Billing Errors and Permit Suspensions Frustrate Growers in Humboldt County
Fog rises on one of the cannabis farms that received a suspension letter from Humboldt County.
Earlier this month we covered an extensive report given to the Humboldt County planning Commission from the Planning and Building Department regarding the state of our local cannabis industry, water resources, and recent suspension letters received by cannabis permit holders for permit processing fees due and/or unpaid Measure S cultivation taxes.
Since we published that piece, a flood of emails came in from cannabis farmers who received what they described as “threatening letters” from the Planning and Building Department. Some farmers claimed their letters were, “based on county billing errors,” Project Trellis delays, or unpaid advance payments. Several farmers expressed worry that these suspension letters unjustifiably compromised their permits and licenses, as the issues were reported to the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC).
Page one of the permit suspension warning letter from January 9, 2024
Planning Department Director John Ford wanted to clarify to letter recipients they should focus on avoiding revocation, and to not to be alarmed by the word suspension.
He said,
“It’s common for the DCC to suspend licenses at the state level…We don’t take action on that because that’s a temporary thing…And so we wait to see if the license is reinstated. We don’t do anything with that until it comes time to…inspect.. And then we may have a conversation with DCC.”
Additionally Ford said not to worry about the DCC’s enforcement against suspensions, and added, “[The DCC is] not nimble enough to suddenly, you know, start taking action on Humboldt County stuff…If the cure isn’t there for the suspension, then it will go to revocation. The revocation is the thing that should be a big concern.”
Sally’s 22,000 sq. Ft. Cannabis farm and homestead.
Sally
Sally, as we are calling her for this story, emailed this reporter after receiving her letter, alleging, “My [cannabis cultivation] permit was suspended in error by the county.”
Sally said she has worked tirelessly to secure her family’s livelihood, and wrote, “I’ve been permitted since 2017. I was the first 22,000 mixed light tier 1 permit in the state… I have zero violations on my permit, except now I have a suspension on my file.”
Lucky for Sally, she was able to remedy the issue before a revocation, however she explained, “While it’s great that [the suspension] was lifted [by the Planning and Building Department], the amount of stress and time this took up was unnecessary and unfair to me and my family. We have sacrificed beyond belief to still be farming today. It is terrifying how that can all disappear based on an error.”
Initially Sally suspected she was being double billed for the same inspection but then discovered she was being charged for a pre-payment for a future inspection, which is a new policy.
Photo of page two of the letter from county indicating this new policy of prepayment for future work
Sally wrote, “This amount they were wanting to collect was not even an actual debt, it was a bill for a deposit for future inspection. It was explained to me that because of people not paying, it is now required to have a positive balance. So I was suspended not for being in debt, but because my account didn’t have a deposit on file for an inspection. In the end they said they were unable to delete that line item, but they would be willing to change the line item so it was requesting a deposit for my 2024 inspection. So, in the end I was suspended for an invoice of $746 that was dated 3/29/2024….not past due.”
Director John Ford explained many letter recipients, like Sally, came into the office and resolved their issues. He explained,
“When people come in and talk to us, we’re happy to work through the stuff. If there’s issues, come in and talk to us. Don’t get mad and just say, Planning and Buildings all that. Come in, talk to us,” Ford said, adding, “I think perhaps as many as 120 or more people have come in and resolved their stuff since those suspension letters went out. Maybe it’s more than that. We had, like, 538 [permit holders] that were potentially subject to suspension… and I think it’s maybe 140 that have done that.”
While some farmers expressed feeling blindsided by the notices, Director Ford said they were adequately warned this bill was due and of the consequences for non-payment.
Director Ford said,
“I think one of the things here that’s a little bit sad is, you know, we sent out notices back in January that if you don’t have your taxes paid…if you’re not current on your costs with Planning and Building, please do so. Because [in October] the Board instituted that come the end of March… There’s going to be the potential for a suspension…[and] the potential for a revocation.”
Ford continued saying,
“We then sent out another notice directly to permit holders and applicants telling them exactly how much they owed on March 1. Now, [the] people who actually took notice of that and addressed that before March 31. ..did not get a suspension letter.”
Screenshot of email received by “Anne” 3/1/24, that she alleges was her second official notice of a bill owed in 2024, but for an unknown amount.
Anne
Anne, as we are calling her for the purpose of this article, is one of the over 500 permitted cannabis farmers who received this warning (and later suspension letter) from Planning and Building.
Anne said she first received notices about a bill pending on January 9 via mail, then March 1 via email, but these did not include her parcel number or the amount due she said. Anne explained she had to contact the county to figure out the amount and what the work was for, which took much of 2023, largely due to her “planners’ unresponsiveness.”
Anne said at no point did she receive correspondence in the mail in early March about the total due, and it wasn’t until May 3, 2024 when she received a suspension letter with an April 24, back-dated bill attached, stating she owed over $8,754.53, but no specifics were listed beyond the total.
“I had no idea this bill would be so outrageous,” Anne said.
This May 3 email and attached letter stated as a result of the non-payment, Anne’s permit was now suspended until this matter was resolved, and she will go before the Board for a revocation hearing if she has not paid the bill in full within 90 days.
Ford explained, “The suspension is intended to be a temporary thing to allow farmers to come into compliance. And provided they do, there’s no long term repercussions from that. [The] DCC understands that when we were talking to them about our plans, they just wanted to know. So it’s more of an informational thing than something that is going to result in a revocation.”
Though Ford confirmed, “Obviously, if you’ve got a suspended license, you can’t buy or sell cannabis, and the same thing with the county permit.”
