Food insecure, Substance Abuse experience, and what im here to say if youre going to put a white dude on the panel, im the one you want. [laughter] since coming back from the military, like, you could find me when were protesting on the streets of oakland. Im eyeball to eyeball with the police. Im standing between the police and the community, inviting the tear gas and rubber bullets on me to buffer between the Violent Police and the december Desperate Community demanding justice. Im here to leverage those privileges to elevate the communities affected by these terrible policies. Thank you. Next speaker. Chair ronen, supervisors walton, mar, fewer, hello. Im a fifth generation San Francisco native. Im an alum of usf where i received my mba. I want to be on the Cannabis Oversight Committee because i want to be an access asset to the city of San Francisco and all of you, through collaboration, using my experience, and through my deep commitment to the community here in the city i love. I have experienced some judgment to provide a valuable voice on the Oversight Committee and hope to earn your recommendation today. I dont usually put myself out there politically like this, but i feel im uniquely situated in providing you support in creating the best environment for Legal Cannabis in our city. I serve as the chief Compliance Officer where i oversee multiple permits of cannabis, in cultivation, manufacturing, distributi distribution. I have experience and expertise, and genuine commitment to community and equity. I also lead our Company Equity and Public Affairs work. Its inclusive of all people. To help us meet our equity goals, we look to Community Organizations and thought leaders in the community to help us. Groups like Success Centers and Young Community developers are helping us learn how to best serve the communities we operate in and i think its a critical part of all businesses navigatinavigat navigating equity in the city. I provided you letters of recommendati recommendations. I was the c. E. O. Of the First Cannabis Laboratory in the United States that was not adjacent to law enforcement, that was created to provide a way for Cannabis Companies to self regulate and introduce Quality Control into the industry at a time where there was none. That is symbolic to the forward thinking to solve the problems that the industry is facing. I applied for seat 12 and 14. My relevant experience for seat 12 includes being an owner of four dispensary companies. I also am the owner of two retail dispensaries outside of San Francisco. Im an ally and outspoken person of the office of cannabis, and with the department of Public Health, i worked closely to provide analysis and feedback to create sensible policy for the citys equity goals and business. My relevant experience for seat 14 is i am the chief Compliance Officer, meaning im responsible for all relevant laws and government affairs. We analyze policy, we engage with our policymakers, and our legal team reports to me as well. This experience makes me qualified for seat 14 not only because i have expert knowledge in San Francisco and california cannabis law but because i have applied knowledge. I have boots on the ground with my staff everyday to figure out standard operating procedures, stra training, and to answer problems that arise that we work to implement the laws and the regulations that the state and city has put in place. We inevitably encounter challenges and on every white board in my office, it says find the solution. Thats how i want to work with you guys as we navigate this exciting opportunity to create a collaborative relationship with the board of supervisors through the Oversight Committee. Im happy to take any questions from the committee. Thank you. Supervisor fewer. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming today. Norcal, i see that you applied for the position that actually says that youre an owner of a storefront Cannabis Retailer, but isnt that a Delivery Service . Its a company that we have all different types of cannabis permits. In terms of retail, we have four applications in. None of our Retail Stores are open yet. All of our applications were submitted over 12 months ago and all are in the process. I think the fact that i have experience and firsthand knowledge of the complications of navigating the retail process makes me uniquely situated to represent the struggles that retailers are trying to open right now. We dont have a retail store in San Francisco today. How do you see the relationship between Delivery Service and brick and mortar and how can they Work Together instead of opposition to each other. I see brick and mortar and delivery as complimentary. I see that because i personally and my company have under taken a lot of research to understand consumer behavior. Consumers want interactions that happen at the dispensary level. Theres many people who dont want to travel to dispensaries or who are chronically ill and prefer to get deliveries. Consumer demand in the marketplace is driving that. I think that its important for all of the city retailers to remember and understand that they are allowed to deliver and that if they are feeling impacted, i think theres an opportunity to do education related to ways that they can expand their brick and Mortar Retail to serve delivery and the customers they already have relationships with. So, what do you think about having brick and Mortar Retailers, actually having a maybe pool of delivery people that are employees, joint employees of these retailers, that actually do delivery instead of a service like norcal. I think its a really interesting idea. It would be really exciting to get some people at the table to talk about it. Thats where i would want to starting