn't. | 02:24:11 | |
Translate like downtown LA. | 02:24:13 | |
Which is much cheaper for this to do the business. | 02:24:16 | |
And Lancaster, where we're where we're. | 02:24:20 | |
Doing a lot of cultivation now. | 02:24:23 | |
Umm. | 02:24:25 | |
You know, I have, I have James here, yeah. | 02:24:29 | |
Yeah, so. | 02:24:32 | |
One example, thank you. James is our Chief of staff and. | 02:24:34 | |
Mr. Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem and. | 02:24:38 | |
Honourable council members, I just want to. | 02:24:40 | |
Touch base on the Edison issue. | 02:24:42 | |
You know. | 02:24:44 | |
Edison in Port Wanami is so prohibitive. | 02:24:45 | |
Cost wise. | 02:24:49 | |
In. | 02:24:50 | |
Lancaster, we have a six. | 02:24:52 | |
Sent. | 02:24:54 | |
Per kWh charge. | 02:24:56 | |
For electricity. | 02:24:57 | |
In Port Wanami, during summertime peak hours, it's $0.56. | 02:24:59 | |
If you do the math, you can understand. | 02:25:04 | |
Cultivation. | 02:25:06 | |
Is electric electric electricity? You know, it demands a lot of electricity. | 02:25:08 | |
You know you're creating a. You're basically creating. | 02:25:13 | |
A. | 02:25:17 | |
An environment. You're controlling the environment with the electricity, with the lighting. | 02:25:19 | |
And you have to have. | 02:25:23 | |
All kinds of environmental controls. | 02:25:26 | |
That create. | 02:25:28 | |
A umm. | 02:25:30 | |
Some an environment that's conducive for the plants to grow. | 02:25:32 | |
And at 5356 cents. | 02:25:35 | |
Per kWh, it it it doesn't make sense. It it doesn't it's it's not cost, it's cost prohibitive. | 02:25:38 | |
And so. | 02:25:45 | |
So it makes it extremely difficult here in Port Wanami. | 02:25:46 | |
We're doing, we are doing and of course we take this seriously and I do believe that the that the comment that was made in the | 02:25:49 | |
letter was taken out of. | 02:25:53 | |
Context. It wasn't meant as a. | 02:25:57 | |
It wasn't meant as a well, we're not gonna do it in nice and comment on that as well. Yeah. And I'm sorry, we're just kind of. | 02:25:59 | |
Now we're all rattled here, but. | 02:26:04 | |
I think the point was in, and I think our conversations with Tony was that nothing could change. You were either going to do it or | 02:26:06 | |
you're not going to do it. | 02:26:09 | |
The point is as it as. | 02:26:13 | |
In 2016, we came in big. | 02:26:15 | |
We came in large. We came in like, where can I just we're gonna you know build out 17,000 square feet. We're. | 02:26:18 | |
It has become so expensive to build cultivations. Now that's a that's an $8 million build out. | 02:26:24 | |
We just don't have $8 million right now. So if it came down to like either build it or don't. | 02:26:30 | |
I don't know what my decision would be, but I don't want to make that decision. We want to be here in Port Wanami. Well, I I | 02:26:37 | |
understand. I completely understand what you're saying. But I think. | 02:26:41 | |
And correct me if I'm wrong, you just wanted to have a reason why they're asking for the 2% you wanted. | 02:26:46 | |
To have information. | 02:26:53 | |
Why they're asking for that reduction, correct. That's correct. And and. | 02:26:55 | |
It wasn't necessarily. I misunderstood that, but I I don't believe there was a 2% offer earlier on. | 02:27:00 | |
And so that we were just saying that if we get to a point where we can reduce that cultivation tax. | 02:27:06 | |
Then I think we see a path to build out more. | 02:27:11 | |
We've already got 50 lights there we're already cultivating in Port Wanami. | 02:27:15 | |
Umm. | 02:27:19 | |
We have a plan and we offered that plan. | 02:27:20 | |
To build out distribution. | 02:27:23 | |
All the processing. | 02:27:26 | |
All of the the nursery and everything that we would need as a footprint and to supply that entire building, we can do that. | 02:27:28 | |
Almost immediately we can start and the reason that it doesn't have a detailed plan is because it's a drywall and mud. | 02:27:36 | |
You don't need anything but one page to say you put up the drywall and you put up the mud. | 02:27:43 | |
And then you're ready to go. | 02:27:48 | |
It will need a couple of, you know, air conditioning units and dehumidifiers and things like that, but nothing super complicated. | 02:27:49 | |
And if we can do that? | 02:27:57 | |
And if we can have six months to to to do that, we can do that and after that we can commit to another 50 light room. | 02:27:59 | |
Which would give us over 100 lights in Port Wanami. | 02:28:07 | |
And if we had a year to do that, we could do that. | 02:28:11 | |
But to commit to October. | 02:28:14 | |
1st for the entire 17,000, which is hundreds and hundreds of lights and millions of dollars. | 02:28:16 | |