Anne explained the implications of this letter to her farm are immense as this could set her back an entire year, again.
Anne wrote, “Suspension means no plants in the ground… on May 3 they sent out these [emails with] letters attached… and the letter basically says you’re screwed and you can’t farm this summer.”
The Bigger Picture
Adversity is nothing new for Anne however, she is the wife of a second generation cannabis farmer. After enduring the war on drugs together, legalization was a promise for their family to realize legitimacy in a safe, sustainable and regulated market, which is why she says she worked so hard to be one of the first applicants approved for a cultivation permit in 2017 for 10,000 sq. ft. in Northern Humboldt.
She described the costs to stay in compliance over six years as steep. Anne and her husband both work full time jobs in addition to working their farm, and still they can barely keep up with compliance costs, and are operating at a loss.
Anne estimates in total she spent about $3,500 directly to the Planning Department and about $50,000 on consulting firms for permit requirements like; an LSA, road evaluations and more. This does not include the most recent bill for almost $8,000.
Anne explained she did most of the work on her permit herself, and so was alarmed the processing costs were so high.
Anne’s 2016 permit application took six years to process and was not finalized with the county until December 2022. In that time Anne said she felt the extensive time and exorbitant costs were rooted in her having so many different county planners in addition to LACO workers, which is a subcontractor engineering firm that is processing permits for the Planning and Building Department intermittently over the years since legalization.
Anne not only felt the total charges were alarmingly high and unclear, but also unexpected. Anne said she tried to do her due diligence to get ahead of any last minute costs but she said her planners were often non responsive to her questions, adding, “That’s happened to me a lot. My “assigned” planner would leave and I wouldn’t know why they weren’t responding to my emails.”
Anne subsequently explained she kept getting charged for the same work done by different planners, and it got to a point where she felt, “This is extortion,” and added,
“It took, like, six years [to process my permit] because I kept getting these planners who…would disappear, then get a new one [but] I wouldn’t be informed. I’d be emailing the old one, but no one would respond. I would finally get a new planner… [and I had to] start over… reviewing my case all while they are charging me hundreds of dollars to do the same work on my case over and over again.”
Ford said in an attempt to get permit applications through the process quicker,
“We’ve had a couple of different instances where we’ve tried to use contract planners [like LACO] to get the work done. I mean, it’s hard, you don’t want to hire a bunch of people and then lay a bunch of people off once the work goes away. So we’ve been trying to balance that. The other part of the balance is, frankly, you’ve got to train people. You… can’t just have people come in that don’t know what they’re doing and write staff reports. You’ve got to train them how to review it, what the regulations are, how they’re applied, what’s a big issue…what’s not. And so it’s helpful to be able to bring in experienced contract planners that can do that kind of work. The success of using contract planners has been up and down. Frankly, when the contractors have good planners working on the projects, it’s gone extremely well. When they’ve been trying to train people to do the work, it’s not gone so well…That’s the same thing that happens to us, though.”
The recent unpaid bills totaling about $8,000 that lead to Anne receiving this suspension letter, were bills for the subcontracted work by LACO.
Anne said,
“What’s frustrating for me is that it seems like the LACO planner reviewed my plan again when I’ve already had seven or eight planners do the same thing….How did it take 40 hours to review my plans? All LACO did was put together my presentation to go before the Board of Supervisors to transfer from an interim to annual permit. [It] was a meeting that …lasted all of 20 minutes…With a guy I never met speaking for me.”
Anne explained she was confused by the charges and the bill was so vague, with no past due amounts listed, and “NONE of the LACO bills showed a total of what was owed overall” so her debt was a mystery to her.
Anne’s Bills From LACO
12/8/22 $3.272.60
12/27/22 $971.47
1/13/23 $1,033.75
1/19/23 $225.46
2/8/23 $3,291.25
$8,794.53 Total billed from LACO to Anne for two months of work on her permit (not counting the $1,000 deducted later by Director Ford)
Photo of just one month’s bill to Anne with the details she obtained for LACOs work on her permit, this bill was received by Anne after she requested it many months prior, March 2024
She said she requested the specific line items throughout 2023 and stated,
“I received those LACO bills in 2023, right when there was no money left… and then in late 2023 I asked for …a line item review of my bills that I did not receive until March 2024. The review of the bill was still not very specific.”
She knew she owed something to LACO but was unclear what for, or that the entire amount would be due at once. It was not until a call she made to the department in March and then a subsequent email received on May 3, that she was certain she would owe so much by March 31 or else face suspension. She asked about a payment plan and discovered this was not an option either.
When she got the bill she immediately went into the Planning Department, and wrote, “When I spoke to John Ford about the crazy LACO bill he agreed it was a lot and knocked off a random $1,000 for the mistake.”
Exhausted by her experience, Anne wrote, “How dare the billing system for the Planning Department be so poorly organized. Bills aren’t sent out for months at a time, and then they have the audacity to notify folks of bills some didn’t even know existed and then insist everything has to be paid within 30 days or your license (and livelihood) is revoked?”
This isn’t the first time Anne has faced surprise permit costs over the years either. One was associated with a “county error” that led to a delay in her annual permit requiring a condition of approval for a “non-existent water bladder.”
Another costly hold up was a result of what she said was a neighbor’s frivolous complaints about her farm. Anne said at one point a letter from a “nimby neighbor” cost her $600 in Planning Department staff time to resolve.