start. To understand the laws and regulations of how possible it would be and if its something that people want to do, then to think about how we need to create policy to empower the businesses to execute on those Innovative New ideas. Okay. Thank you, how important do you think it is to have diversity on this committee . Deeply. I think diversity of not only humans, but of expertise and perspective is critical. You seen from all the people that stood up, people are bringing Different Levels of knowledge to the table. I think what the board is looking for outside of assets, to give advice is critical. Diversity of people, diversity of ideas, diversity of experience, its a great question and absolutely very important. Thank you so much. Any other questions . Thank you. Good afternoon supervisors. My name is aaron flynn. Out of high school, i joined the marine corps. I did a combat tour in iraq in 2003 and in afghanistan in 2004 after which i exited the service and was not in a good place, mentally and physically. The v. A. Gave us a lot of different options, pharmaceutical options to alleviate that pain and none of them were working. Fortunately i was lucky enough to land in humboldt county where one of my comrades from the service had grown up. I found cannabis to be by far in a way to be the best medicine i was suffering from. Very quickly i realized that being involved in cannabis is something i wanted to do in my life. It helped me and it helped a lot of my comrade from the military and many other people that were sick and had issues. So, i jumped in with both feet. I learned to cultivate there an outdoor greenhouse, indoor up in humboldt and i came to San Francisco to pursue a larger patient base, with a Larger Population in 2010. Around 2015, as it became clear that the city was going to create new policy and the state was going to create new policy, i recognized that as a cultivator, as a manufacturer, as a distributor, there was not a lot of representation on the advocacy level. In San Francisco back then, when you said cannabis, most people thought retail. They didnt think there was much production going on here and as you heard many times today, there isnt a lot of production, but i devoted a good amount of my time and efforts towards banning the not retail side of the cannabis industry together. I helped create the San Francisco chapter of the Growers Association in 2015. Up until now, i worked on representing the producers here in San Francisco. Theres not many of us, but were proud to be here in this city and proud of what we do. By default, we are craft and small. There isnt any space in San Francisco for these huge, you know, half acre facilities, so i want to make sure that those businesses continue to be represented as more rules roll out. Im currently the cofounder of a Company Called gold fill San Francisco. We hold a cultivation permit and distribution and manufacturing permit. Im proud to say 70 of our staff, we have four people at cultivation, and we hired our 8th at manufacturing and distribution. 70 of them are San Francisco district, and 30 are from bayfield. I am applying for seat number 9, which is an operator of a cannab cannabis cultivation. We spent every last dime and waking hour to navigate the complexity of the permitting process. Many of them lie with the department of building inspection, with the department of Public Health and the pl planning department. Its been incredibly difficult to get through this process as many of these rules are just being laid out and there is still a lot of uncertainty from the Plumbing Department on how they want to see the different pipes run, from the planning department, how they want things. Its taken so much more. We knew it was going to be hard but we didnt realize it was going to be this difficult. One of my primary concerns is folks who have not even started this process. I started in the very beginning of 2018 and i would say that im about threefifth of the way done with the cost and with the build and with the permitting. I truly believe that in order for many of the small and equity owned businesses, to make it through this process, they will need assistance from folks who have been there in it before them. I was sadden to see that the office of cannabis did not get their requested permit navigator position they asked for. I honestly thought that it was probably one of the most important things that the board could have given the office of cannabis as far as resources. We can do all kinds of Different Things as far as getting equity folks into this pipeline, but if theyre gummed up by the two year process that it takes to get through the planning department, to get through the building department, then all of it would have been for nothing. I truly believe that one of the ways that you see larger companies, both cannabis and nonget through the complex process is through expediters. Very unfortunately, not very many equity folks can afford expediters. In this position, i would focus on imparting as much of that knowledge i have gained from going through this process myself, to those folks coming behind me. I encourage the chamber of commerce for whom im a member. Many of the organizations that we work with closely, the office of economic and Workforce Development to focus on this. I really think there is a lot of focus and were ignoring some of the facts on the ground on how difficult it is to just simply get through the technicalities of d. B. I. And the planning department. I will say ive been privileged to engage with the Success Center and closely engage with the office of economic and Workforce Development. Im glad to see an Apprenticeship Program moving forward. I appreciate the way the industry has reached out to. It