Mendocino County Awarded $2.2 Million in Cannabis Equity Grant Funding
Press release from the County of Mendocino:
Mendocino County is proud to announce that the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) has awarded $2,242,704 in Cannabis Equity Grant Funding towards the development and implementation of a Local Equity Program for Mendocino County. Funding for the program will begin in Fiscal Year 2020-2021, and no more than 10% may go towards administration of the program. This leaves more than $2 million for loans, grants, technical assistance, training, waivers and fee reductions for eligible individuals. The Mendocino County Planning and Building Services is working with the Go-Biz to enter into an agreement by the end of June for the awarded equity funding. Planning and Building will announce further details regarding the program implementation and participation this summer.
This grant comes as the result of an unprecedented, extremely intensive, and time-sensitive collaboration in February between local government, and both academic and cannabis industry partners. Mendocino County would like to acknowledge and express appreciation for the considerable efforts made by several individuals and organizations to pull together the resources and information necessary to complete the application. In effort to gather historical information that was necessary to qualify for the funding, Supervisor John McCowen, who has a long and detailed history developing cannabis specific regulations and programs, was instrumental in providing information regarding the County’s prior cannabis programs and ordinance history. “Our staff and consultants have done great work! Our legacy cannabis businesses were already struggling with the high cost and complexity of entering the legal market, so these equity funds are needed now more than ever,” said Second District Supervisor John McCowen. Supervisor Williams spearheaded the effort for a tremendous and effective government, academic institution, and industry partnership. The Executive Office and Planning and Building Services worked collaboratively to coordinate the equity assessment and grant application.
The County worked closely and rapidly with academic partners at the California Center for Rural Policy (CCRP) at Humboldt State University, the Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research (HIIMR), as well as cannabis industry partners including the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance (MCA), Origins Council (OC), and cannabis attorney Hannah Nelson to produce a Mendocino County Equity Assessment which established that Mendocino has been disproportionately impacted by the prohibition of cannabis and the war on drugs. It also concluded that a targeted, data-driven and well-funded Local Equity Program can help certain populations and neighborhoods, particularly small growers and those impacted by past policies that may be left behind, participate in a legal and sustainable economic future.
Program eligibility will be determined based on a set of criteria including, but not limited to: prior arrests for nonviolent cannabis-related offenses, asset forfeiture arising from a cannabis-related event, homelessness resulting from cannabis enforcement, exploitation or violence while participating in the cannabis industry, members of minority populations, cannabis businesses located in areas with a more than 20% poverty rate, and those engaged in small-scale cultivation.
Services to be provided by the program may include: tiered or waived fees, application assistance, assistance for small business development, deferral of application fees for Administrative Permits and Use Permits, technical assistance related to Road Maintenance Associations and cannabis cooperative associations, loans and grants for purposes of assuring regulatory compliance and mitigation of environmental effects of cannabis cultivation and employment training. As the Equity Program is developed, more information will be released on eligibility and services.
The County looks forward to continued collaboration with its academic and industry partners to finalize and implement the Mendocino County Equity Program.
For more information, please contact Brent Schultz, Mendocino County Planning and Building Services Director at (707) 234-6650.
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Total waste of my tax dollars. I didn’t vote for this guvna and never will in the future.
A Medicare Part D drug plan is what’s wasting my tax dollars. I use cannabis instead of prescription meds but I still have to pay for a drug plan I don’t use.
I’ve studied cannabis through postgraduate Medical School courses offered by UCSF to learn about the endocannabinoid system. I like to grow for personal use and consider cannabis a friend.
I’m all for any and all changes that aid growers. Why so hostile to such a beautiful flower Alf?
The honest truth is most growers don’t care one bit about the damage their product and the crime it brings does to the community. The truth is, medical marijuana is a lie. It is poison. Getting high does nothing to actually heal. It may mask for a while, but THC is never medicinal. CBD maybe, but it doesn’t heal either. The same is likely true about some prescriptions, but there is a lot more scientific evidence to back cannabis has negative impacts than positive.
Why do I have to explain myself to someone who is clearly addicted? I don’t even know.
Someone call
A wahmbulance, a grower is in need of money….
I’m sure this will be a very simple process to navigate through with helpful bureaucrats who care about success of all involved.
HAPPY 4/20/20😜
Wow, 2 mill, nice. So, what was Humboldt counties grant like 50k. Operation Trellis or some shit like that and most likely went to BOS family or friends. Maybe gave up 500 or 1k to someone they didn’t know but I doubt it.
Humboldt received $1.6 million last year and $2.4 million this round.
More wasted tax dollars while roads and schools deteriorate. Democrats in action.
Actually schools are a waste of money and we will begin transitioning to online schooling in the next year. So much money is wasted by compulsory education that could be better spent elsewhere, like buying laptops and building excellent online classrooms. Most kids learn more bad habits at school than any other place, drugs, violence, racism, hatred, classism… all taught in our local schools. How many bullies and not so good people our kids are forced to associate with at these institutions. Most of our schools are antiquated and built for another time in history, like the 1950’s or even older! They do not reflect anything but a cold nasty institution. They teachers are out of touch with our youth and are the first ones to teach our children to hate and despise authority, especially when teachers pick and harass the kids they deem undesirable students, the kids dont want to be there but we force then which creates even more resentment and attitude-behaviorial problems, kids acting ooh t because they are forced to go somewhere they are picked on, bullies and openly ridiculed by teachers and peers for not having the right brand clothes, or having a different back ground. All these schools do is minimally prepare these kids to be wage slaves, working for an hourly wage building somebody elses business up. These schools do nothing to foster intelligence, business ownership or entrepreneurship. They simply mold a society of brain dead moroms who are just smart enough to do repetition jobs which drives people to boredom, drug abuse, alcoholism and mental health problems.
Like it or not that’s what school is about, becoming socialized and learning to get along with others, as well as learning the skills necessary to do anything from carpentry to what ever your chosen profession may be. Kids who lack social interaction miss out on a lot in life.
Wow! Did you know in the online world there are more predators, bullying, shaming, and evils than you could ever find in school.
Glad you were able to get that off your chest. Now listen to the teacher. Take a deep breath and realize our schools are not perfect, but online learning has way more evil at your fingertips. It also lacks much needed social interaction, let alone the ability to use the practical side of learning. Things like automotive, welding, construction, electrical, plumbing and much more.
There are multiple learning styles. Some learn ok online. Some need to physically be shown. So making online learning the only option is setting up for failure.
More Conservative embodiment of lies.
this is not the time to be wasting taxpayer money
Typical song and dance. Nothing will be really done with it. The tags of… “training”…”technical assistance”…”fee waivers”…”grants.” That leaves the door wide open for the pig to run out the back door. Just another Mendo smoke, mirrors, dog n pony show.
🐴🐶🐎🐕🐴🐶🐎🐕🐴🐶🐎🐕🐴