We haven't even gone out to SE Edison and we need an upgrade and it's hundreds of thousands of dollars from them to do that. | 02:28:22 | |
It's just getting complicated and we're here for the long haul. We're not going anywhere. We have no desire to leave. | 02:28:27 | |
Did you relay that to absolutely many times emails and. | 02:28:34 | |
Yes, absolutely. | 02:28:39 | |
And I'm in. And if I didn't make it clear, I apologize. | 02:28:41 | |
I'm pretty sure it was clear though. I mean. | 02:28:45 | |
We're going off of what your letter stated. | 02:28:48 | |
Right. But there was, there was many emails over and over and over and over your your letter is the plan. | 02:28:51 | |
For our request, that is in the City Council's packet, and the recommendation is based upon what you put in your own letter. It's | 02:28:58 | |
not a recommendation that we're pulling out of the thin air. | 02:29:03 | |
So what you folks put in your letter is what the City Council just heard for a recommendation. | 02:29:09 | |
Some information I mean. | 02:29:16 | |
Obviously make better decisions for the conversation. We would love to have this conversation and move forward. We always have | 02:29:18 | |
been. We've been very open. We've been very communicative with Mr. Stewart. We we really. | 02:29:23 | |
Would I know? Paula here is our compliance officer, She wrote the letter. | 02:29:28 | |
And. | 02:29:32 | |
You know we. | 02:29:34 | |
We're here to make it work. | 02:29:36 | |
OK. Thank you Real quick, Mr. City Manager. | 02:29:37 | |
Are you? | 02:29:41 | |
Do you understand the issue and would you be able to explain it in a simpler? | 02:29:41 | |
In simpler terms. | 02:29:46 | |
I think so. I may be focusing on just one part of it and. | 02:29:48 | |
A. | 02:29:53 | |
I was thinking sort of big picture, which is what we want to do with the follow up item that we're recommending you know, where we | 02:29:56 | |
really look at kind of the. | 02:30:00 | |
Cannabis environment around us and come back with recommendations. | 02:30:04 | |
Because. | 02:30:07 | |
In a nutshell. | 02:30:09 | |
I haven't heard of very many cultivation businesses getting open yet. And I think that they're struggling to get open. I when I | 02:30:11 | |
got here and I heard Tradecraft had there was open, I was actually surprised. I go like, you know, wow there's one open in the | 02:30:16 | |
county there might. | 02:30:21 | |
Might be others now, but as an example, in Ohi we had issued 3 permits for micro businesses that could cultivate. None had been | 02:30:26 | |
open in the two years since we had issued those permits. | 02:30:31 | |
So. | 02:30:36 | |
So it is, sort of. | 02:30:38 | |
People are struggling to figure it out and I think for all the reasons mentioned, costs in the county and all of those types of | 02:30:40 | |
things. | 02:30:43 | |
But the other thing is because of that. | 02:30:47 | |
I think everybody's still trying to sort of figure out like what it's actually going to do and generate and what the appropriate | 02:30:50 | |
tax level is for these. | 02:30:54 | |
And so. | 02:30:58 | |
Obviously we would want it to be sort of a collaborative conversation and we wouldn't want it to be a hostile conversation. | 02:30:59 | |
But I think that's something that we should look at. It's something that we were planning to look at as part of this cannabis | 02:31:06 | |
review is what is the appropriate. | 02:31:09 | |
Tax rate for cultivation. | 02:31:14 | |
I think the county recently allowed it, the county of Ventura and they they set their tax rate at 4%. | 02:31:16 | |
I think Ohio was 4% or 3%. | 02:31:23 | |
So there is. | 02:31:26 | |
An element. | 02:31:28 | |
You know. | 02:31:29 | |
We would want it to be a discussion, and that's probably going to be my ask from tradecraft is let's like, you know, get together | 02:31:30 | |
to discuss this. | 02:31:33 | |
But we might look around and see that our tax rate is even though when we started we were. | 02:31:37 | |
Reasonable. We might be higher than everybody else now. | 02:31:42 | |
I don't know that yet. And I think to Tony's point, one of the things we were asking for is like show us what you're basing it on, | 02:31:45 | |
you know, this tax rate we submitted that, yeah, but so. So that's something we can look at and bring back. | 02:31:50 | |
So that for the purposes of tonight. | 02:31:56 | |
You know, the recommendation was basically. | 02:31:58 | |
To. | 02:32:01 | |
Revised the terms of the development agreement to allow the extra time for the build out. | 02:32:03 | |
And then to allow the payment plan, but I think with that second item that we were talking about. | 02:32:07 | |
