Recommendation to declare ordinance amending Long Beach Municipal Code by amending Sections 5.90.030 and 5.90.060, by adding Section 5.90.310; and, by amending and restating chapter 5.92, all relating to the regulation of cannabis retail storefront (dispensary) business licenses and the Cannabis Social Equity Program, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
Thank you. Now we'll move to the first reading of the equity social equity piece, cannabis. Item 25 Report from City Manager Recommendation to declare the ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code relating to the regulation of cannabis, retail, storefront business licenses and the cannabis social equity program. Read the first time and later for the next regular meeting of City Council for Final Reading and adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to establish a request for proposals for cannabis retail storefront business licenses for the cannabis social equity program citywide. Thank you. There's a motion in a second, Councilmember Austin. I'd just like to get up, make sure that. That the changes that were incorporated last week are in here and hear from the city attorney on those. Those are changes of the city manager. Yes, we can have Emily Armstrong and Art Sanchez go through in a. Summary of what those major changes are that. We got from the council at the last meeting. Yeah. Good evening, Mayor. Members of the city council. So tonight we're bringing back the equity dispensary ordinance and resolution. So council at the May 10th meeting, directed staff to amend the ordinance to include restricting the equity dispensary RFP process to equity applicants verified on or before May 10th of 2022. Prioritizing any equity applicant that had previously been awarded to move forward with obtaining a dispensary license back in the 2010 and or 2017 lottery process, and requiring that all equity businesses maintain equity ownership for a minimum of ten years before they can transfer ownership to a non equity business. So that is the summary of the changes before you tonight, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you. So last week, I think we were poised to pass a pretty, pretty significant item in terms of one that we've been working on for for quite some time. We heard from the public and we incorporated some changes based on public comment and thoughts from the council. I'd like to have Mr. Mayor hear from my colleagues and in public comment. I'm inclined to support this and move this item forward. I think is it's time. You know, we've spent a lot of time on this. We've had a robust community process. And, you know, we met the mark in terms of expanding. I think this item meets the mark in terms of spanning retail cannabis establishments for social equity specific candidates in our city. So with that, I'd like to hear from my colleagues and from public comment, but encourage us to support this item tonight, same time. Thank you, Councilwoman Allen. I yes. I also just want to say thank you for all of your hard work on this. When I read this, you did just an amazing job and incorporating all the conversations and everything we asked for in this item. So I just want to say thank you. I think it's important that we stand by all of the applicants in the process that are already in the process. And I think that this program is going to be stronger for the changes that we made. And I look forward to seeing equity operators operating the city real quickly. So thank you very much. Thank you. Is there any public comment. If there are any members of the public that would like to speak on item 22 and person, please line up at the podium in Zoom. Please use the raise hand feature or dial star nine. Now I'm sorry, this is item 25. In person. You'll have 3 minutes. My name is James Mark. I've been in a situation to see what has been occurring from both sides of the field. I mean, I've been working with the ABC for a few years now and the past 18 months, the two years, and creating their recommendations of what social equity looks like and being from the community most impacted by the war on drugs, most definitely working with my community to receive social equity. And for the past year, says Emily, Armstrong has been the city's new cannabis program manager. She's been nothing short of devious, mischievous and misleading. And from far from equitable, in her dealings with the black community, I was a part of the creation of the social equity presentations that were presented to you on Ms.. Emily with the ABC over the past 20 months to two years, and she has not given the black social equity entrepreneur the same grace and courtesy again. Your recent hirings that Ms.. Ebony has just hired in the Office of Equity speaks great volumes that cannot be expressed in the form of words, but as a real life, real time testament again to her lack of cultural competency for the most harmed and impacted by the war on drugs in the city of Long Beach. Emily's episode ways have been very conniving and again misleading to the city council. Last week she made representations to the council and the city itself that there is a $3 million come from social equity, which she's not disclosing that house path funds have been dispersed in the in the past where administration and consulting agencies hired by the city have served no purpose to not one black social equity article world, but they were able to siphon funds away for services that were not rendered. Again, we are requesting a full audit towards every means of funding that was appointed or supposed to be allotted to assist black social equity entrepreneurs in moving this process forward. Also, we want a fully drawn out report of how those funds, the $3 million in the pipeline for social equity planning on being expended also for the records. I'm not a social equity applicant, but I remain fully engaged and will continue to support to finances with the attainment of legal council, outside social equity experts, resources, the foremost power of influence and every effort to receive just that equity along with the dismissal of Emily Armstrong from their position as someone who represents the black social equity entrepreneurs and its interests and its entirety. Thank you, Counsel. Well, great evening, everyone, with giving all glory and honor to God. My name is Marian Burrell and I am a social equity applicant within this program. I'm equity applicant number seven. So that means that I've been here for quite some time. I can tell you that I have helped the city. To implement different programs in place as seeing where the disconnect is and where we are now. I can tell you that I'm not too happy with where we are. I'm one of the applicants who were awarded one of the location grants to be able to get a facility. But I can tell you that I've been begging the city for years, though they had millions sitting in their bank. My facility now is in your district, District six, and I'm looking to operate a dispensary, but there's a 200 gap within the buffer of other dispensaries. And so I would like that buffer to be set down so