Mendocino Cannabis Operators Take on the Mendocino Cannabis Department – Litigation Looms

Press release from the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance:

Mendocino marijuana Mendocino cannabis feature IconOn Feb 28, attorney Hannah Nelson submitted a letter to the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors calling out Improper Tactics by the Mendocino Cannabis Program in their Vegetation Modification letters sent out to a reported 35 applicants. In it, Hannah raised several serious concerns with the way the program was being rolled out, specifically the level of evidence requested that is not included in the Ordinance, the shifting of the burden of proof to the applicant, and the very short time period applicants had to respond to information for which they had not been asked in several years of operating.

After these concerns were raised by Hannah and many members of the licensed cannabis community, the Mendocino Cannabis Department held a weekly meeting on March 4 where it was made clear in no uncertain terms that not only were they prepared to deny applicants’ permits based on their inability to meet the unreasonable demands, but that no ‘after-the-fact’ documentation, even from ‘licensed professionals’ would be accepted as ‘credible evidence’ that no violations had occurred.

In public comments from MCD it has been expressed that Department staff is currently reviewing responses to the letters to determine what steps to take. It is our firm opinion that the Vegetation Modification Letter program should be halted immediately, and that MCD should work with stakeholders to both determine how alleged tree removal is addressed and to ensure that applicants have access to a fair appeal process if they are proposed for denial. To this end MCA has joined with the Attorneys of Unnamed Applicants who have received these Vegetation Modification letters, including Hannah, to draft the attached document which was sent earlier today to Director Kristin Nevedal of the Mendocino Cannabis Department, as well as the Board of Supervisors and County Counsel. The letter explains various objections to MCD’s letters and proposes a collaborative approach to addressing those objections.

It is the sincere hope of the co-signers of this letter that MCD and the County will agree to our recommendations. If, however, MCD and the County continue on this course of action, a more involved response will be required. We are prepared to do what it takes to stand up with, and for, our community. The immediate threat levied by these letters has led to the need for immediate action. We are truly stronger together.

For additional information on this release please contact Michael Katz at [email protected] or at 707.234.5568.

To read the letter sent to the Mendocino Cannabis Department Director, Kristen Nevedal, and the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, click here.

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Farce
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Farce
2 years ago

Mendocino County supervisors voted to fund the satellite program. Expect many abatements to follow. The people who unsuccessfully entered the permit program should be the first to get abated. All of their information should be forwarded to the Building Department for immediate attention…Mendocino County has learned from Humboldt that wringing the necks of your citizens by threatening their property is a very profitable business! Next up- Trinity County!!

Hayforker
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Hayforker
2 years ago
Reply to  Farce

“The people who unsuccessfully entered the permit program should be the first to get abated.” Not sure of your motives but this statement is BS. I ain’t in Mendo but by all accts their program has screwed many people over.

Trinity has already tried to start the satellite program but sheriffs office is overwhelmed with other issues. License holders fund code enforcement without any return of their funds. This leaves little money left to administer the program. This is actually illegal use of funds.

Farce
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Farce
2 years ago
Reply to  Hayforker

My statement is a prediction of how it will go down. Talk to me later and tell me I predicted wrong…I think Mendocino will take down big grows that think they are quasi-legal because they tried to be legal but never were- and the county knows exactly where they are!

Hayforker
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Hayforker
2 years ago
Reply to  Farce

Interesting. Ok, when you said “should be forwarded” it sounded like you endorsed it, versus a prediction which would read: “they will probably be forwarded”. Either way you may be correct. Time will tell.

Captain Obvious
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Captain Obvious
2 years ago
Reply to  Hayforker

Sooo, I’m trying to figure out what the “Vegetation modification” letter says or what modification they want. The letter writer mentioned it was sent to 35 farms. Might be that only 35 people out there really know what they’re talking about.

Last edited 2 years ago
Terry
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Terry
2 years ago
Reply to  Hayforker

Trinity County unfortunately has devistated by corruption, nepotism, and bribery. TAA is the anti- county group. They are unethical to say the least. Their friends, the supervisors of the county. Give them everything they want , at the price of childrens futures. Accountability is coming. 😁.