We would come back and say, you know, do we need to adjust the tax rate for cultivation and I think that's something that we'll do | 02:32:13 | |
some research on and come back on. | 02:32:17 | |
Yeah, I I think. | 02:32:22 | |
I want to. I hope that our city and our council and our. | 02:32:24 | |
City manager or showing empathy? Because for me, right now I'm just like, whoa, $0.56 per kilowatt, 6%, I mean six cents. | 02:32:27 | |
That's real steep, and I don't see why you would want cultivation in Wanami when you get it for six cents in Lancaster, and then | 02:32:36 | |
there's a freeway between Lancaster and Wanami. | 02:32:41 | |
So I understand that that how frustrating it is. | 02:32:48 | |
And you know, that's. | 02:32:51 | |
And in essence, that's a big tax, right? | 02:32:53 | |
So. | 02:32:57 | |
Going back before I was on council and these things were coming and being, you know, all these. | 02:32:58 | |
I thought cultivation was going to be it because all the I called it cannabis Cowboys came right in town saying we're gonna do | 02:33:04 | |
this, we're gonna do that, we're gonna do this and and. | 02:33:08 | |
No, you're the only one. You're the only one. | 02:33:13 | |
That pulled off the cultivation. | 02:33:16 | |
All the other ones are gone. | 02:33:19 | |
So. | 02:33:21 | |
Umm. | 02:33:22 | |
I I feel for you. I think it's tough. And I and then hearing about SCE and you're gonna have to go for a power upgrade, I mean. | 02:33:23 | |
It's tough, so I I just hope that we could. | 02:33:31 | |
Take a look at those taxes. Things are changing rapidly right now. | 02:33:35 | |
And we're going to have to. | 02:33:40 | |
We're gonna have to come up with a way to help you be competitive, but. | 02:33:42 | |
I just don't see how you could be competitive with that electricity pathway and we're open for the conversation. I I really want | 02:33:46 | |
to make that very clear we we can make this a we we want to be at this conversations you have. | 02:33:52 | |
We're pros. We know what we're talking about. | 02:33:58 | |
Especially with these two here, like we we know what's going on. | 02:34:00 | |
We if we can help in any way on that, we will. We would love to be a part of that. | 02:34:04 | |
You don't wanna go anywhere. | 02:34:08 | |
Just a final comment. | 02:34:10 | |
To go towards the communication, just make sure. | 02:34:11 | |
You're communicating. | 02:34:14 | |
With our director for community development, just make sure whatever information he needs from you. | 02:34:16 | |
Just to make this process easier and so that we can make sure that your process your business. | 02:34:21 | |
Is being effective. Just make sure that you're providing him the information that he needs so that we can get you approved. | 02:34:26 | |
That would be that would be helpful for us. | 02:34:33 | |
And then just to clarify, in the meantime a an extension, can you explain the extension that's requested? Is that that is that | 02:34:38 | |
going to help? | 02:34:41 | |
The way I interpreted it and and again I think we're we're seeing it slightly through different lenses but. | 02:34:49 | |
We, we were saying that we can in the next six months we can get the district, we can get 4 rooms up, its distribution, it's the | 02:34:55 | |
the nursery, it's the drawing and the processing. So it's 4 rooms and that will service the entire building, right. So that's done | 02:35:00 | |
now. Now we can service whole building. | 02:35:06 | |
It's those grow rooms which we have like seven of which are really expensive. They're they're hundreds of thousands each one now. | 02:35:12 | |
We've already fire suppressed the whole building. | 02:35:16 | |
$100,000 we've already drywalled. We've I mean we've already framed, we've already insulated. We've already done a bunch of stuff | 02:35:22 | |
for the entire building. | 02:35:25 | |
The problem is, is that we're only approved for another room like 60 lights roughly by SCE and that that cost us $40,000 to get | 02:35:30 | |
that to get that estimate. | 02:35:36 | |
So we will have to go through the same process as the other folks over on the other the other cultivation. And we're dreading that | 02:35:42 | |
because we know it's hundreds of thousands of dollars for the upgrade. We know that it's going to take forever. It's going to be | 02:35:47 | |
like pulling teeth, but. | 02:35:51 | |
In that year's time that you offered, we can get that other room up. | 02:35:55 | |
And be operating at full capacity for our current electrical output. | 02:35:59 | |
And and that's over 100 lights in Portland, Emma. And it's substantial and and we we have been. | 02:36:04 | |
Paying into that and we. | 02:36:09 | |