that. Equity. Applicants can have an opportunity to participate within this industry. As you may have read from something that she wrote, there's only about two square miles that we have within the city to erect an equity dispensary. And so that doesn't give us much opportunity to actually participate. Now, for the money that actually was awarded the grant funding, it wasn't easy, as I said, to get the city to do it. And glory to God. It was only because of him and him forcing their arm to have to give out $1.6 million within months. And were we able to recommend to her that she give it to us so that we actually have an opportunity to participate in this game? Prior to us receiving our locations, there was only one applicant throughout years of this program being in place that has actually received licensing. So that speaks volumes. So I do back what James and Mark's ask and removing Emily from her position now because after conversations I see that she lacks the empathy and the understanding regarding social equity, regarding the war on drugs and what it has done to our people. Thank you. I'm Jillian Xavier. And to echo what LBC says, LBC stands for a land based social equity entrepreneur. Here's what's happening. Going forward. Anything happening with social equity? We want to be at the table. You have to have us here. We've been here since 2018. Emily Armstrong is trying to strong arm us manipulators, tie us with these invisible chains. Slave free days is over. You're supposed to help us get into the business. You're not supposed to strong arm us and tell us where we supposed to sell our business. I want to recommend that you immediately dismiss her. I'll have an investigation done on her because, you know, we have emails from other equity applicants where you're telling them nobody is above me. I make the decisions on who gets the grants. The very cocky. Right. You make the decisions. You're not for us. Look at her. She doesn't. Social equity. Nothing says she's privileged. You need to bring somebody that look like me. Look like you. You know, indigenous person, a Latina. Valencia. Anybody besides somebody that has no empathy for us. You can't do that. Listen, you're going to D.C. today where you're not going to D.C. because we're not going to give you your vote because we've been here since 2018 and we can't get into business because this woman has our hands on us. It's racism. Your ancestors. That. Walk in behind you, too, like Robert. They had a knee in our neck as well. They killed us still. How are you going to put her in charge of social equity? She doesn't understand the struggle. You hear what I'm telling you. So you're not going nowhere when I vote for you. Get rid of her. And then we got your back. Next week, replace. Gavin. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I've been a social equity applicant. November 2018, I believe. I want to start off. I just want to elaborate on my five year residency point from last week. Currently, what is being proposed is a five year residency requirement. I believe this does not take into account the gentrification that has occurred in the city over the last 5 to 15 years. Ten years of residency is a better indicator of who has actually lived in disproportionate areas in the city of Long Beach. Just for your information, the City of Los Angeles has DCR social equity applicant eligibility criteria includes a ten year residency requirement to determine who is a social equity applicant. If the ordinance is not going to reflect the ten year residency requirement, at least the scoring system for the eight social equity dispensaries should provide additional points for those individuals that have lived in these areas for ten years or more. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Demetrius Woodard. Once again, the original lottery winner back in 2010 with my brother Christopher. Our work to Larry Balls. Back then, the fees were 14,000, 14,000 plus per per application. So it was roughly around $28,000 back when our very own mayor was confident of District one Rec for the chief of staff for Steve Neal. I talked my brother, my family into doing this back in 2010. To be is a good opportunity. You know, if it's legal, there's some that the city was offering, you know, let's do this thing right. But it was when we did this right is when everything took a turn for the worse for me and my family. We were raided. We were arrested. We were jailed. We were prosecuted. We were name drug kingpins of the city of Long Beach for participating in a legal marijuana operation. So we thought until the council decided to change their mind and changed the changed the law on that 5.87 back in those days, I am excited that the process will move forward for people that was in these lotteries and move forward in 2010 and 2017. A Lotteries, they are like what? I said I'm I'm kind of emotional. I took a toll on my family when it came raided my brother's house. It was nothing but my sisters and my nieces there. Not one male, not one boy. You get a welcome with guns pointed at women and children. My brother's a black man. He the gun collector. I collect cars, he collects guns. But when you are a person of not of color and you have two guns, you have the right to bear arms. When a black man has more than one gun. If child endangerment, that's what we get charged with. We get charged with child endangerment for guns that was never even open and out of the box. Once again, my name is Demetrius Woodard you may know me at the major incredible Woodard are original lottery winners back in 2010 and we remain to be moral citizens and love and the city of Long Beach my name is Dimitri Garwood Witter and I am Long Beach. Yeah. Hi. My name is Spencer Cruz, and I was a part of your Long Beach Collective Association back in 2017, and I felt like you guys had directly attacked a bunch of people after the lottery came about. And one of my my delivery was pretty much set down, and I had to sell because of the ongoing issues that I had, which were court case after court, case after court, case after police officer pulling me over as a police officer and pulled over, pulled over constantly. And I had damages with the city that I've failed to get any type of, uh, reciprocation from, from Charles Parkin's office directly, which I have asked numerous times for. And I just feel like it's like you guys keep doing this ongoing bias towards the city, people who have lived here for 20 years plus, and it's like constantly just stealing money from us. So I really hope you guys get this together because I'm really sick and tired of spending money here for no reason. That continues. That concludes public comment. That concludes public comment. I have a motion and the second I have any more comments from the council. Then we can have the roll call, please, Madam Clerk. District one and District two by district three i. District four. I District five. I. District six. I. District seven. By District eight. District nine. All. Motion is carried. Okay. We're now moving on to review the two new business items. Next, which will be 30 and 32. Item 30, please.