Front Page – Page 30 – El Cerrito Democratic Club

June 13, 2016June 14, 2016

MOVING BEYOND THE MORATORIUM ON CANNABIS

On Tuesday, May 17, 2016, the El Cerrito City Council considered whether or not to accept applications for a retail cannabis dispensary in order to provide a facility in El Cerrito for patients eligible to purchase medical marijuana.

This is an important issue for El Cerrito; other cities, such as Oakland and Richmond, are collecting significant sales tax revenue from cannabis dispensaries. However, there are intrinsic public safety issues.

The City Council agenda described the item as follows:

Councilmembers Quinto and Friedman request that the council discuss the current prohibition on medical marijuana facilities and the potential impact of the likely passage of a ballot initiative in November 2016 to legalize recreational marijuana use. The item is for discussion and direction only. There is a request to permit a new facility to open on San Pablo Avenue at the former Taco Bell site on the north end of town. It is widely expected that the ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use will pass in November. By lifting the prohibition and permitting one medical marijuana facility we are able to exercise control, set conditions, and negotiate a substantial tax on gross receipts of the facility. If the City maintains the prohibition and does nothing and the initiative passes the City could quite likely have less control and would likely earn much less revenue. The purpose of the study session is to engage the public and City Council in a discussion in the pros and cons of fast-tracking the proposed facility, which would be called the El Cerrito Wellness Center. Depending on the direction of staff, the current prohibition on medical marijuana facilities would need to be revised and replaced. In the words of Councilmember Friedman, “Having a well run medical marijuana facility in El Cerrito will serve our citizens who need marijuana who currently have to go elsewhere, and provide a significant revenue stream to our city for years to come.”

Several ECDC members commented, including Al Miller, Kip Crosby, Hilary Crosby, Rochelle Pardue Okimoto, and Paul Fadelli.

Mr. Miller’s primary concern was “that the applicant wants to be the only dispensary in town, and, while we may only want one, we should be the ones who choose that one, not the applicant, even if we end with a lower tax rate. I was also very unimpressed with the quality of the draft ordinance/resolution they provided. I think that if they can not even provide a proper document, how are they going to be able to run a complicated business? That said, I think a Medical MJ Dispensary in town…would be a good thing. Related concerns, such as the proposed Adult Recreational MJ proposition, will no doubt be addressed as this process continues.”

Mr. Crosby addressed the ways medical marijuana can alleviate the suffering of mood disorders. Ms. Okimoto is a nurse; she said, “Patients should be able to access all treatments for their ailments. Medical marijuana helps to alleviate many symptoms. For example, pain, appetite, and nausea, are just a few of the symptoms relieved by cannabis. The time has come to leave behind 20th century thought on cannabis and move into the 21st century. While drug companies make millions on the suffering of others, it is time to allow a cost effective medical treatment to alleviate the suffering of our fellow citizens.”

Ms. Crosby addressed the fact that “since legal cannabis is ipso facto less expensive than illegal cannabis, even adding sales tax to the product does not increase the cost.” She pointed out that legally sold cannabis is “the only product that costs less even after being taxed, unlike other products for which levying a sales tax increases the cost to the consumer.”

Mr. Fadelli was concerned that the proposed site, the currently vacant Taco Bell store at the Richmond/El Cerrito border on San Pablo, would place a retail cannabis facility at the gateway to our city.

Ms. Crosby was also concerned that only one vendor had been invited to propose to the council. However, Sean Donahoe, who was the featured guest speaker at the El Cerrito Democratic Club last August delivering a Capitol insider perspective on the historic Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act overwhelmingly passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor last fall, provided the Council with information.

Mr. Donahoe co-founded a statewide trade association over three years ago, and has spent many weeks on the road through California, assisting cities and counties in crafting policy reform to provide regulated access to medical cannabis.

He pointed out that

El Cerrito, being limited in geography and with neither an industrial nor agricultural base to speak of, obviously would be best served by a storefront dispensary. The cities of Richmond, Berkeley, and Oakland presently provide medical cannabis access to the region, as well as countless state-compliant (but locally not authorized) medical cannabis delivery services. Richmond and Oakland are moving to explicitly authorize delivery services in the coming months. I would make the case that El Cerrito would best be served by considering a prospective medical cannabis dispensary operator that has a proven track record in two crucial fields in today’s (and tomorrow’s) medical cannabis industry: advanced, consistent retail operations in heavily regulated jurisdictions, and advanced product development and formulation.

In the coming weeks and months I would like to introduce to the community a prospective dispensary team that will bring several decades of experience in these unique fields. One of the prospective partners has been a resident of the city of El Cerrito for over two years and has invested in raising a family in a place that also offers a superior option for medical cannabis products and consultation in a safe retail experience. This team has developed proprietary, standardized medical cannabis formulations that have already undergone clinical evaluations, and a variety of medical products, including water-soluble and aerosolized delivery mechanisms, that represent the future of the medical and adult use cannabis industry. These products benefit from long-term working relationships with the leading nutritional and cannabis testing professionals in the world, many of whom will serve on our Advisory Board. They have substantial, well-established retail and cultivation operations in multiple parts of California and Nevada. These retail operations have been secured after both multiple Conditional Use Permit as well as competitive merit-based processes in respective cities. The proposed operators wish to partner with the city to provide a comprehensive approach to providing a continuum of care to patients in El Cerrito and the surrounding area. The proposed operators have excellent existing community relations and community benefits programs, including organizing historic industry support for youth centers. At this point this evening I wish to urge the Mayor and City Council to move forward on this important issue and humbly request that the best operators be considered to provide world-class medicine, solid retail operations, and proven community benefits for El Cerrito.

Successful resolution of this matter promises significant improvement to the finances of El Cerrito. Please consider this article prefatory to a motion encouraging our City Council to take prompt additional action.