I think we're only a few $1000 out of compliance if we're correct at $7000 out of compliance. We paid everything else. | 02:36:12 | |
That's my understanding. It might be wrong but. | 02:36:18 | |
I'm not positive about that, but again. | 02:36:20 | |
To the mayor's question. | 02:36:23 | |
What is your ultimate? | 02:36:25 | |
Build out. | 02:36:28 | |
Date at this point it's obviously beyond a year and you say ultimate, you mean the entire building with everything. | 02:36:29 | |
And and that is where then we have to address your question. | 02:36:35 | |
Because I don't know. | 02:36:38 | |
At 50-6 cents a kilowatt. | 02:36:40 | |
If I can build out a 17,000 square foot building. | 02:36:43 | |
It would be suicide. | 02:36:47 | |
Nobody would do that right now. | 02:36:50 | |
Now. | 02:36:52 | |
I can definitely build another room. I can do 100 lights because I can push that into my store there and I can make that work. It | 02:36:53 | |
is not a smart business move. | 02:36:57 | |
It isn't. It does not make sense financially. | 02:37:02 | |
But it makes sense emotionally and it makes sense. | 02:37:05 | |
With my, with my deal with Port Winema, absolutely. And we'll do that. We would absolutely do that. | 02:37:08 | |
What I can do is guarantee that within a year we can get that other room up and those and all of the other facilities to get the | 02:37:13 | |
rest of the. | 02:37:17 | |
You know that's that's repairing the rest of the building and hopefully something changes. Hopefully the price of cannabis goes | 02:37:20 | |
back up, hopefully taxes come down, hopefully. | 02:37:25 | |
The the wins, Yeah. The the black market finally starts to get, you know, taken care of. | 02:37:30 | |
70% of all cultivation licenses weren't renewed in California this year. | 02:37:35 | |
Did those people leave the cultivation game? | 02:37:39 | |
No. | 02:37:41 | |
They just stopped paying taxes. | 02:37:42 | |
You know, and that's not us. | 02:37:44 | |
We're we're here. | 02:37:46 | |
For the long haul, so. | 02:37:48 | |
You know, so that's to answer your question. That's the best I can answer it. If if we can keep the conversation going, I'll I'll | 02:37:50 | |
commit today, right now. | 02:37:54 | |
That will absolutely get those four rooms plus the other room of cultivation done and maximize our power output right now. | 02:37:58 | |
But I can't guarantee that we'll have the building done because. | 02:38:05 | |
We know for a fact that SCE won't we won't be upgraded by then. | 02:38:08 | |
There's no way. | 02:38:12 | |
And I and I won't promise you something that I can. | 02:38:13 | |
I'll never do that. | 02:38:15 | |
I just wanted. | 02:38:18 | |
One thing. | 02:38:20 | |
That hasn't been brought up. | 02:38:21 | |
You know, when we came into the city of Port Wanami? | 02:38:23 | |
Umm. | 02:38:26 | |
The the cost that the. The. | 02:38:27 | |
The amount that we were selling. | 02:38:29 | |
A pound of. | 02:38:31 | |
High grade. | 02:38:33 | |
Cannabis. | 02:38:34 | |
Was approximately 2425 hundred dollars 3600 but then. | 02:38:35 | |
2016 Anyway it's down, it's down below 1000 bucks. | 02:38:40 | |
It's below $1000. | 02:38:45 | |
That's how much it's decreased. | 02:38:47 | |
So when you know I get nervous, I'm not gonna lie, I get nervous when he says we can do this. And I'm counting the dollars in my | 02:38:49 | |
head going, I don't know if that's possible. | 02:38:52 | |
It's, it's, it is. We've been challenged with. | 02:38:56 | |
With a declining market for the last three years. | 02:39:00 | |
And every time that we think things are going to change or. | 02:39:03 | |
Or or or. | 02:39:07 | |
Get better. | 02:39:09 | |
You know, we get hit with another challenge. | 02:39:10 | |
And you know, it's not just the decrease in. | 02:39:13 | |
It's not just the decrease in in the, you know the amount that we make. | 02:39:16 | |
There's increased costs everywhere. | 02:39:20 | |
In this industry and you know the ancillary businesses. | 02:39:24 | |
That we deal with the 2nd that they hear the word cannabis the the price is is increased 3 times. | 02:39:27 | |
No matter what it's for. | 02:39:34 | |
Everyone, still thanks for making everybody thanks for making money. | 02:39:35 | |
And we're not. | 02:39:39 | |
And it's it's that's that's one of the big challenges that we have. | 02:39:40 | |
Any. | 02:39:44 | |
Yeah, And the last thing I'll say is I wanna keep it positive. And you mentioned Cowboys. We are the Cowboys. Like, we're here. | 02:39:45 | |
We're not going nowhere like we're here. We're gonna keep growing and cultivating in Fort Wayne. Amy. | 02:39:50 | |
We just need to have that conversation. We'll commit to the four rooms plus the extra. | 02:39:55 | |
Room of cultivation. That's the Max our our power will allow. | 02:40:00 | |