would be a mistake to create a Training Program that didnt address the needs of the employers and was something that was more of a blanket. I want to continue to engage as much as possible to get that perspective on the nonretail side of the cannabis business. Finally i want to say im grateful to build a cannabis business in San Francisco. I am not from here, my wife was born here, we had our second child here. There are many just as qualified and likely more deserving of this opportunity than i am and its one of my primary motivating factors to apply for this committee. As i mentioned, its been a difficult process to get to where we are right now and if im afforded the honor, ill bring all my experiences and pain points to create a more streamline pathway. I love operating in this city. I dont want to just be one of a select few nonretail operators that is left here when the dust settles. I hope we can see a Diverse Community of Business Owners. I really believe that is through training and engagement of folks interested in running these businesses and were the best suited, those of us on the ground, to give that knowledge; information, and training and i will be committed to doing that. Thank you so much. Supervisor fewer. So what are some suggestion that you would give to streamline it for these Small Businesses that are just starting out. We know that Small Businesses are having a problem, but with even more regulation on the cannabis business, i think theyre especially vulnerable. You applied for the seat where you have less than 20 employees, classified as a Small Business. What are some of the things that the city and county of San Francisco can do to assist . Certainly, the Planning Commission, to my knowledge, theres only one person in the Planning Commission who is focussed on moving cannabis permits through and hes so inundated with permits right now that theres this incredibly long lag. Theres a long period of time for folks to get Planning Commission hearings. So the first thing i would say is to create a job inside the Planning Commission or this navigator position so when someone says they want to be a cultivator in San Francisco, here are the land use you need, and the application will be moved to the top of the pile as soon as possible, otherwise you are in a year backlog. I would aggravate all the information we learned about specific code that is required from the electrical department, Plumbing Department, Fire Department, and get all this knowledge and resources into a centralized place. What happens right now is i could go in with my architect and talk to the Fire Department and they would say, yes, you can do this for co2 alarming, for instance. When i come in with my permit, there is someone else at the fire desk that says something different. Thats happened to me a number of times. I believe this stuff needs to be standardized and the only way to do that is to look at some of the cases that already moved through the process and make clear decisions at each one of these departments, inside the planning department. Its going to take time and effort. I wish i had a short and quick solution, but i will say myself and many of the other members of the nonretail community and the Cannabis Community at large would be willing to sit down and share this information and get this stuff aggregated. I think streamlining means having everyone in the department on the same page as far as what they want, having each inspector on the same page with the plan checker, and that can only be done not conceptu conceptually but looking at cases thats already moved through and saying heres what we did wrong in this one. This cost them four months. That shouldnt happen in the future. Heres how we make that work. Thank you. Supervisor walton, did you want to ask your question . Yes, same question, how important do you think it is for diversity to serve on this comb committee . I think if we dont have diversity on this committee, were not going to come up with solutions to these problems that look at every aspect. I think having people of all Different Levels of experience in this committee will bring us to a well rounded solution that will work well for everybody. I really truly also believe that it is important that folks on this committee do have experience, so that they can bring that experience to the table, especially given how fluid this process still is here in the city and how much learning we also have to do. Thank you. My pleasure. Any other questions . Thank you so much. Sure. Next applicant. Ms. Parks. Good afternoon supervisors. My name is leah white, but i am known as leah parks because i still do photography under that name and thats how i earned that. My early life of San Francisco, i was born and raised here and i am so proud to be from San Francisco. I went to rooftop elementary school, who had an amazing arts program and im also committed to diversity. I got into rooftop because of im half filipino and half jewish and they needed more filipino students to come to the school so i was able to get into that program. You can imagine what 24th street was like in that time period and i was a having a blast, much to my parents dismay. Eventually it got me sent to an alternative correctional facility in new mexico. I was away for a year and a half in a drug detox program, when i was 17 years old. I came back and i started city college and started studying criminal justice because prior to getting sent away, i was a part of youth moments here. It was called third eye movement. We were committed to fighting against gang violence, the juvenile initiative, where we saw a lot of doingness come out our high schools and middle schools and new money infusion into building correction facilities. We