Hayforker
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Hayforker
2 years ago
Reply to  Terry

@Terry I hope you’re right and TAA is held accountable, but they have been mostly winning these past few years. The farmers have plenty of their own issues and just the pace of Appendix C reviews is concerning. Maybe Sean the division director will pull off a miracle. Maybe Supe Brown will win re-election thus stopping the TAA candidate. Maybe Groves wins too. I’m no groves fan but Ric will be far worse. It’s been a interesting time and the war is far from over.

farmer
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farmer
2 years ago
Reply to  Farce

Humboldt county uses EsGil corp to run its permit program. Here is an article on how they use inflated planning and building department fees to gouge industry. They got sued in 2005 for these tactics. I wonder who mendo is using
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-encinitas-council-to-consider-increased-building-2005dec10-story.html

Arctostaphylos
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Arctostaphylos
2 years ago
Reply to  farmer

Esgil isn’t running Humboldt’s land use permit program. They’re assisting with review of building plans. Primary contractor that Humboldt uses for cannabis projects (land use permits) is LACO. There have been some others over the years too.

Last edited 2 years ago
Jay Beigh
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Jay Beigh
2 years ago
Reply to  farmer

// “Humboldt county uses EsGil corp to run its permit program.”//

I think you’ll find that EsGil isn’t involved in cannabis license programs — they only review building plans/permits for municipalities that don’t have the internal resources to do such for themselves.

Last edited 2 years ago
farmer
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farmer
2 years ago
Reply to  Jay Beigh

Cannabis farmers need building Permits and in humboldt they have been charged higher sqft rates for building. Look into Esgils past and you can see why there is cause for concern

hmm
Guest
hmm
2 years ago

HAvent heard anything about Humboldt county illegally surveilling its citizens in a while now.Are they still doing that?

Chaz
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Chaz
2 years ago

All the legacy black market growers should be taken down by fish and game ceqa cost $10,000 at most with big company they had 4 years to do it and get state license they all made millions they were all using flow canna as a front I worked for flow canna 10 k square feet produce 500 pound minimum they would report 100 to 200 pounds legacy grower are all back door dealers don’t feel bad for them each one made 2 million minimum

Hayforker
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Hayforker
2 years ago
Reply to  Chaz

CDFW wet team couldn’t take down more than 100 for the whole year in all the triangle. They are super lazy and disorganized. Your attitude isn’t helping either. Truth is the scale and nature of illicit grows can only be reversed by macro economics. If enforcement could work it already would have. It’s a simple function of supply and demand that will change things and I think we are already seeing that.

As for $10k for CEQA, haha it’s obvious you don’t know what you’re talking about. The bio, arch, and road survey will be 10k. If you need a MND, you’re at another 30k. Plus extra for wetland delineation, etc. Oh and if you need NSO (northern spotted owl) survey for the standard two years it will be 15-25k. There’s way more but I’ll stop now.

Please spare me of you lame desire to tear down the community.

Farce
Guest
Farce
2 years ago
Reply to  Chaz

Hey- if you worked for Flo Kana then you are already guilty of helping destroy the community. So yeah- your opinion doesn’t count

Chaz
Guest
Chaz
2 years ago
Reply to  Farce

Your organic garden is worth nothing even if you are aaa Grower it’s worth $300 madam your days are over to make $ all you can do is sit and watch this dead weed business every one is a snitch in Mendocino you will get fined $200 a plant property are worth half also

Captain Obvious
Guest
Captain Obvious
2 years ago
Reply to  Chaz

Not true. You’re spouting the same fantasy talk regulators overheard while you were all coked up at the bar.
The word “minimum” has a definition. It means at the lowest level or at LEAST. So not everybody sees the logic of putting an indoor grow in a greenhouse on a parking lot and running 3 rotations. 500 lbs would be doing good on one big full term run on 10k. The reality is though, that your gonna take losses to rain mold doing it that way. Then you imagine Flow Canna is just waiting there to buy it? And pay for it? What was FlowCanna paying? You said we all made “2 million minimum”(!?) So they were paying who $2,000 a pound!? (That’s growing 1,000lbs on 10k)
It speaks volumes that you worked for Flow Canna and hate legacy farmers. Or did you get fired cuz you’re bad at math?

Captain Obvious
Guest
Captain Obvious
2 years ago
Reply to  Chaz

You’re spouting the same fantasy talk regulators overheard while you all were coked up at the bar.
Maybe farmers were reporting 200lbs on 10k because that is what’s normal. The term “minimum” has a definition. As in, least, or no less than. 500 lbs would be a good run. But let’s entertain the fantasy! Now FlowKanna is right there ready to buy! What kinda prices were they paying!? You claim we all made 2million!? So if you could grow 1,000 lbs., That’s $2,000 per pound! 500lbs: (remember you said “minimum”!) $4,000/lb!
It speaks volumes that you worked for FlowKana and hate Legacy Farmers so much. Or did they just fire you for your math skills?

