LAKEPORT, Calif. – At the end of a nearly two-hour-long discussion, the Board of Supervisors chose to disband its medicinal marijuana cultivation advisory board in the wake of one of its members seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction over an interim urgency ordinance the board passed last week.
The decision came in spite of requests from advisory board members and community members on both sides of the marijuana issue to keep the group active until it could finish its work. The group's goal was to offer the board a set of final recommendations to use as the basis for a permanent ordinance.
The supervisors, however, voiced frustration with what they characterized as continued efforts by illegal growers to game the system and stop forward motion on regulations.
During the meeting, the board also was informed that a union has plans for rolling out a marijuana-based industry in the county and establishing the accompanying regulations to make it happen.
Supervisors Anthony Farrington and Denise Rushing took the proposal to disband the advisory board to the full Board of Supervisors. Both have served on the advisory board, and Farrington said they thought the members had “pure and legitimate” motives.
The advisory board’s suggestions had influenced the interim urgency ordinance the board accepted on July 9.
That ordinance allows for up to six plants to be grown outdoors on a half acre or less, 12 plants with a 75-foot setback on parcels of half an acre to one acre, 18 plants and a 150-foot setback on parcels one to five acres in size, 36 plants and a minimum 150 foot setback on five- to 40-acre parcels, and a maximum of 48 plants on parcels 40 acres and larger.
However, after one of the advisory group's members, Don Merrill, was listed among the plaintiffs in last week's filing of a temporary restraining order – the hearing for which was continued to July 27 – Farrington concluded that there was no point to moving forward.
Farrington said there is “another element out there that concerns me,” which he said is driven by more than concern for patients' rights and access to medicinal marijuana, and which uses patients as human shields, a sentiment Rushing shared in an email the group last Friday.
He felt his time was wasted. “The strategy of this is to keep this in play in perpetuity,” he said.
Farrington also suggested staff time and tax dollars were wasted while other matters waited for attention. “We are spending too much time on this.”
While he had been concerned about an injunction being filed – which is why he said he advocated to adjust the urgency ordinance's numbers upward from the original more stringent proposal – Farrington added that he never anticipated an advisory board member would have filed the action.
“To me that was greater insult to injury,” he said.
He added, “There will never be a balance that will come out of the committee on this issue. It will have to be decided by the electorate.”
Rushing said the matter had become very emotional for her. “I really had to think about why, because marijuana is not my issue.”
She said the issue that had caused her to run for office was healing Lake County and bringing the community together on a “controversial, divisive and complex issue” like medical marijuana.
She compared working on the committee to pulling people through a knothole. “It became abundantly clear to me that the strategy is to keep it in play.”
She said people are being used, and patients are afraid of being made criminals. “That's unfair.”
Rushing said she felt that the 45-day urgency ordinance is a good law that tried to balance all interests. “Lake County is in deep need of healing around this issue. I think it's a dream to think any action this board takes is actually going to solve the problem of growing marijuana in Lake County.”
There are people who see profit in marijuana, and others who need it for medical reasons. “The idea that this can go on unregulated is absolutely wrong. It can't, it has to be regulated,” Rushing said.
Rushing suggested it was a waste of time to keep going at the committee level, as it was playing right into the strategy of the big illegal growers to keep the matter going without a resolution.
She still wanted the matter resolved, and wanted people to be able to live in neighborhoods and not worry about crime and other associated issues. Rushing suggested the board could build a permanent set of regulations based on the urgency ordinance.
Supervisor Jeff Smith said he was disappointed the proposal to disband the committee was brought forward. “You guys have worked hard at this. We've used what you came up with this in this committee.”
He continued, “You act like you're defeated, you're not,” suggesting they shouldn't stop based on one man's actions. “You're so close to being there.”
Smith asked them to reconsider disbanding. “By stopping you send a signal that the other side has won.”
Supervisor Jim Comstock thanked Farrington and Rushing for their work, along with the advisory board members that acted in good faith.
“Those attempting to keep this in play, shame on you,” he said. “You are trying to take over the county.”
He added, “We're not going to stand for it. That's why we're here doing what we're doing.”
Comstock agreed with Farrington that an ultimate solution needed to go before voters. “Nothing else appears to work.”
Farrington told Smith he wasn't giving up, but was “providing leadership to get closure.” He said they were spending more time on this issue than others. “That's a problem and that's no longer acceptable to me.”
Farrington suggested that Smith could take his place on the advisory board, but he wouldn't continue with the group. “There comes a time where you have to fish or cut bait. I'm at that time.”
He said he's talked to a lot of growers, but when he tries to pin them down on federal legalization, they don't share the view that it's important.
He discussed having compliance meetings with growers and the sheriff's office, but said he was done with the committee.
Rushing said she would continue on the advisory committee if another board member served with her. She acknowledged that both she and Farrington had taken personal and political hits from both sides because of their work with the group.
“I'm trying to find the greater good of continuing the committee,” she said, suggesting that if they continued they should have a focused, strict deadline for coming up with final recommendations.