We can't. | 02:40:04 | |
Can't grow anymore than that. | 02:40:05 | |
We can do that within a year and we can keep this conversation going and we're not going anywhere. We're going to keep we've. | 02:40:06 | |
We've given hundreds of thousands to vets In part we need me. We've. | 02:40:11 | |
We paid dressed up like an elf that cops for right-handed out. | 02:40:16 | |
I think I remember the L. | 02:40:22 | |
We're not going any. | 02:40:26 | |
You'll have it. | 02:40:28 | |
Of people. | 02:40:29 | |
I just want to make one something positive I. | 02:40:32 | |
I think that neighborhood has changed since you moved in. I like what you did with the parking lot, and I've been inside your | 02:40:35 | |
facility. That cultivation portion of your building is fabulous. I love it. And I. | 02:40:40 | |
I hope that we can. | 02:40:46 | |
Work out a plan to keep you there, because I think it's been it's been actually good for the community. Thank you. And again, not | 02:40:48 | |
to knock any of the other dispensaries, but some people just moved in, didn't even change the carpet and just opened up for | 02:40:52 | |
business. | 02:40:56 | |
You can tell when you walk into our store, we're not going anywhere. | 02:41:01 | |
We we we built a flagship. We want to be here for the long haul. | 02:41:04 | |
And we want people. We made a deal. I mean, my brother, when we started this company, we were only going to build stores that we | 02:41:07 | |
take our grandma into, and that's what we built. | 02:41:11 | |
Would it be possible? I don't know if it's if it's permissible, but I'd like to see. I'd like to have a tour. | 02:41:17 | |
Of your facility. So I can see exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, is that. | 02:41:24 | |
Is that something that we can do? | 02:41:27 | |
OK. | 02:41:29 | |
If you could leave your card, I'd be happy to contact you. | 02:41:30 | |
Set that up. All right. Thank you. Thanks so while today. | 02:41:33 | |
You do it as less than a quorum so that it's not a brown act, maybe. | 02:41:37 | |
So while tonight we're not discussing, at least I don't believe we're discussing the the tax part. | 02:41:44 | |
I'm curious, Mr. Stewart, is is your is there an answer good enough for you? Is it sufficient? How do you how do you feel about | 02:41:50 | |
it? | 02:41:54 | |
I'm going to also defer to the city attorney because normally, again, the way that the development agreements are written, there | 02:41:57 | |
is a finite time frame on it now. Every one of them has been a year up till now. | 02:42:03 | |
We are recommending an extension for two of our businesses here. | 02:42:09 | |
And that's why I was asking what the ultimate build out date would be so that we had that finite timeline. | 02:42:14 | |
It's not that I'm wanting them to commit in stone, it's just unfortunately I believe our development agreements need to require | 02:42:20 | |
that. | 02:42:22 | |
I'm going to defer to our city attorney as well and maybe he can have some additional input. | 02:42:26 | |
With respect to development agreements, the Council has wide latitude under the. | 02:42:34 | |
State legislation, the statutes that authorize these are statutory development agreements. By the way, they're not, they're not | 02:42:39 | |
done. There's various different types. These ones are statutory. I believe it's government code section 3600 something. | 02:42:44 | |
The council has wide latitude to achieve the objectives of the city's cannabis policies and whatnot. | 02:42:52 | |
It's through the use of development agreements. | 02:43:00 | |
Umm. | 02:43:02 | |
As this is a public hearing, any decision rendered by Council should be based on substantial evidence. | 02:43:03 | |
Yeah, I I'm going to refrain from providing any. | 02:43:12 | |
Partisan legal analysis at the at the moment, because this matter, and I also want to clarify, have not assisted Mr. Stewart in | 02:43:19 | |
bringing this matter before Council. | 02:43:23 | |
There is case law that says that I may not be prosecutor as well as neutral, and so I have to wear two hats Here. I'm choosing to | 02:43:29 | |
use the one that I advise counsel on instead of prosecuting this matter. | 02:43:35 | |
Um. | 02:43:41 | |
That being said, what I think I would recommend is. | 02:43:43 | |
I would like to see I I would recommend that there be a proposal given. | 02:43:50 | |
I I I've heard statements that. | 02:43:54 | |
60 light buildout can be achieved in six months at a reduced. | 02:43:58 | |
Development agreement fee of 2%. I think I would like to see an offer that that be accomplished within six months and that this | 02:44:04 | |
issue be revisited. | 02:44:08 | |