No matter what Anne’s family did to be on the forefront of legalization and remain in good standing with the County as they waited for years for their permit to get approved, she felt they still faced challenges from every angle, be it from nimby-ism in her community, or from mistakes in the Planning Department, and even law enforcement errors.
In 2017 for example, Anne was also set back a year when all her plants were cut during a raid of her family’s farm mistakenly by the Humboldt County Sheriffs Office and the Marijuana Task Force agents, who thought their approved site was a neighbor’s unlawful cultivation site.
“We got swept up in our neighbors bust in 2017 even though we had an affidavit, they still took everything,” Anne explained, and joked ironically, “Hey maybe I could pay [this $8,000 bill] if they hadn’t screwed that up for us.”
In fear of retaliation, and considering her pending permit, Anne said her family did not seek legal recourse for a year of lost revenue, or damages and explained, “We chose not to say anything about [the mistaken raid] for fear of — I’m not sure, maybe fear from living in [Southern Humboldt] in the 90s? Not wanting unwanted attention, but mostly because we didn’t believe it would change anything [if we sued them].”
These are the types of farmer’s stories that the county’s Trellis grant program aspires to give equity funding to in an attempt to offer some recourse for the victims of the war on drugs. Currently, however Anne is making attempts to get qualified for Trellis grants now, but held up in part due to her needing to provide evidence she was involved in the mistaken raid because her name isn’t on any bust records. And because they didn’t sue, they don’t have much of a paper trail. To top it off, the attorney with her records about a potential lawsuit over the bust, has since passed away, and so finding these notes from her meeting with the attorney has been a challenge.
“I hoped Trellis funding would come in time but it hasn’t…so I guess in 90 days I’ll have a [revoked] permit,” Anne said.
Director Ford spoke about Project Trellis funding saying, “We’re trying to work with Economic Development right now because there’s three different levels of lists. There’s people who owe money, there’s people who could be eligible, and then there are people who will get money. And so you got to be in that third list to address the issue. …That probably won’t be known until July or August.”
Anne is currently hoping to move from the second to the third Trellis list and get approved for the next round of equity funding to cover this LACO bill. If she does not get approved however, her family has no way to afford the almost $8,000 to farm this year, and even fears they will lose their land as a direct result.
“This suspension letter is the last thing farmers need right now,” Anne concluded, and added that she hopes the community and the county will do better to support struggling cannabis farmers. Anne noted the quadruple whammy in all this is that “the health of farmers in our community has also deteriorated significantly since legalization.”
She said the permit experience over the years has left her husband with compromised health and he even had to go to the emergency room recently from a stress related illness when Anne said, “He literally thought he was dying.”
Anne said her family is not alone in this either, adding, “All the husbands and fathers have been struggling in our community since legalization.”
Anne feels overall the costs and treatment of compliant cannabis farmers is unfair and in contrast to other agricultural industries as well.
Anne said she felt there was a double standard in the regulations, and explained it was discouraging for her to work tirelessly to appease the Water Board, Fish and Wildlife and the County, all while she alleges, “ I watch my neighbors freely set up dams that impact the River and they can use whatever water, nutrients and pesticides to grow anything other than cannabis, and with no recourse.”
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Same story here, over and over. Double charges for inspections and staff time that are hard to discover or dispute because charges are not usually itemized and if you are actually able to get them itemized many are so old they are hard to dispute. On one of my first bills from the county I was billed for staff time dated from 26 months prior. I was also billed extensively for LACO hours reviewing my application. It seemed a little redundant and wasteful of my resources that I would hire an engineer and consultant to help put together a complete application for the county to review and then get billed by another engineering firm for almost as much as I paid in the first place. The county building and planning department is inept at best and more likely criminal and a perfect example of why bureaucratic overreach needs to be checked at all levels of government.
Been in the application process for 7 years. Have had around 5 planners assigned to my project. Each time a new planner is assigned you are billed for them going over the details of the application and asking the same questions. Around $15k in planning fees and still waiting for final approval.
I’m so sorry to hear, this is all too common, particularly for smaller farms I’ve noticed. May I ask what size your farm is?
The Cash Cows are being killed off one by one.
Few businesses can survive a never ending permit process with ever increasing redundant costs and falling prices.
Vote republican then
?
I would like to hear your story, please contact me at [email protected] or 7073626655
Wahwah same song, second verse. As IF we have a tear to shed for these duplicitous “in the light” community members who for almost 10 years have been dumping their thousands of “permitted” pounds every single season out the back door decimating the local and national black market for the rest of us who have somehow survived without the “golden grower’s ticket!” Omg you need to work a full-time job (to supplement the hundreds of thousands extracted from the system you’ve manipulated since 2016. ) Cry me a river.
Permitted growers in Humboldt have had nothing to do with the price collapse.
Sorry you’re not getting the crazy prices you used to. None of us are
Wow! You just revealed your naivety. Yes- permitted or semi-permitted growers growing massive amounts of weed HAVE crashed the prices. That’s how it happened, Sherlock!
Is it fair to say that is a local issue though? as I’ve covered in the past, the amount of cannabis grown in the county today is a fraction of what was grown pre-legalization, so that alone indicates it’s a bigger issue. I agree the traditional market collapse was less of a product of enforcement, than overproduction on legal farms, but it happened bc of overproduction across CA and the nation as well. I watched a lot of great farmers flee CA pre legalization when they saw regulation for profit up ahead and they just got easy permits in other states and pump out pounds out the back door. What’s unfortunate is that with every backyard grandma grow that couldn’t afford a permit, or lost their market, or got abated, a slice of the once world famous Humboldt brand goes with it.