Captain Obvious
Guest
Captain Obvious
2 years ago

Whoops! Pardone moi. I thought I swiped my comment away. But i really meant it!

Chaz
Guest
Chaz
2 years ago

Legacy grower had solid three years off back door hustle in three years they made no money 2018 2019 2020 and 2016 2017 no one got busted in Mendocino no body wants trash mendo weed no more time to retire no one cares about their cry flow canna has enough money to grow it own weed I still work for flow canna we are here to stay I can tell you one thing their is no back door sale at flow canna almost all permit spot do back door sales and are not honest people and all the legacy growers hire illegal worker if you pay cash it’s illegal don’t care what their opinion is

Kirk Vodopals
Guest
Kirk Vodopals
2 years ago

Attorneys of Unnamed Applicants? Ha! Obviously these “poor farmers” still have funds to pay for another round of verbal diarrhea from Hannah Nelson, THC esquire. If you haven’t gotten through the stupid permit system yet then you either have shit for brains or you just speculated on the wrong steep slope in the middle of a redwood forest (which means you also have shit for brains). Most of these “struggling artisans” are either dipshit rich kids from Argentina or mommy’s boys rich kids from Chicago who have multiple properties that pretend to be single “family farms”. Keep paying Hannah as Oklahoma indoor and Oregon outdoor (formerly Sohum growers) drives the price into the toilet.

Hayforker
Guest
Hayforker
2 years ago
Reply to  Kirk Vodopals

Haters gonna hate. Obviously you don’t know how dysfunctional the mendo program is. They literally mislead people on CEQA for years only to have the state disqualified every thing. It’s the only program worse off than trinity. Most of them aren’t rich kids from Argentina or Chicago. Where are you getting this garbage?

Kirk Vodopals
Guest
Kirk Vodopals
2 years ago
Reply to  Hayforker

You obviously don’t know my neighborhood. There are in fact rich kids from Argentina and Chicago who float around here trying to game the weed system. And why would someone from hayfork claim to know the details of the Mendo County scene? If you followed the Mendo County drama you’d know that the bureaucrats here never really wanted to be in the weed regulation game. It was designed to fail. Mendo County prefers to turn the other cheek and let the traditional market do it’s thing. It’s a weed shit show here

Guess
Guest
Guess
2 years ago
Reply to  Kirk Vodopals

they sure put a stiff one to the mtn last year while covelo was business as usual so idk where you get your info, HF seems to have a handle on what’s actually going on in all three of our counties.

Hayforker
Guest
Hayforker
2 years ago
Reply to  Kirk Vodopals

Never claimed to know your neighborhood, but I do know many from mendo and they are mostly locals or newer guys who are not from these places. I still suspect your exaggerating your myopic view as a generalized statement. As to mendo bureaucrats, no real opinion other than it’s a dysfunctional system they operate in. It’s obvious as they passed the program between planning and ag depts and had parallel license schemes. Sorry it worked out so poorly.

Dan
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Dan
2 years ago
Reply to  Hayforker

This guy Kirk obviously doesn’t know how dysfunctional / corrupt Trinity County planning and the board of supes are. It takes disfunction like that found in Trinity to give context to the other counties, and btw Kirk, Mendo isn’t that far from Hayfork. Dan Kay

Last edited 2 years ago
Dan
Guest
Dan
2 years ago

Hannah Nelson insisted the ordinance go through, along with Casey O’Neill at the BOS in 2016/2017. I sat there insisting we stop the ordinance and not let it pass. Now reap what you sow. Attorneys are scumbags. I said from the beginning shes just sucking up attorney fees.

Truth Hurts
Guest
Truth Hurts
2 years ago

The system is a disaster. But many legal farms sit on clearings that never had the paperwork years ago. What do you want for nothing? You’re crooks, all of you!!

Me and Mrs Jones
Guest
Me and Mrs Jones
2 years ago
Reply to  Truth Hurts

The system was designed to encourage you to be a link in their chain of command, and if you can figure out how to game your little command center, the best and the brightest get trained to use their gifts for the rich and powerful at the expense of humanity.

Hayforker
Guest
Hayforker
2 years ago

Dang this comment is the truth!