saw money go towards ygc and now theyre getting closed down because theyve never been more than a fourth full. My life in San Francisco has expanded like that historic context. I claim worked as a case manager and after school educator, where the Youth Program i worked with started to be harassed by the police department. We wrote many, many like we put in a lot of reports to the police Oversight Committee or whoever is suppose to be accountable during that time period. We could not maintain a program because the kids were so fearful of harassment. Supervisor ronen helped work on the order to address the harassment that was happening with our youth. We made sure that the general order was comprehensible to a 15yearold, so we knew anyone reading it could understand that we need, you know, more compassion towards our youths here in San Francisco, especially from authorities. That definitely rooted down my approach to cannabis. In 2014, my brother was arrested for cannabis in new york city and sent to a year at wreckers island, and during that time period, we were looking at 3 to 7 years for him. He asked me to take over, potentially launch his business and i did. I took it over and i launched his cannabis business as a Delivery Service. I attended every meeting in oakland because what would the rollout look like . I asked the question every single time. How do people like my brother come back and how about those incarcerated not get shutout. If you had a conviction, you were not allowed to own a business. I started to realize that my testimonial of being in San Francisco started to harm those in oakland because they were also fighting this whole mass exodus, and feeling like their narratives are getting pushed out. So knowing that my business was in San Francisco and i mostly served the San Francisco community, i took my narrative out of oakland to let oakland fight for oakland. I waited for San Francisco to develop the office of cannabis where i sat down with her to map out what i helped co found an organization to help support the efforts going on and continued to ask the question how do people from the community be able to participate in this cannabis industry, and how proposition 64 was written as a proper takeover of cannabis. So, any co so, nicole was great, and we worked through a loose organization, a body of people who care, essentially, that continued to talk about how do we create the Equity Program here in San Francisco . Through my work with super nova women, i helped to create Panel Discussions from here to boston, massachusetts and the woman that helped us to create the panel became a commissioner in massachusetts and she created a statewide Equity Program, very much fueled by our conversations and the work we are doing here in california. Now, in San Francisco, i head up the original equity group, which is dedicated to building pathways and bridges for our equity capplicants. We have been working with larger cannabis organizations to figure out how to do mentorships, potential Grant Programs and accelerator pra programs so we can see more equity products on the shelves. There is so much more than that, but i could be here forever. We also ran a six week program to give a high level overview of how to navigate the current legislation, the current regulation and we took that education and we did some units in the mission, and then we participated in Educational Opportunities in the fillmore. We go to these large consequences that are expensive and they dont make a lot of room for equity operators, so we try to take that level of operation and bring it into the community for free and do sponsorships of businesses that want to support equity. I qualify as an equity applicant and i would like to get back to just selling weed because i dont know how you deal with politics all the time. I just want to do yoga, smoke weed, and help people heal. I do feel that i am a very qualified person for seat 13. I have a large historical context, as well as a Large Network that are working towards building equity and things we do in San Francisco affect the things happening in massachusetts and beyond. Im looking forward to seeing this body develop for all the work we can do. Thank you. Thank you supervisor fewer. Wow. Hi, how are you. So you have applied as an equity applicant. So, what are some suggestions that you would give us to help le meet our equity goals and push this process along. So what we hear from marissa at the office of cannabis, the new director, is that the City Attorney has actually said that money from the city cannot be given to help jump start any of these cannabis businesses because they have been advised that it would be federally illegal and they would be aiding and abetting the sale of an illegal substance. Because of those funds are not able to be allocated, its hard for us to advocate for that permit navigator seat and to be able to get Grant Programs or even the Technical Assistance that weve been asking for since the onset of this program. If we can potentially get some Financial Assistance or for us to put pressure on the City Attorney and let them know that as a community, we will back them up in the event that there is any backlash for relinquishing funds to help Small Businesses. I think that would be number one, to open up that pathway for money to fall into the program. I also know that we applied for the 5 million state funds, for our Equity Program, so im hoping that maybe they wont be tied up as much as city funds. Thanks, and we have heard about when we were talking about equity, we were also talking about gender too in this business. We have heard from many people up here that it has been a male domina dominated profession or business or industry, especially at