Agree.
With dozens of states enacting some form of “legalization” and production ramping up nationwide, it’s ridiculous to think production and/or policies in Humboldt had any appreciable impact on either legal or traditional market prices.
It’s grossly unfair to blame the farmers who were, or are, seeking permits for impacts that were well beyond their ability to control.
Farmers, permitted or traditional, were just along for the ride with local small farmers in particular being taken for a very expensive ride.
Exactly, and as I say you were damned if you got a permit and damned if you did not. I don’t see anyone winning post legalization. Agreed, let’s not let the divide and conquer narrative work.
No it’s not. The spread of large scale production to southern California and southern Oregon, and then later Oklahoma, combined with the massive reduction in risk is what tanked the price. The arrival of digital marketing in the traditional cannabis market also helped flatten out price variance nationwide. One anyone who cared could get a decent idea of the farm gate price it got harder to pull a premium.
The price was falling quickly before legalization and really collapsed once the Oregon hemp fields started planting literal acres of the stuff.
Legal farms in Humboldt county sending stuff out the back door is a drop in the ocean of black market product. It has effectively zero impact on the base price. Your bias is just occluding your sight
Key word: duplicitous.
The legal farmers are fake lying posers, who want us all to feel sorry for them!
They were perfectly happy to throw their neighbors under the bus –abatements were all funded by the same free-pass fees they now whine about.
They absolutely crashed the traditional market, give me a break! Track and Trace is a fkn joke.
I often align with you, That Guy, but not today.
You’re just repeating the same old tired talking points that Farce repeats ad nauseum. People who pursued permits didn’t throw anybody under the bus.
Of course, some people who got permitted benefited from the rampant nepotistic corruption. And those same people were the ones getting away with blowing up thousand pounds gardens prior to legalization thanks to the same nepotistic corruption.
But most people that I know who tried for permits are just making a bet on what gives them the best chance of being able to continue to grow weed and live off their land.
The forces that are pushing this market around have always been way way bigger then us. The only thing that changed is that those forces worked to our financial benefit for a long time and now they work against it
I repeat them because they are true. I don’t really have time to explain again. I have been here over 40 years. Paying attention the entire time. My friends and I saw what was happening and we discussed it often. It happened. You came as a greenrusher and don’t want to believe how badly that greedrush destroyed the culture here. You are the one making excuses for the predators who blew up massive scenes and then destroyed their neighbors. You are an apologist for ugly and greedy people….maybe because you are one yourself? Just a question….
Not a question, just a bitter accusation.
Of all the gross scenes I’ve encountered out here in my time, at least half of them were run by second generation or older Humboldt people. As an outsider, it sure never looked like a scene that was blown to by outsiders. And the worst offenders of the newcomers were always enabled by locals willing to break up old family land and facilitate the legal structures and accounting tricks that made it all possible.
I get the nostalgia for the time before it was blown out. I’ve known some beautiful people who grew a couple dozen pounds a few years in a row and financed their dream and have become foundational parts of the beautiful community that underlies so much of this place.
But plenty of locals led the way to giant grows. It wasn’t an imported mentality.
Agreed legalization brought to you by the same people that started the war on drugs
Instead of perpetuating division among folks who live side by side in the hills, most of whom are just trying to surf the legalization wave one way or another, maybe look at the facts.
Where permit fees and taxes are spent are no more in the hands of legal cannabis growers, then taxes and licensing fees for anything else. Do you have a driver’s license and did you buy a car? Those fees and taxes aren’t yours to decide where they go. The money you gave the government could go to a bomb dropped on Gaza or to the DFW. Your money paid for property taxes could go to support the HCSO as well.
Everyone is just trying to surf the difficult waves of financial changes as best they can. And, for the most part, small mom and pop legal growers are not the enemies of small mom and pop illegal growers.
Division card has already been played by people claiming to have *stepped into the light* while sliding their units out the door by any means possible. As if outlaws suddenly became super into following rules, ?. No the exact opposite has happened, where the permitted farmers now play both sides of the field and cast aspersions; as if they are all legit because of their stack of expensive documents, while black market supports that charade.
Your property tax and vehicle tax comparison would work IF for decades we all side-stepped the hypothetical illegality of property or vehicle ownership only to suddenly be able to throw large sums of money at the powers that be to step up to register our land or our rigs, while others without the bank roll, perfect acreage or ideal vehicle setup are excluded from the process , and are in fact punished thru the fees generated by the now “legal” land owners or highway users. And the have-nots risk fines for essentially doing what the haves did for decades and continue to do: live in their home(grow). And drive (sell their product on the trad mkt !)
It was made perfectly clear at the outset of legalization exactly what a portion of those fees would be used for ; it was an incentive for people to get legal, as they promised to eliminate all the “illegal” farmers. Your neighbors. It wasn’t a secret.
Which is why I question legal, by whose definition?
I understand the frustrations and complexities surrounding the cannabis industry, especially during this period of transition from prohibition to regulation. However, I want to address some points you’ve raised and offer a perspective based on my own experiences as a legal cannabis farmer.
First, it’s important to clarify that while some individuals may exploit the system, not all legal growers are engaging in illegal activities. Compliance isn’t just about a “stack of expensive documents”; it’s about trying to create a system that ensures product safety, environmental protection, and keeps kids from getting arrested for smoking a joint.
The goal should be to advocate for policies that make this transition more accessible and equitable for everyone, not to create further division.