With additional financial data supporting any agreement to amend that development agreement. | 02:44:12 | |
So we heard that their business plan was. | 02:44:20 | |
I'll just pick a 2500. | 02:44:23 | |
Dollar per pound. | 02:44:26 | |
And with the price now being $900 per pound, I mean, that's huge, I mean. | 02:44:28 | |
The business plan, as written in 2016, is no longer. | 02:44:33 | |
Viable. | 02:44:39 | |
O. | 02:44:40 | |
I just want us. | 02:44:41 | |
The council to recognize that fact. | 02:44:43 | |
And make a reasonable adjustments. | 02:44:46 | |
To help. | 02:44:49 | |
I I personally, after what I've just heard, I don't think. | 02:44:50 | |
It's at this point in time I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to build it all out. | 02:44:55 | |
And survive. | 02:45:01 | |
And so I understand. | 02:45:03 | |
Maybe the choice of words in that letter wasn't wasn't whatever, but I I get it. | 02:45:04 | |
And from your side of the of of it it's like. | 02:45:10 | |
Look at our business plan, it's way off the mark. I mean, because when you draw a business plan, you expect things to to stay the | 02:45:13 | |
same and obviously things don't. | 02:45:16 | |
So can we, so we we can. | 02:45:21 | |
We could adjust. | 02:45:24 | |
The agreement. | 02:45:26 | |
To what's reasonable given. | 02:45:27 | |
The situation we're in right now and adjust it to a point now, now I'm gonna need Tony to speak to this matter. They are a micro | 02:45:30 | |
business, is that correct? Correct. | 02:45:35 | |
So under the state micro business law, they are required to have three components to their business. | 02:45:40 | |
Do they currently have 3 components to their business? Are they in compliance with the state law? | 02:45:46 | |
As far as just on paper, yes. | 02:45:51 | |
OK. And and by on paper, you mean that they are actually operating 3 distinct segments of a cannabis business in compliance with | 02:45:54 | |
state law. They are operating two of the three, the cultivation and the retail dispensary, but not the distribution component? | 02:46:01 | |
So the distribution, if that's not brought up to speed, that is not a micro business under state law definitions. | 02:46:09 | |
OK. | 02:46:16 | |
Under state law. | 02:46:18 | |
What constitutes a? | 02:46:20 | |
Working distribution is that one delivery 2/3. It would just be one the minimum I guess. And and again I'm the one person who | 02:46:22 | |
shouldn't. Would you like it? Yeah, I would say that our distribution is. | 02:46:29 | |
We actually are operational whether we're actually generating. | 02:46:36 | |
Revenue distinctly from distribution is a different thing, but we do perform the functions that are unique to distributors. | 02:46:40 | |
Under the DC state cannabis regulations. | 02:46:46 | |
And the and we are in compliance with them and our licenses are renewed every year with with no issue. | 02:46:50 | |
And we can take care of that in that first build out we. | 02:46:56 | |
Generate our processing room. No problem. Now we can distribute out of port Winema. Right now we don't have a space to do that, | 02:46:58 | |
which is one of the the problems. | 02:47:02 | |
But we can handle that very quickly and that would be the first six months and then the second six months would be that that 50 | 02:47:06 | |
Lightroom or 60 Lightroom. | 02:47:09 | |
So if if I'm hearing an end to advise council, if council were so inclined, it might be beneficial to solicit an offer, so to | 02:47:13 | |
speak. | 02:47:18 | |
So you would basically then. | 02:47:27 | |
Recommend that we have a that we continue this particular item. | 02:47:30 | |
It's a public hearing and it's already open. So if we continue it, we have to continue it to a date certain. | 02:47:39 | |
Wrap this up. | 02:47:46 | |
O I'm thinking um. | 02:47:50 | |
We're we're planning to bring our cannabis program revisions back in about a month, right? Not the next meeting, but the | 02:47:53 | |
following. | 02:47:57 | |
Mid November. | 02:48:01 | |
So we can continue the public. Well, a I think we can approve the other items, we can approve the others. I was just informed that | 02:48:03 | |
a representative of element 7 which. | 02:48:07 | |
OK, but we can. | 02:48:13 | |
Finished the public hearing, approved the remaining and we can continue. | 02:48:16 | |
This specific item to that second meeting in November where we'd bring cannabis revisions and we would look at. | 02:48:19 | |
What the appropriate? | 02:48:26 | |
Amounts are to to consider setting. | 02:48:29 | |
The. | 02:48:32 | |
Be amounts. | 02:48:34 | |
So that would be one way to proceed at this point and for everyone's benefit, everyone present here this standard of review for a | 02:48:36 | |
