Gwyn Lurie examines why the 4 th felt so different this year

Nicholas Schou is an award-winning investigative journalist and author of several books, including Orange Sunshine and Kill the Messenger. If you have tips or stories about Montecito, please email him at newseditor@montecitojournal.net

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SB Grand Jury Blasts Board of Supervisors for Marijuana Mess

On June 30, Santa Barbara’s Grand Jury released an historic, scathing report detailing alleged official malfeasance by the Board of Supervisors as it sought to regulate cannabis over the past three years, particularly in Carpinteria but also in North County wine country. By law, the report mentioned no names and took no stand on the legalization of cannabis, which has the support of a majority of county residents. Yet much of the report highlighted what it called questionable behavior by members of the Board’s so-called “Ad Hoc Sub Committee” which only consisted of Supervisors Steve Lavagnino and Das Williams.

In its report, the Grand Jury wrote that as a result of the Ad Hoc committee’s direct handling of cannabis issues on behalf of the county, the cannabis lobby had “nearly unfettered access” to the Board of Supervisors and county staff, resulting in the “excessive allowance of licenses and acreage, creation of an unverified affidavit system,” and other policy errors. According to jurors, the county also failed to follow up on “widespread odor complaints” and other community concerns.

“The action taken by the Santa Barbara Board of Supervisors to certify the development of a robust cannabis industry as the primary objective of the cannabis ordinances has altered the quality of life in Santa Barbara County, perhaps forever,” the report’s introduction flatly states. “Instead of a balanced approach carefully evaluating how the cannabis industry would be compatible, both as to amount of acreage and location, the Board simply opened the floodgates.”

One of the Grand Jury’s most serious charges against the Ad Hoc committee was that it pushed through a tax revenue scheme that allowed growers to be taxed only for the “gross receipts” they produced rather than the actual square-footage area of their farms. Thus, the jurors argued, the county effectively delegated its cannabis tax policy to a bunch of marijuana farmers who might simply sell to end users on the black market whatever portion of their crop they didn’t want to pay taxes for.

Although the committee at one point promised tax revenues as lofty as $25 million per year, Santa Barbara only generated $6.8 million worth of tax revenue from 2018 to 2019. By comparison, Monterey County, which has fewer farms but taxes them by square footage, took in in $15.4 million over the same period.

In any event, jurors argued, the huge revenues being promised by the committee as well as cannabis lobbyists were simply imaginary, assuming all that weed was supposed to be legal. “Santa Barbara is just one of 58 counties in California,” they pointed out, “but with almost 500 registrants seeking as many as 1,365 separate cultivation permits, the county’s growers could potentially produce over 3.7 million pounds of cannabis per year, which is more than double the legal amount of cannabis consumed by the entire state.”

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Under the aegis of the Ad Hoc committee, Lavagnino and Williams also allegedly allowed cannabis growers who own numerous greenhouses on county property immediately surrounding Carpinteria to receive county permits simply by signing affidavits claiming they intended to eventually conform to whatever land-use or other regulations county officials might have in mind. This so-called “legal non-conforming status” category, jurors wrote, allowed individual growers to receive as many 100-square-feet growing permits as they wanted. Each of those permits was supposed to be provided only to lots that included a “residential structure.” The county, however, never enforced that rule, allowing growers to vastly expand their operations and certain Carpinteria farmers to tally up dozens of such permits for their rapidly expanding farms.

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Perhaps the Grand Jury’s most incendiary charge is that it felt stonewalled by the very county executives who were the target of its inquiry, which took some 18 months to complete and included interviews with hundreds of people. “This

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Dr. Zerey Montecito Journal 6/10/2020 6/3/2020 Half Page: 9.866” x 6.19”

Open and ready to provide safe care.

We are prepared to protect your health. If you need medical care, don’t delay.

Your health is essential. Seek help if you need it.

Dr. Marc Zerey, General Surgeon, Chief of Staff, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital

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