You mentioned that legalization efforts promised to eliminate all “illegal” farmers, which has undoubtedly created tension within communities. This promise was aimed at creating a level playing field, but the execution has been far from perfect. The fees and regulations are meant to ensure accountability and safety, but they should not be a barrier that only a few can overcome.
The reality is that the cannabis industry, like any other, is evolving. It’s not just about who has the financial means to go legal but also about how we can work together to create an inclusive and fair market. We all need to push for reforms that support small farmers and reduce barriers to entry, making it possible for more growers to transition legally without facing insurmountable costs and try to find ways such as farm to consumer sales that allow the smallest of growers to survive.
As nice as all that said, what it does not address, remedy or set right; is the fact John Ford lied, in public, when he addressed the Board of Supervisors and in this article you posted on this website:
https://kymkemp.com/2024/05/04/humboldt-county-provides-key-cannabis-data-on-cultivation-permits-watershed-capacities-and-tax-challenges/
If John Ford is the face of Cannabis Regulation in Humboldt County, what does it say about the industry as a whole. And why have you not called him out for lying?
Ed, When Director Ford addressed the Board of Supervisors and later, Nikki, he highlighted the county’s reliance on anticipated data collection efforts by state agencies. The failure to obtain this data has indeed impacted the county’s ability to submit comprehensive reports. It’s important to note that this situation may reflect a broader challenge of inter-agency communication, rather than an intentional misrepresentation by Director Ford.
To be blunt, you have no idea what we are doing to look into this issue. if our timeline and priorities do not align with your expectations, you are always welcome to pursue the matter independently.
And to be blunter, I wrote those other state agencies John Ford blamed for not being able to conduct his report and analysis to comply with BOS Resolution 18-43, so please do not accuse me of not having “no idea” about this, since I Cc’ed you with what I wrote the NCRWQCB and CDFW and the reply I got back. I started this inquiry, not RHBB.
https://humboldtgov.org/DocumentCenter/View/63738/Resolution-18-43-Countywide-Permit-Cap-PDF
Sounds like you should update everyone once you get an informative reply
I’m working on an article now on this, I just have a couple I have to get out first. Single mom and no childcare so going as fast as I can.
Can’t wait to read it Nichole. I definitely appreciate the work you put in covering this mucky corner of our community. All the more impressive doing it with a little one in sohum. The childcare struggle is real.
Hopefully a retiree with a penchant for digging through government documents, like Ed Voice, will take up the cause too. We need more intrepid observers shining a light into the dusty corners of our little courthouse and planning building
We sure do. I really appreciate my collaborations with Ed voice, he has a wealth of knowledge, passion, and no doubt more time than I. I’m glad to support these inquiries and questions and he has made that easier.
Thanks friend. I’m actually up in Trinidad now thank Gaia, had no idea how much better it would be for me to live amongst the redwoods, but also on the coast, and close to town I almost never stress about gas or car repairs which was an ongoing headache before. We have a ton of support up here, but I’m really eager to get my son in school and that’s not been easy w the recent law changes.
Yes, looking forward to read it too.
So much of what is being planned with local public agencies in Southern Humboldt is falling in the cracks and on deaf ears, because local news agencies do not cover Board meetings and produce an article to educate the public, e.g. GSD, RCSD and SHCHD. In the case of all 3 of these public agencies, they are all in the midst of current and future multi-million dollar development projects, that all depend on water supply from the South Fork Eel River and the capacity of existing sewer/wastewater treatment facilities. But yet no local news media agency(s) (KMUD, RHBB or Indie) are looking into the details of any of these development project or asking the uncomfortable questions to hold these public agencies accountable to the public.
As far as this article is concerned, the Planning Department does know how to refund over charging an applicant and allow long term no interest payment plans. Here is one example:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13zSkbbANmE0ErpNz637-lYrCthCRdLmR/view?usp=sharing
My question, how come the people in this article don’t ask the Planning Department for an audit on their account, and if applicable, ask for the same deal?
We’re trying to arrange for financial support/grants to allow us cover these issues, Ed. If you would like to support us though, we gladly accept money for our Feed the Freelancers campaign. All money goes to support freelance articles and photography.
https://donorbox.org/donation-page-54
Been broke for a few bits now and can’t donate.. been wanting to try grant writing.. if I can be of assistance lmk..
Freedom of the press is considered one of the most important constitutional guarantees. At least theoretically, it sets up the free media as a watchdog for government, protecting the press from government control. As Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black wrote:
“The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.”
But as national security concerns and new technologies arise, the way the courts think about freedom of the press has changed. As you are pointing out, its now pay-per-view news reporting, which brings us back full circle to who governs the news media.
Maybe become a 501c3 and ask for donations, that way the public can follow the money and see how it is being used…
Ed, if I had time to do one more thing it would be sleep.
To be very blunt…you don’t know what we are doing. You only know what you are doing.
However, we do know what you are not doing…
Nope…you only know that you haven’t see the results. And that a money-strapped business with a single mom writing a complex story might not happen as quickly as your decidedly opinionated timeline might want…is…um…unsurprising. But you are welcome to put together your own version and post here in the comment section if a great big strong, financially independent man like you gets the one thing you appear to be worried about done faster than we do.
I’m very curious what you, or anyone else who keeps parroting these same opinions, believes would have been a better course of action?
Should everyone in the county have boycotted the permitting process so that we could all get abated? Should everyone always comply with all laws and regulations (not sure where that would put you and your implied illegal cannabis activity)?
