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Supes Talking When They Should Be Listening

It’s not required to be a historian to know that legalization of pot in California is the most important law and public policy in California since 1978’s precedent-setting tax reform initiative Proposition 13.

It’s clear that four Mendocino County Supervisors, Dan Gerde, Ted Williams, Glenn McGourty, and Maureen Mulheren aren’t aware of that fact.

They along with two previous Boards of Supervisors have managed to create complete chaos through a combination of ignorance, arrogance, and the uncanny ability to compound an unbroken streak of bad decisions with even worse decisions.

The BOS on April 27, approved the proposed Phase 3 Cannabis Ordinance, including the controversial “10 percent Rule” that allows for cultivation to occur on 10 percent of the total acreage of any parcel that’s a minimum of 10 acres.

Third District Supe John Haschak was the only one to vote against the provision.

The proposed amended Ordinance is now before the County Planning Commission for the second time in about a month. It’s expected to return to the Supes later this month for final approval.

Thus we find ourselves at a juncture where, conservatively, at least 80 percent of County residents are staunchly opposed to the Supes attempting to ram through a breakaway cultivation expansion plan, which they think is a great idea notwithstanding the fact this county and the entire state is experiencing its second consecutive year of drought and now declared water emergencies.

They still haven’t figured out the connection between weed and water even though I’ve tried in vain to educate them over the past four years.

Here’s some friendly advice for the four Supes:

1. There’s a reason why we are all born with two ears but just one mouth. Perhaps the Creative Force was prioritizing listening over talking. It’s difficult to hear what people are saying if you’re talking all the time. That’s why you don’t hear what the vast majority of your constituents are saying to you: No expansion of pot cultivation, there’s too much already.

2. Supervisors don’t understand their role as elected officials. Elected officials are duty-bound to carry out the wishes/demands of clear majorities of constituents unless what they’re asking is unlawful or totally unfeasible, neither of which are applicable with the “10 Percent Rule.” It’s not the Supervisor’s job to substitute their judgment for that of their constituents when they overwhelmingly demand a different course of action than that proposed by the Supervisor.

3. The primary goal of public policy is to accomplish the most good for the most people. The four Supes’ proposed Cannabis public policy is the very antithesis of that objective. County-wide, there is a super-majority of residents who overwhelmingly are opposed to the proposed 10 Percent Rule.

Essentially what’s occurring here is a clash of values and economic models between most County voters and the Board of Supervisors.

Four Supes are advocating for the super-sized cultivation model as they believe, and have said, that County revenues will be enhanced with expansion. They argue that it’s not their responsibility to protect small growers through the mechanism of a Cannabis Ordinance.

Supe Ted Williams, a hard-liner on the benefits of the “bigger-is better” pot ordinance model, argues that, “Using public policy to create a monopoly, essentially rigging the market to only allow legacy cultivators , lacks legal foundation …”

I have no idea what Williams is talking about, and he doesn’t either. It’s perfectly legal to construct regulatory frameworks that restrict, constrain, or cap the size of operations. He wants to “rig” the market so it favors industrial and corporate cultivators.

At the Board’s April 27 meeting, he incredibly, insultingly, and idiotically equated all those opposed to the 10 Percent Rule as favoring something that “reeks of a communist cannabis model.”

Really? That’s his contribution for enlightened, elevated and civil discourse.

Williams unbroken refrain of unloading responsibility and accountability for the utter failure of the Board’s handling of the Cannabis program, serves no useful purpose, nor does his carping about how the vast majority of County residents who oppose the Phase 3 Ordinance, have been misled and bamboozled by, presumably, folks like me, Haschak, Mark Scaramella, Bruce Anderson, leaders of a referendum movement, and who knows who else. Believe me, the people of this County are not fooled by anyone regarding this proposed Ordinance; they figured it out all on their own.

People have also figured out that the takeover of Covelo by violent criminal elements and other scofflaws occurred when they moved in to fill the vacuum created by the County’s premeditated failure to enforce its ordinance. County officials bear responsibility for the violence, lawlessness, and environmental degradation in Round Valley.

In the meantime, some of us are working on a referendum to repeal the 10 Percent Rule in the event the Supes approve it in the final version of the Ordinance. Therefore, it’s time for the four Supervisors who stubbornly cling to the Expansion Rule to stop acting irresponsibly by attempting to shove through the approval process water-intensive proposals that are going to result in a holocaust in our watersheds and devastation to our water sources.

Their 10 percent rule must be withdrawn because it is lousy public policy.

They must re-write the proposed Ordinance to reflect the original intent of legalization in this County: The recognition of the value of the legacy farmers who founded and created this local industry that should not ever be handed over to outside corporate interests who the four Supes favor over their own constituents.

(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, observer@pacific.net, and is also the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org.)

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