council in a land use decision and development agreement decision such as this. | 02:48:42 | |
Is substantial evidence. | 02:48:49 | |
So evidence in a record needs to be presented to justify whatever decision. | 02:48:51 | |
Council is being asked to make. | 02:48:57 | |
All right, let's, let's hear from the public. | 02:49:02 | |
I appreciate. | 02:49:05 | |
You all for being here today. Thank you. | 02:49:07 | |
Umm. | 02:49:10 | |
Ohh so we have public comment, you know Ethan Flores. | 02:49:12 | |
Good evening, Mayor. | 02:49:23 | |
Mayor Pro Tem. | 02:49:24 | |
My name is Ethan Flores. I'm the general manager of Element 7 Express Dispensary. | 02:49:26 | |
We just wanted to take a small amount of your time to introduce our shop and thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the | 02:49:32 | |
Portland, Amy community of cannabis businesses. | 02:49:36 | |
We strive to be a positive addition to the community. | 02:49:40 | |
By staying in compliance, being good neighbors. | 02:49:43 | |
And having no major security issues. | 02:49:46 | |
Our shop is locally staffed and managed. I've been a resident here most of my life. | 02:49:49 | |
We have a loyal local customer base that enjoy our grab and go concept. | 02:49:55 | |
We also love giving back to the community. We volunteer at certain events, do little beach cleanups. | 02:50:01 | |
We like to highlight local businesses by having like 420 Day but focus on the local businesses. | 02:50:08 | |
We've been around for about 18 months now and hope to continue to be a part of the. | 02:50:15 | |
Cannabis and local community here in Fort Wayne, Amy So we would like to extend an invitation to you all to come by and say hi, | 02:50:19 | |
take a tour. | 02:50:22 | |
Visit our shop. | 02:50:26 | |
That's about it. Thank you. Thank you. | 02:50:27 | |
Thank you, Ethan. | 02:50:30 | |
Do we have any more public comments? | 02:50:31 | |
That concludes public comment. | 02:50:35 | |
Alright, so. | 02:50:37 | |
I'm going to close the public hearing. | 02:50:38 | |
The time being 8. | 02:50:40 | |
19. | 02:50:42 | |
M and we have a couple recommendations. Adopt resolutions determining that the following cannabis dispensaries are in compliance | 02:50:44 | |
with their respective development agreements. | 02:50:48 | |
Blue Diamond, Freedom First Association, Front Door Enterprises. | 02:50:53 | |
H Investment Group. | 02:50:58 | |
And adopt resolutions determining. | 02:51:00 | |
That the following cannabis businesses are in partial compliance with their development agreements in Innovative Concepts | 02:51:02 | |
Investment Group, LLC and Tradecraft Farms. | 02:51:06 | |
Or when e-mail CC. | 02:51:11 | |
#3 Adopt A resolution determining that the following cannabis business is out of compliance with their respective development | 02:51:14 | |
agreement. Port Wanami Organic Team, Inc. | 02:51:18 | |
And four make a determination that. | 02:51:22 | |
The project is exempt. | 02:51:26 | |
Under Sequa and Five takes such additional related action that may be desirable, including determining which course of action to | 02:51:28 | |
take regarding the three businesses. | 02:51:33 | |
Or out of compliance with their respective development agreements, per the options noted in the staff report dated October 16th, | 02:51:38 | |
2023. | 02:51:42 | |
May I have a motion in a second? | 02:51:47 | |
We do a motion to approve all staff recommendations. Or do we have to specify each thing? | 02:51:50 | |
Ohh also if you want to address the the tradecraft. | 02:51:57 | |
I think the recommendations slightly yeah motion to approve all staff recommendations, excluding tradecraft, which would be | 02:52:03 | |
brought back for review. | 02:52:08 | |
On we have to have a date certain so I. | 02:52:13 | |
We'll get the exact date because we need the date certain to continue the public hearing November 20th. | 02:52:19 | |
So. | 02:52:26 | |
Like to make a motion to approve all staff recommendations except. | 02:52:27 | |
With regards to tradecraft and we'll come back at the November 20th to readdress. | 02:52:31 | |
2nd. | 02:52:37 | |
Alright, is there any discussion required? | 02:52:39 | |
Madam Clerk, can we please take A roll call vote? | 02:52:43 | |
Council Member Gamma. | 02:52:48 | |
Yes, Mayor Pro Tem Perez. Yes, Council Member Hernandez, yes. | 02:52:51 | |
Council member McQueen, Lesean. | 02:52:56 | |
And Mayor Martinez, yes, motion passes unanimously. | 02:52:58 | |
OK. | 02:53:02 | |
So that's it with the public hearing. | 02:53:04 | |
Hearings. | 02:53:06 | |
Mr. Stewart. | 02:53:08 | |
We don't have any business items tonight. | 02:53:09 | |
Yeah, well, we're going to recess the City Council meeting and call to order the superior. | 02:53:15 | |