Legalization was only implemented once outside interests had secured a framework that they knew they could control. It’s put our community in a terrible bind and there weren’t really any obviously good choices to be made. Channeling your frustrations at your neighbors that took a different gamble than you decided to is just sad to see. You want to claim that licensed growers “threw their neighbors under the bus” but I’ve never met a licensed grower who has anything bad to say about people who stayed in the traditional market and I’ve personally been involved with moving things from unpermitted to permitted farms to help the unpermitted neighbor deal with abatement or recover after a raid.
The reality is that the actual communities aren’t bifurcated the way you want to act like they are. Real neighbors in real community continue to work together, regardless of the choices they’ve made about navigating this new chapter.
Umm…people don’t say bad things about the people they are swindling. It’s an important part of the grift. All those people I met who said what they thought I wanted to hear “Oh I just love the nature here. So pretty and I hear people saved ancient trees so cool!” And then they bulldozed huge flats, blew up mega-grows, bought a permit and continued blowing it up for backdoor export always with the same bullshit lines about “community” and “pretty nature” and “neighborhood”. But it was all about the cash…always. It’s called “smooth-talking a patsy” and it’s a very old game. If you truly haven’t heard of it then maybe you are playing it or being played right now….
As usual, your comments give me the impression that you hang out with some really shitty people
Amen.
Well said arcata guy 🙂
Well said Kym, not much more to add but I must say from what I’ve seen, it’s not small farmers faults for pushing product out the back door when the costs and market necessitates it.
John Ford Is The Problem Period . This should be an elected position. This fucker and his little assistant has ruined Humboldt county economy from weed to building to vacation rentals. Fuck John Ford
Who is accountable for John Fords actions, the Board of Supervisors! And who services at the pleasure of the Board of Supervisors, John Ford! And who just reelected the majority of Supervisors this year?
Obviously true.
It is amazing how little political pressure is put on the Board of Supervisors by disgruntled legal marijuana growers.
They are intimidated and too scared to put the blame where it belongs. They are pansies and patsies and because they have no courage they will all be run into the ground. And…They kinda deserve it…
Its really not amazing, the HCGA is in the hip pocket of the Supervisors and vice versa. The growers only do and say what the HCGA tells them. To show how much power the HCGA has, remember Measure “A”? Could you imagine what the HCGA could get done with what this article is about, if they put only 10% of what they put into opposing Measure “A”.
What do you think the hcga could possibly do to change the internal bureaucracy of the planning department?
Buy them books and send them to school and they still can’t read.
Read what I said again. The HCGA should call out the Supervisors for not being accountable and culpable for the Planning Departments blunders and demand John Fords resignation…
Well they have called out the supervisors and criticized the behavior of the planning department.
I’m not sure that they’ve ever officially “demand[ed] John Fords resignation” but many people have. To no avail.
When the supervisors routinely have zero serious challenge to their reelection there’s not a lot of leverage to be gained in “calling them out”. And the hcga isn’t a political action organization that’s cultivating a stable of candidates to challenge anyone. It’s a professional organization that provides networking, education, workforce training, and policy analysis to it’s Members about a specific industry.
Y’all have such a weird story about the local cannabis industry being simultaneously the sinister hand pulling the strings of local cannabis policy and hapless victims who can’t get it together enough to seriously challenge terrible local policy
“Well they have called out the supervisors and criticized the behavior of the planning department.”
When? And what did it accomplish? Like I said:
“Could you imagine what the HCGA could get done with what this article is about, if they put only 10% of what they put into opposing Measure “A”.”
The HCGA is a very large and influential Trade Association in Humboldt County. And besides Measure “A” has been as quiet as a church mouse when it comes to holding the Supervisors accountable for the Planning Director.
As it states on the HCGA website:
“HCGA is proud to be partnered with other legacy cannabis-producing regions through Origins Council to collectively serve as the largest membership-based cannabis advocacy organization in the state, with nearly 900 licensed cannabis businesses members across six counties.”
https://hcga.co/advocacy-state/
I think they can say and do more than just criticize, they should demand the head of John Ford…
You, of all people, should know how pointless it is to demand action from public entities that you have zero power to enforce.
As to your claim about spending, measure A opposition raised under $200k total from the last report I saw, with only a portion of that coming from the hcga. Do you really think $20k is going to move the needle on anything but the tightest of races locally?
You can spin and twist my words as much as you want, but the answer is still yes!
Really? How’s your various efforts for inciting State agency action around eel river water usage going?
I’d really appreciate if you could point us to a campaign you feel like you’ve participated in that produced results so that the rest of us have a framework to work off of
Again the HCGA is a great organization doing the best they can with the best of intentions in these trying times.
Did you catch Ed Densons show about ford resigning after my “punished for another’s crimes” article was fearing the sups meeting and got IJs attention initially for the federal lawsuit?
In his KMUD show, ED explains why Ford is a compassionate person and a great director. I understand people are rightfully emotional about what’s happened since he has been director, I’m guilty of that myself, however I have noticed he will listen to people’s complaints, he tries to make issues right and is fair one on one just as ED says.
https://on.soundcloud.com/hVWsAu4rGE9nAVsA7
The HCGA is a great group of folks, with a wonderful director. It’s because of natalynne delapp and HCGA farmers that I was able to publish this article.
