Recommendation to request City Attorney to prepare a resolution in support of SB 603, which establishes a cannabis license deferral and waiver tax credit, and request City Manager send a letter communicating the City’s support of SB 603.
Thank you very much. Now we're going on to item number 19, please. Adam 19. Communication from Councilwoman Ellen. Council Member Oranga and Vice Mayor Richardson. Recommendation to request City Attorney to prepare a resolution in support of SB 603. Thank you. Councilman Allen. Thank you, mayor, and thank you vice mayor Richard said that and council when you're ringa for signing on to this item, I introduce this item because I think our city needs to lead the way and I know we have already when it comes to supporting social equity programs and council members. You have been at the lead of this. This bill, Senate Bill 603 provides a tax credit and makes it easier for equity businesses to operate in the cannabis industry. And as you know, legal cannabis operators face a host of regulations and requirements from growing standards to product testing, licensing fees and city taxes. And these are daunting challenges for the cannabis industry and businesses. For equity applicants, there are major barriers, particularly against the illicit market, and the illicit market continues to thrive and undermine the legal operators. By providing this modest tax credit. This bill will help equity dispenser dispensaries stay in business, meet all the state requirements and pee in the illicit market. So ultimately, this bill will help the equity businesses play a larger role in their communities. And we all have a responsibility to support equity programs. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilmember Durango. I want to thank Castmember well for bringing this forward. Social equity has been a big issue for us for a long time now, and it covers all aspects of our of our city audiences. I think it's important that we review this and that and are looking forward to looking at it even further at the state level when it comes to us and come back with a recommendation. So I thank you that Councilmember Aloe. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. Thank you. And I appreciate Councilman Allen for bringing this item. I chose not to sign on at the time because I wasn't quite clear if we were at the final stages of the bill or if there would be significant amendments. I know that there have been significant amendments to other items. And so I guess I'm hoping and I know we've just reorganized all of our committees. I'm hoping that we can get continual updates on the progress of the item and if it changes. Oftentimes these things happen and major changes take place. And so while I will be supporting that item today, I would like the state ledge to have an overarching statement of what our position of support is on items like this and should the item get too far out of the range of the policy statement of this Council and what we support that then our support would change to no support should a bunch of fillers be added to the item that are not in alignment with the Council's current strategy. So but I do appreciate that item. No hard feelings that I didn't sign on because the legislative process is a quite unwieldy one at the state and federal level right now. And so it just makes me nervous to support any particular item by number, but I will support it at this time in hopes that we can continually get updates as Councilmember Ortega said. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. I'll be brief. Thanks for inviting me to sign on. I think it's you know, obviously, these issues are to evolve, evolve since the legalization of cannabis. I'm happy to support this and I look forward to continuing to follow it. Thank you. Kathryn Austin. Yes. I'd like to just say say I think this is interesting, Bill. Certainly it meets the spirit and and the the the direction that our city is definitely headed in when it comes to cannabis equity. I see it as a real benefit to potentially many new new cannabis license holders to encourage them to to. To open businesses, but also to B, b, be successful in what they do. Senator Bradford has brought this bill forward. I do believe that there are options and opportunities for there to be changes in the bill. And, you know, certainly as to two of the three members of the state lands committee have signed on in support. So I'm going to support this as well. But obviously, should should there be some sort of dramatic change, I'm sure will be notified and staff will make us aware. And I assume excuse me, like I said earlier, I do believe that this this legislation is in line with our state led agenda to promote social equity in our city. So thank you. I'll support. Thank you. Let's do public comment if there is any on the of first. Speaker is Elliot Lewis. Hello. This is Elliott Lewis. I'm CEO of Catalyst Cannabis Co, also a lifetime resident of Long Beach. I always love having an agenda item because I get to sit through the meetings and listen to all the great stuff. I want to applaud the mayor for his inspirational discussion regarding the border crisis. I'm here to talk about SB 603. I want to give a shout out to Cindy Allen for championing this issue, as well as Councilman Richardson and Durango for signing on. It's really important to get these letters of support. I love to see Long Beach being the first one to get a letter on this item. The city of L.A. is supposed to be right behind, and there should be some other cities supporting as well. And these are very important. So the state knows that, in fact, we're behind the issue. There's still a lot of work to do at the state, but the city showing support is very important. Again, I love to see lobbies leading on the equity issues. The war on drugs has been a bad thing that disproportionately impacted communities of color and municipalities. Taking action is very important. Catlett has been also very outspoken and very public about its opinion on adding brick and mortars, and we applaud the city for their vote a couple of weeks ago. While this is a huge step and we think it's symbolic and there are some people that will benefit, we do think this will be a small amount of people compared to the entire population that was incarcerated around the war on drugs. So we want to see the conversation get broader on the equity issue, from expungement to job training to community outreach to reentry, etc.. SBO SB 603 is important part of breaking down barriers, giving social equity applicants a better chance to be able to compete in the marketplace. And it also illuminates how nuanced and broad the issue can be. Myself and Catalyst Cannabis Co are in support of it. We applaud the Council for their letter of support as well, and we give our word and we will continue to do our best to support this through our connections at the State. Thank you very much for letting me speak. Thank you. Our next speaker, Steven Contreras. Hello, everyone. Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, city council members. My name is Steven Contreras and the community outreach director for the Long Beach Collective Association. I would just like to say that LBC supports SB 603 that will provide a deferral or a waiver of an application fee, a licensing fee or or a renewal fee otherwise required by a division or a need based applicant or a needs based licensee. In addition, the LBC also supports AB 1138 and SB 59. If SB 235 is amended, it will also have LBC support. I'd like to thank you for your time. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this item. Thank you. Thank you. To can go ahead and take a vote. I want to thank Councilman Allen for leadership on this. Certainly an innovative bill coming out of the legislature and members. Please go ahead and cast your votes. Councilwoman Cindy, have I? Councilman Allen. I. Councilwoman Pryce. I in Sabina. All right. Councilwoman Mongo. I. Councilwoman Sara. I. Councilmember Oranga. I. Councilman Austin. Hi. Vice Mayor Richardson. All right. Motion carries. Thank you. I think we still have do we have a few folks that are signed up for general public comment? I remember. Yes. We have someone on the line.