“I want to see a good ordinance come out of this that the people will not feel so upset about that they'll sign those petitions,” she said.
Board Chair Rob Brown told Farrington and Rushing, “I totally know where you are with this. I have my own frustrations.”
He recalled the special July 9 meeting the board held, and was disgusted by the behavior of the marijuana proponents, who he called “a bunch of whiny, pathetic punks.”
Community members urge continuing the advisory board
Numerous community members urged the board to keep the advisory board going.
Finley resident Phil Murphy suggested the board institute an ordinance with an appeals process for people who need higher plant amounts, which would give patients legal recourse if they felt the plant amounts were too limited.
“I think that every time this process has gone wrong is when people have tried to deal with it as if it's something completely unique,” Murphy said.
Lower Lake resident Victoria Brandon recognized the frustration felt by Rushing and Farrington. She acknowledged the process was messy, slow, expensive and tedious, but it was the best process they had.
Continuing the advisory board would address the public perception that it was only put in place to get Measure D, a cultivation ordinance put on the ballot by Lake County Citizens for Responsible Regulation – of which Merrill was a leader – and the Lake County Green Farmers, voted down, Brandon said.
She said the community didn't need more distrust of government, adding that Merrill's behavior was “inexcusable.”
Rushing agreed with there was a “pervasive cynicism,” with both she and Farrington accused of having ulterior motives. “The only motive I have right now is I really want a process that will work.”
At one point in the discussion, County Counsel Anita Grant advised the board that with a quorum of advisory board members present, it was not appropriate under the Brown Act to discuss particulars regarding what kinds of proposals they could make.
Dan Rush, a representative of United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which is signing up local marijuana growers as members, told the board, “If you look at the issue and think you'll solve it with an ordinance, that's craziness.”
He suggested the matter needed to be addressed on the local level in conjunction with statewide legislation that creates a Tenth Amendment assertion to protect cities and counties from federal intervention.
He said UFCW has targeted Lake County to settle the issue. “We do have a larger picture and a plan for Lake County that I think we can achieve that has to do with creating good paying jobs, and an industry,” as well as a commercial process, he said.
Rush said they could arrive at a “positive and productive scenario” that didn't involve a ballot measure, and he urged them to keep the committee together.
John Brosnan, president of the Lake County Green Farmers and an advisory board member, told Farrington that by resigning he was showing that he had lost faith in the group. Brosnan also suggested Farrington's resignation from the group would give rise to public doubt.
Farrington said the whole matter had led to paralysis, and that Merrill wasn't the only reason, but his involvement in the legal action proved to be “the last straw” for Farrington.
Bobby Dutcher of Kelseyville, another advisory board member, said it was disappointing to get the email from Rushing last week announcing the committee might be disbanded.
He wanted to keep going, noting the group had gotten issues with plants and acreage handled first. “I think the hardest part of this is behind us.”
Dutcher said he couldn't explain Merrill's behavior, but said he and others wanted to continue working.
Melissa Fulton, speaking as a Lakeport resident and not as chief executive officer of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, agreed that a lot of time had gone into the effort, and that the advisory board should continue.
“The marijuana cultivation issue impacts every single one of us,” she said.
Fulton said there was an elephant in the room – the professional grower – “who's in it for the bucks.” Another issue came in the form of the union that has come to town. “That is going to compound the issues we're dealing with.”
Fulton also reminded the board, “No matter what you do, you're never going to satisfy the people who feel that we should have all out grows and all out dispensaries. You're never going to satisfy them.”
Rushing said the issue has dominated the landscape “literally and figuratively.” She suggested the committee meet one more time, for a daylong session, and “then we're done.”
Smith said he was willing to step up and take Farrington's place if necessary, but urged Farrington to give it one more meeting.
Farrington asked Community Development Director Rick Coel to weigh in.
Coel, who said he agreed with Farrington's concerns, has been in the middle of trying to sort out marijuana-related planning and zoning issues for three years. “No matter what you move forward with as a board as a county, it will be challenged.”
He said a tremendous amount of energy, time and expense has gone into the issue. Coel estimated that between 75 and 80 percent of his department's staff time was spent on dealing with marijuana.
He also liked Rushing's suggestion of giving it one more meeting to finish the advisory board's work.
Coel said he was sick and tired of the issue, just like the board, and that he felt the county was experiencing a “hostile takeover.”
He commended Farrington for his decision to leave and disband the advisory board. “This needs to come to an end.”
Law enforcement has the interim ordinance to use, and Coel pointed to the two-thirds vote against Measure D, as well as the recent reelection of board members. “I think you have direction from the community on this issue.”
During board deliberation, Farrington said he didn't think it was possible for the advisory board to settle the remaining issues in a one-day session. He said he wouldn't change his mind and he refused to remain a member of the group.
Rushing moved to have one more meeting with another supervisor added to the group, with continued county staff support for minute taking and other duties.
Smith seconded, but the motion failed when the board majority – Farrington, Brown and Comstock – voted it down.
Farrington then moved to disband the advisory board. That vote was 4-1, with Smith voting no.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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