You’re not wrong. The HCGA has been good for some things but represents the larger players and distribution. Although I believe they do good work, they don’t represent small farmers’ interests…they represent some farmers interests.They should have been at the forefront of opposing the lifting of the acreage cap. They recently opposed a direct to market campaign for microbuisnessses to ship direct to medical patients which would have allowed farms under 1 acre to have full control of their own sales through a single microbuisness license (farms under 10,000sqft). The co-op model would have thrived under this. I like the idea of Farmers Markets that they are proposing in AB 1111 but it still requires using a distribution company, which I oppose. I was behind them 100 percent with measure A but it’s true the lack of criticism of the permit process and abatements has fallen short. They are good people overall
Frankly from my direct experiences interviewing them, they are all so terrified of retaliation, they just want peace after all they have endured in most cases and they don’t want o buck the system in fear it will further delay their efforts to cultivate in compliance.
While I acknowledge there have been serious issues in the planning dept, John ford is actually one of the best directors we’ve had in recent history in the county I’m told by all the elders, and have experienced this myself. It’s not the man, but the position itself that enables, whether intentional or not, abuses of power and government overreach. This is not uncommon today, regulation for profit is happening across the nation. But if you look at what ford has done in his dept. Closer, including the abatement policies and these letters, it was all at the direction of the board. I think the public needs to do more to participate in these discussions so the board makes the right decisions.
Welcome to government bureaucracy. Although not involved in cannabis, often times I receive letters for my business regarding licensing that show up 2 or 3 days after the date payment is due. It’s not special to the weed business. It is however something that should absolutely change. Government bureaucrats demanding payment should at least be competent enough to get letters regarding said payments out on time, they are paid far too much of our tax dollars to do such a terrible job.
Are you required to prepay for those inspections a year in advance? While I don’t discount the bureaucracy is thick in all industries, I think this (and other charges) are unique to cannabis.
I’m pretty sure in 2017 we had to put down an initial deposit for work going forward. Once that was exhausted we were billed for work beyond that. The $750 inspection fee equates to four hours of work plus mileage. I was billed for two hours pre-inspection research, one hour for the actual inspection, and one hour post inspection work. There are five farms on our road, I know they did at least three of us on the same day. I’m sure they’re triple billing for that mileage and drive time. No part of our project has changed over the last two years. It’s hard to believe they spent two hours combing through our project to get up to speed on everything before coming out. The inspection wasn’t even a half hour long. A week later, I was emailed an inspection completion report that said I had been inspected and was compliant, a report which I doubt it took an hour to type up.
“When people come in and talk to us, we’re happy to work through the stuff. If there’s issues, come in and talk to us. Don’t get mad and just say, Planning and Buildings all that.”
No, dude. If it’s your fuckup, you fix it.
I had the same quote cued up. Insulting. The average cultivator in Humboldt has to dedicate five hours to make the round trip. To do the planning dept work for them. ..and they’re gonna charge you $116/hr to visit with you.
I got a bill for staff realizing they booked a second inspection a week after an inspection. They tried to charge me to correct the error. The county treats growers like an ATM.
And now comes the STR ATM machine, let’s see how bad they can fk that up too!
We’re outta here! Good luck Humboldt…
As government gets more desperate for revenue to feed its ever-increasing bloat, this kind of stuff also increases. It doesn’t have to make sense. When it was all simply illegal and black market principles governed price, “cannabis” seemed like another potentially rich tax and fee stream. But the golden goose got strangled in the legalization and extraction process. Where to turn next?
John Ford is a dirty scum bag.
What a shame to keep wasting so much time and resources, both the farmers and the public employees, all to accomplish nothing more than impeding a flagging local industry.
The whine country…
Even the Judges are crooks…
Try recalling all the Supervisors as well, since they all have numerous conflicts of interest and are all just a bunch of crooks themselves…
Charging for inspections IN ADVANCE, BEFORE they are to be performed, or even if they are never to be performed…???
Who made that one up…???
Is that even legal…???
Doesn’t really sound like it…
Where is the evidence of due process and voter approval involved in the establishment of that hokey ass, totally arbitrary, extortionist regulation..???
Was it just yet another quasi legal executive decision made only by Ford and his greedy ilk…???
Did the supervisors approve it…???
If non pre payment of that highly questionable future inspection bill results in revocation, the inspection in question might never even be performed, rendering moot the issue of non pre payment, and therefore, also the issue of revocation based on the nonpayment of the inspection cost prepayment, never to even be performed.
What a bunch of Ford FUBAR bullshit…
Additionally, if the inspection comes after a suspension, and/or revocation, for non pre payment, in order to make the inspection pre charge even borderline “legit”, it wouldn’t be a compliance inspection anymore, at all, it would have then become an enforcement inspection, instead, and no longer a compliance inspection, at all.
The annual inspection costs are ridiculous! So is the separation of county/state billing. That’s how they get away with double charging. After spending my life savings plus more to get my permit, I pay roughly $600 a year to get inspected on a 3000 sq ft cultivation site. It takes the guy about 15 minutes . I believe this should be covered by the ridiculous $5,900 state fee. Plus measure S taxes at $1 per foot, for a tiny farm I pay over 10 grand a year in fees before I ever grow a single plant. They want the money upfront, while I have to roll the dice. Now they sent me a measur S bill for 2021 when I had a county but not yet a state license and did NOT cultivate. They were kind enough to explain why they justify taxing me to death, and then kindly allowed me to go on a payment plan. I’m currently working 2 jobs to pay for my cannabis “hobby”. If prices were $1000 a pound I wouldn’t be complaining , but at $300 there’s no meat on the bone. When (if) I finally sell it, then the tax and fee administration(cdtfa)hits me again. I feel like first they ream me out with a step drill, then they come back and hit me with a cheese grater, no lube ! Then I read that they all gave themselves raises over at the county, including Michelle Bushnell, who I voted for because I thought she would represent us. Instead she recuses herself from all cannabis matters. That’s my rant for the day .