Hilary Crosby
President, ECDC

May 13, 2016June 14, 2016

APRIL MEETING PRESENTATION: THE NEW AMERICAN MAJORITY

Our main presentation was by Aimee Allison, Senior Vice-President of PowerPac+. PowerPac+ is an organization working, through its Democracy in Color Campaign, to maximize voter registration and turnout among people of color. As people of color become the majority of American citizens, our politics have to evolve to engage them and express their progressive aspirations.Ms Allison’s upcoming book isShe the People: The New Politics of Women of Color,to be published by Justice Matters Press (September 2016).

Ms. Allison began her presentation by telling us about a trip she took through the south with Steven Phillips, the founder of PowerPac+. Listening to people of color, hearing about their struggles to participate in the political process of their cities, gave her a concrete understanding of how important it is to organize in their communities.

After that trip, she agreed that to make the change needed in this country, we can no longer allow the Democratic party to keep appeasing the mythical “white swing voter.” There is an emerging progressive majority in the United States. Progressive white people and progressive people of color make up 51% of American voters.

Census data and exit polling from 2012 tells us we are looking at political majority in the United States. We have a New American Majority – 51% of voting population nationally is made up of progressive people of color who are 89% of voters of color, and progressive whites who are 39% of white voters.

The media promulgates one theory of why Democrats don’t win – that we have lost the white working class, blue collar so-called swing voters who have deserted the Democratic party because of their racism, homophobia, and entrenched attachment to religion. But that ignores the vast numbers of people who voted for Barack Obama, not just in 2008 but in 2012, who stay home during midterm elections and don’t vote down the whole ballot.

In 2010, the drop-off of Republican voters was 7 million; the drop-off for Democrats was 26 million. White collar Democrats are not switching to Republicans; the New American Majority stayed home.

David Axelrod, in his book Believer, and Sen. Charles Schumer, have both stated that the Democrats lost after the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was passed because working class whites saw it as a giveaway to minorities. Both of them believe that in order to win, Democrats have to back off of health care!

This is 100% wrong and based on the assumption that President Obama was an outlier, a surfer who could ride the wave of a certain set of circumstances and a one time popularity contest. But Barack Obama is NOT an outlier – he’s an expression of what’s happening in the country.

Other data show that at the highest levels, through the delegate structure, fundraising mechanisms, large national committees such as the DNC, DCCC and DSCC, and large institutions like unions, there is a conviction that negative ads will convince the white swing voter to vote Democratic. They don’t target the New American Majority in their ads. As a matter of fact, most voters in the New American Majority don’t believe that ads and bulk mail are particularly relevant to them.

The best way to reach progressive voters is to talk to them in person. The most effective way to use the vast sums of money spent on campaigns is on field campaigns.

We need to get this THIS YEAR. If Clinton and Trump is the matchup – which at this writing looks likely – we can’t make the mistake that the Republicans made and count on Trump to be too outrageous, too ridiculous, to be President. That’s what the Republican elites thought, and yet, in state after state he proved that thousands or millions of voters responded to his message.

We need a sure and deep understanding of who votes and who stays home, and we must make sure our voters vote! Otherwise, we could lose, and the consequences would be devastating.

Much of Ms. Allison’s presentation relied on information in Brown is the New White, a book by Steven Phillips that is now on the New York Times bestseller list. It is a data-driven book including important census information, such as that every day 7,000 People of Color and 1,000 whites are added to the population. The majority of 5 year olds are people of color. Since we have a New American Majority at the national level – what will it take for us to think about winning? Consider that Black women are the most loyal and highest turnout for Democrats – more than 80% of female Black voters vote for Democrats. So why are people of color, a uniquely reliable voting sector, nonetheless an afterthought in electoral strategy?

So much campaign funding is spent on negative TV ads; but negative ads don’t inspire people to go to the polls. For example, in Senator Kay Hagen’s race for re-election in 2014, $19 million was allocated to TV ads. That amount could have been used to hire 400 field canvassers for a year, going door to door, registering voters, and getting them to the polls. Imagine that each canvasser convinced just 3 people to vote for Kay Hagen in 2014. Instead of losing by 48,000 votes, she would have won by 12,000.

PowerPac+ is trying to influence the decisions about how resources will be used in 2016. The book Brown is the New White is one important tool for this, as Ms. Allison’s forthcoming title also will be.

These are important ideas for us to think about as we organize our El Cerrito Democratic Club election year activities. In the past, we have done a “lit drop” where we leave our slate card information at the doors of frequent-Democratic and decline-to-state voters. But since the majority of California Democrats are already people of color, we need to organize ourselves from the assumption that we can inspire them to get to the polls and vote, not just for the Democratic presidential candidate, but down the ticket for all of our endorsed candidates.

This is an opportunity for us to explore what a real progressive agenda would be like, and to use our experience to show that an aggressive field campaign, based on face to face interaction with voters, is more effective than just dropping literature, sending mail, or running TV ads.

We can’t give up our greatest hope we have about the change we want in this country when Trump is talking about rounding up Mexicans and Muslims! We don’t need moderates to win. It’s because we have the beginnings of a progressive majority in our state legislature that we could raise the minimum wage in the whole state. That’s just the tip of the iceberg of what’s possible.

Since Latinos in California and nationally have largest voter-eligible population, we need to fund outreach to Latinos – not ads on Univision, but face to face outreach. The DCCC and some other donor groupings, such as Democracy Alliance, are funding large multi-state efforts. However, since 97% of political consulting and polling firms have white people as principals, there is a dearth of messaging and strategy that engages people of color on a visceral level.

Our members had great questions and comments. I think everyone who attended left enthusiastic about our upcoming season and how we can put the ideas we heard into practice.

Hilary Crosby

ECDC President