the higher level. When i came into this business, there were 37 of women that owned businesses. The money, the Capital Infusion and the capital coming in is what we usually see, wall street, banker types, as well as people that made money in tech, and they are usually white males. We seen trends where people tend to just give money to people that look like them or they can relate to, just because they are confident they can yield the same results they may have done. Its a matter of ignorance than anything else. We seen a decline of women. I think its at 27 now. Okay, so how do you think that we bring more gender diversity . I definitely think that getting grants, like Small Business loans or Small Business grants through the money handed out by the state. So maybe theres 3 million that be used for loans and grants, 1 million to build the equity campus and focus on education, and 1 million set aside for staffing, to move these processes along as far as application processing. I definitely think that there isnt a pathway there. We need to build up a structure and infuse it with the energy it needs. Thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor walton. Thank you. Thank ms. Parks, the same question, how important do you think it is to have diversity on this committee . I think diversity, its amazingly important. If we can see our committee as diverse as you guys up there, it would be really helpful for us. People made decisions based on their Life Experiences and as much as everybody may have a heart for the experience, its only the folks that are from those experience, or women, or anything that can properly advise into what that experience is like and what they need. I think its very important. Thanks. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good morning. Good afternoon. Its 12 39. Yeah. I have two applications. One would be the application for seat 13 and 14. Got it. I do wish to respect your time. If there are any questions, i wish to be able to say such. Just going with evidence though, i do have a Political Science degree from the great state of arizona. Make that be the copper state, the aztec state, and the grand canyon state. The definition of the great seal, with title 5, United States code, section 5721. I do have the applicability of the agency on the federal level. I also have certificates with the definition of california and the United States code of Emergency Management institute from fema, with evidence as wellbeing the following exhibits. One would be effective communication. The second one would be surveillance awareness. The third would be National Incident management system. I also emailed ms. Edith, if i got that correctly, from supervi supervisor fewers office that i would be stating if i were given the opportunity to be hear, what would be the publicability of my linked in profile, connecting the National Laws to agricult e agriculture. As article xvi deems cannabis as agriculture, and with that expansion, agriculture, if led on to the Cannabis Oversight Committee would be my standpoint. It would not be solely cannabis, but what the bill on the state level and the state level of laws with cannabis, a directive with agriculture. Everything with agriculture would be on the state level, as well as the National Level for my Political Science degree, with the great seal of the state of arizona, and that seal is my root of mandate in regards to what im able to do extensively outside of the Cannabis Oversight Committee and also within the committee as well. The bill i would like to refer to is with current senator, currently in office, just going to my profile on linked in. I would also be the publicability of a San Francisco applicant. I believe its section 1608 and 1618, section j, its that the applicable one. If im wrong, its article xvi. Excuse me for not having the article. I sent it, sorry, im just going through my email account, going to sent and looking for it. Mr. Raybold. Would that be okay . Thank you very much for coming today. So how do you think that equity applicants can operate under and be thriving equity applicants under federal and state regulations. Federal regulations, would be the control substance. California does have the law that says to the charter would be the strongest law going against what could be considered the supremacy cause of the United States constitution. However, i do have a certificate from Arizona State with the great seal of arizona, with the mandate i can go over such. With the equity applicant on the business side, getting rid of the fees, the costs, and the rules of article xvi would be the best reason to do so. Most of the up front cost and even with agriculture, going through the applications, i never received california assistance, such as e. B. T. , however, applicants are denied for such. Since cannabis is deemed agriculture, equity applicants without any rules, if we speak solely about equity applicants, starting their own cannabis business, or agriculture production or farming with a new lens to agriculture, and leading to article xvi, i believe businesses would thrive spontaneously if they were able to farm throughout the process. I do understand that testing, cultivating, manufacturing, distribution, retail, as well as delivery are all allowed. Youre not allowed to farm with those, and removing that farming, or removing the restriction to farm for all that would be best. If an equity applicant, and i have purchased agriculture and agriculture does produce seeds in some of their fruits or vegetables, if an individual can do such and do such without an applicant or without a license or worry about police, such would be able to thrive beyond the county and city of San Francisco. Since it would be agriculture, and