The successor agency to the port when you need to Redevelopment Agency in the Housing Successor Agency Special Joint Meeting. | 02:53:19 | |
We will now resist a City Council meeting and call to order the successor agency to the port when Amy Redevelopment Agency. | 02:53:30 | |
And the housing successor agency. | 02:53:37 | |
It is now. | 02:53:39 | |
8:22 PM. | 02:53:41 | |
Madam Clerk, can you please take roll? | 02:53:43 | |
Member Gamma. | 02:53:47 | |
Here, Remember Hernandez? | 02:53:49 | |
Here member McQueen Lejean. | 02:53:51 | |
Here. | 02:53:53 | |
Chair. | 02:53:55 | |
Vice Chair Perez and Chair Martinez, President. | 02:53:56 | |
O we have. | 02:54:01 | |
The last item before U.S. business item number 9, joint resolution regarding property conveyance. Will staff please present the | 02:54:03 | |
report. | 02:54:06 | |
Absolutely, Mayor Martinez. | 02:54:12 | |
I was just looking to see if our city manager wanted to. | 02:54:13 | |
Um. | 02:54:18 | |
So I'll I'll try and make this as painless as possible. Council is is somewhat familiar with these issues stemming back to March | 02:54:20 | |
of 2011. | 02:54:25 | |
We've had numerous properties brought back before trying to correct certain land transfers that happened prior to the state's | 02:54:30 | |
dissolution law, which is a BX1-26. | 02:54:35 | |
Essentially what happened and and a lot of cities attempted to do the same thing, was. | 02:54:41 | |
The governor dissolved the redevelopment agencies in the state of California in an effort to balance the state's budget. So in | 02:54:48 | |
essence, it was a It was a money grab. | 02:54:52 | |
And cities ended up hurting financially as a result of this. So in March. | 02:54:56 | |
Various cities, including the city of Portland and we tried to transfer RNA assets to the city so they didn't have to be sent back | 02:55:01 | |
to the state. | 02:55:05 | |
Well, under the under the dissolution laws, that law came to be known. | 02:55:09 | |
The state conducted an audit. | 02:55:12 | |
And the audit determined that there were several illegal land transfers that had to be reconveyed back to the successor agency | 02:55:15 | |
because they couldn't go to the RDA because the DA didn't exist anymore. | 02:55:20 | |
As a result, we were also required to submit a long range property Management plan to the Department of Finance and the Department | 02:55:27 | |
of Finance had to authorize how all assets, including properties held by various agencies, were disposed of, so to speak. | 02:55:34 | |
So in an effort to correct all of this so that our. | 02:55:41 | |
This our, our successor agency, can be properly wound up because it's done. We have no more recognized obligation schedules. | 02:55:46 | |
To be paid, everything is done. | 02:55:55 | |
It. | 02:55:58 | |
Unfortunately happened that. | 02:55:58 | |
116 W Pleasant Valley and 148 W Pleasant Valley Council adopted a joint resolution conveying those properties to the successor | 02:56:03 | |
agency, as directed by the Comptroller's audit in 2014. | 02:56:10 | |
Well, unfortunately this was incorrect. | 02:56:18 | |
It should have gone to the city as the housing successor agency. | 02:56:20 | |
So as we're sitting here trying to wind U, the successor agency. The successor agency currently holds title to two properties. | 02:56:24 | |
So this is to correct that by conveying those two properties to the housing successor agency so that we can then tell the county | 02:56:31 | |
oversight board that the successor agency no longer owns properties and we can finally get rid of. | 02:56:37 | |
There was also an issue from prior resolutions of certain deeds not being recorded, which basically due to staff turnover and | 02:56:44 | |
various other things, not through any. | 02:56:49 | |
Real. | 02:56:55 | |
Competence issues. | 02:56:56 | |
But eventually what happened is it created wild deeds, wild deeds, if you don't know our Deans, deeds that exist outside the chain | 02:56:58 | |
of title and they do all sorts of weird things. And since there's easements with these properties, the first direction is that. | 02:57:04 | |
From a prior joint resolution, 4 properties were transferred that are identified in the state in the in the staff report, those | 02:57:11 | |
deeds were not recorded. Those deeds need to be recorded first. | 02:57:15 | |
Then what happens is there are already existing grants of easement in favor of SCE recorded. | 02:57:20 | |
And then? | 02:57:26 | |
The successor agency is going to quit claim its title to the properties to the Housing Successor Agency, and that should leave the | 02:57:27 | |
SCE grants of easement in place. | 02:57:32 | |
Because it's a quick claim deed, not a grant deed. | 02:57:36 | |