Did you do any math before you decided to spend your entire life savings and then some?
Prices were crashing before Prop 64 was passed.
The system is working exactly as it was designed to work. The powers that be planned to cull the herd.
You are correct, prices have been crashing since the mid 90’s. I did some math, and it definitely ain’t mathin’, and I really didn’t want to go down the permit path, but due to circumstances beyond my control I had to pull the trigger. Once i committed to the permit process, fees kept piling up and time kept moving forward . I had no idea it would take so long and cost so much to get and maintain a cultivation permit. I must admit I got played. They got me.
I am truly sorry you are caught up in this boondoggle. The people who designed this system should have been transparent with the public and made it clear they had designed it to eliminate most farmers. Direct farm to consumer sales would be a game changer. I don’t think it’s in the cards, but it’s my wish for you (and for all of us).
Ha Ha Ha ha ha!!! The permit pansies vs. the corrupt lying pos John Ford. I got no horse in this ridiculous race…but it is funny to see it unfolding exactly the way we (me and my friends) predicted…predators and liars and cowards
Time to throw the tea in harbor.
What’s the local government going to do when their tax revenue dies?
Black markets matter.
How did the emerald triangle fuck itself over so hard with legalization?
The supervisors and John Ford
…and lifting the acre caps/stacking permits loopholes, Med Men and Gavin Newsome. ?
The black market will prevail in the end.
The regulatory agencies are doing their best to help, but legalization is fast approaching.
That will mark the end of the black market.
It will linger on in the most regulated markets but broadly disappear over the next few decades.
Regarding John Ford: In talking with my pastor I have come to recognize the many Christ like qualities of Mr. Ford. John is forgiving. John is loving. John has humility. John has compassion for us. He is patient and gentle. Just like Christ there are people around him who would betray him for a 30 peice of silver! God protect and bless John Ford!
Thanks for getting the truth out there, Nicole! It’s so frustrating that this incompetence is still plaguing our local government. When real people who run one of the most influential economies in our small communities are still given unclear direction, punitive enforcement and regulation, and road block after road block, something is wrong within our local ordinance and governance. This is not fair to the farmers or county residents who should have seen recognizable improvements in their lives; instead, we are witnessing homelessness and hopelessness skyrocket. It’s time to set down the torch of bias and start supporting the cannabis economy. Not just phony photo ops to gain votes but real, tangible systemic and legal change. We need direct-to-consumer pathways and to permit small, culturally essential farmers retroactively. It’s time to recognize quantity is not our value. It’s the history, the spirit, the quality, and the community itself that has value.
We went from Green Rush to Green flush in less than a decade.?
Two decades.
No, less than a decade. Really closer to 5 years.
The green rush was in full effect when I showed up in the mud 2000s. When do you reckon it ended?
When growers stopped paying trimmer $200 per lbs.
Ok, that would put it at somewhere between a decade and a decade and a half depending on when you assign the start date and which grower’s pay scale you’re looking at
Man….the county is soooo lame!
Humboldts finest shine once again. Pickin pockets with their so called “status”. Y’all ought to just give the county your middle fingers!! Change up the people in those places.
Well geez, who is doing the paperwork in the office? Someone’s kid that needed something to do over summer?
Welcome to the legal business that all other businesses have had to deal with. Keep voting for democrats and it will only get worse. Granted Republicans are not really much better.
They wonder what the US is so screwed up here it is. They create red tape and thwart business with red tape.
While we must have some framework for making businesses run safe etc it should NOT be like this. I have no desire to be in the pot business or even smoke the crap but if people want to let them. The government is not the solution to our problems free enterprise is.
I’m a bit freer with my words for Ford as he’s self selected for a position of -excuse me while I vomit- “leadership”. Cpl yrs ago I said he belonged in prison or presidential candidate. Now I’m certain it’s the later. To make it to prison these days you’ve gotta be a serious, accomplished and dedicated criminal. In politics you lie, cheat and fail your way to the top.
Pay us in advance for an inspection sounds like a desperate attempt at fund raising.
The whole situation is a bit confusing. If the market is so bad, why are people still planting? I see some people actually expanding and buying/leasing new farms. Something doesn’t add up. You hear all of these boo-hoo stories, yet the greenhouse is stuffed again. People crying about not making money, yet still spending money on vacations, expensive dinners and new trucks. Which one is it, can’t be broke and spending money.
Lots of bullshit being spewed about. Sales out the back door to existing out-of-state markets are not as lucrative as before but will get you a couple fancy vacations….Just don’t forget to play “broke crybaby” as soon as you get back from Hawaii or Costa!
People that have large national distribution operations are still moving along at a decent clip. These days they tend to be mostly vertically integrated so they are maximizing the income from their gardens. And the margin, on a percent basis of cost, of wholesale flower moved back east hasn’t changed considerably in a decade or so. You just have to move more volume to gross the same.
Fully traditional market farms are doing ok. If you adapted to the sub 500 price point (sub 1000 for indoor) and your operation still pencils out then you’re likely doing fine.
Permitted farms are in the worst shape. The layers of additional pre harvest cost are intense and the market bottleneck at retail makes it hard for farmers that aren’t well connected to get their product to end buyers in good condition and to recover their pay in a timely manner.
The only people I know who are still buying new vehicles and going on lavish vacations are people who have solid distribution operations with farms that feed that business