with definitions of the california civil code, as well as with the two rivers split, then the allowance to farm without any permits or licensing in the city excuse me. Im a native, i have heart for this city. That doesnt mean because there are additional people that are not from the city from here, but thats the thing. Earth. Excuse me. Thats the thing though. Equity applicants, however the definition of younger age is, you can farm anywhere and theyll be able to be able to use the Cannabis Oversight Committee as a legislative res judicata. A root of mandate, i would be able to assist the equity applicants. Thank you very much. Supervisor walton. Thank you. Same question, how important do you think it is to have diversity on this committee . Diversity is the definition of the one that beholds diversity. If an individual sees a fruit as a fruit, or vegetable as a vegetable, then we would say itsing its agriculture. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hello, good afternoon. Good morning no, good afternoon supervisors. Good to see you, thanks for having me. My name is jesse stout, im an attorney in the cannabis industry. I live and work here in San Francisco. Ive been an organizers and an activist in the cannabis industry since 2002. I first got started on medical cannabis 17 years ago because it really bothered me that people can go to jail for following a doctors recommendation to use marijuana. Seriously ill people in my family and my friends could be threaten with incarceration for something that could heal them. I was the cofounder of a nonprofit organizing patient meetings across the state to talk about what are your needs in terms of influencing the legislative process. . How can we help legislators, the media, and the professions to help you more. I was able to help patients to influence state legislation, which is why i wanted to apply here for c14, to help the Cannabis Oversight Committee to understand the regulations in our city. I graduate in 2012 from uc hastings law. I got started in criminal defense, helping medical cannabis patients avoid incarceration when the state of california charged them with crimes including helping other patients Access Medical cannabis. For the past three years, i served as a diversity recruiter, helping women and people of color. For the past six years, ive been a corporate lawyer in the cannabis industry, meaning i help clients understand the laws and regulations concerning the cannabis industry and how they can track and influence us. I finally wanted to add i had a valuable experience in 2015 when the rules committee helped me get on the san Francis FranciscoCannabis State Legislation Task force. I was the only attorney on that body. We were able to help draft the reports to the board of supervisors and present them to you all to talk about what our citys new cannabis ordinance ought to mean and do. We had the Equity Program, the benefits that the equity applicants received in the program and the criteria that not only people that are personally criminalized for cannabis sale, but also their family members. The zoning and set back rules for Cannabis Retail and nonretail businesses, and events permits that cannabis events should not be more restrictive in nature than other places in california. And i want to say that my priorities on the Cannabis Oversight Committee would involve that we have more equity permits faster. The biggest problem with the implementation with the Equity Program so far has been the delay. Other businesses are able to get that leg up. Our medical marijuana identification card still cost money in San Francisco, even if a patient is indigent. San francisco still pays for sales tax. I think the office of cannabis, which you are going to rename, should have money in its Community Reinvestment fund, to help operators and their community to heal from the harm of war on drugs. I think they need money in order to help these applicants in their communities. Thank you. Thank you so much. Supervisor fewer. Yes, so, we have heard about a lot of the state regulations impeding on our ability to deliver for medical patients and also around the black market and so can you give me, i mean just your idea about how we can bring those people in, considering the state regulations and the restricts, and the hoopla you have to go through so that people would be in the black market instead of actually having a permitted Legal Business here in San Francisco. First of all, we prefer you not say black market because the cannabis industry has this great opportunity to work into a legal and regulated system. We want to draw the distinction that people who are making good faith efforts to comply are still partners and stakeholders in this process, this transition. Second of all, how the state law and regulation has been an impediment to the Equity Program and what we can do about that. I agree youre right that the state law has been a big problem. We in San Francisco help applicants be equity operators. We want to make it so that those who meet the criteria are not going to have to pay for their license or application fee, are not going to have to wait as long, but regardless of who you are, or where youre from, were going to charge you that same license fee and have you wait just as long as everyone else. We want them to speak back to the state, saying we want to have state recognition of our local Equity Programs, that even if the state will not have their own separate parallel Equity Program, they can do something for the local jurisdiction, city and counties that have the programs, so that the applicants will not have to pay as much or any of the state application fee or license fee, so when the equity applicants go to the State Government and say heres my premise diagram, the state can work with people instead of rejecting applications and putting them in the back of the line. We want a separate parallel track so they can get state licenses more easily, the same way as they can get city licenses more easily. Expedited. Absolutely. What would legislators do to make that happen at a state level . We can have our city legislators speaking with and advocating with our state regulat regulat regulators, to ask for that difference in program if the bureau of cannabis control or cal cannabis wont give us those exceptions, then we will have to pass regulations to speak to the officials to create that change in state law. We were on the committee that we had the discussion on transitioning to recreational use. Did you bring this to our legislative branch or have you started any effort in doing this at all . It seems this is something that legislat legislators, that it would be hand in hand, when we were developing Equity Programs, looking at the barriers, and have you started this process at all or did you bring this also to the prooefrs previous body you served on . Yes, we came around to legislative offices and spoke with city supervisors and aides on what difference we can make in San Francisco to lead the change to those processes. At the time we did not have the benefit of hindsight we have now on how difficult the state would make this even for equity applicants. At that time, we were told that there would be this Equity Grant Program where local jurisdictions will receive millions of dollars to help the applicants through their processes. Not only has that not appeared but also on top of that, we met with the additional city delays we heard about this morning, on top of the state problem. Its much more difficult than we could have expected at that time when we were asking for that help. Now that you have a connection at the state level, right . This body of work, have you had discussions at the state level and what was the reaction when this was brought up in the committee . The state equity grants are supposedly going to be decided and issued this year, which could be great depending on how its implemented. To speak directly to your second question, how did the office of cannabis react and how to work with the Legalization Task force and the board last year, we were told, well, first we were saying lets have the equity ordinance, the 2017 local law include a Community Reinvestment fund that would help operators to be able to enter the industry and maintain and stabilize within San Franciscos cannabis industry. This is a great idea, absolutely, lets do this. Later you may have heard the City Attorney advised the board and the office that the Community Reinvestment fund would be in violation of federal law and we should hold back and not do that. Im an attorney and i disagree. I think that the risk to San Franciscos city officials and both legislators and the regu r regularregula regular regulators that our local officials should allocate money to help equity applicants and get that leg up as permanent lie licensees. If you wont do it, who will . Were asking them to help the equity applicants and their communities to benefit and heal from the war on drugs. From the City Attorney to advise you as their client that the equity funds should not be dispersed this way because the aiding and abetting laws may prevent it is a tangible risk, i think theres a different consideration that the board of supervisors should move forward to distribute funds through the cannabis Redistribution Fund to help applicants. Okay, thank you. Supervisor walton. Thank you so much. Same question, how important do you think diversity is for this committee . Supervisor walton, i think its very important as we all heard and agreed with today. I will go further and say not only will this committee be diverse, but we as the Cannabis Community need to do more not only as our representatives but our own businesses and associations to be more diverse. For the past several years, ive been working with t. H. C. Staffing groups to help the cannabis industry recruit more women about people of color into leadership positions. Even if we cant wave the magic wand of capitalism for todays Business Owners be more diverse, we can use our privilege and networks to give people connecti connections so they can be tomorrows cannabis Business Owners. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, i really appreciate you applying. Thank you. Do we have any other applicants that have not yet spoken . Im just going to call your names out to make sure. [reads names] nobody is here . Okay, thank you everyone that applied and did speak. Now were going to open this item up for public comment. Any member of the public who would like to speak . Please feel free to come forward. Hi, i actually was on the original Cannabis Task force in the late 1990s. I began working with cannabis to help alleviate medical problems. In 1997, i became a member and worked with the task force and work in the health department. I created the program at laguna honda, and i did a lot of talking at their conferences. Im here today to support ali and his bid for being on the seat. I have just a few notes that have come up in all the conversations i thought i would share. I did the patient work back then and champ was closed in 2002. Ive been helping patients underground and with medical cannabis. I started the whole education for the membership there and stuff, and the card system. You did that based off of education i gave the city on how we were verifying the doctors letters and stuff. So some of the things i noticed with how to help with the Equity Program. In 2011, i spent a year in the city jail here for a cannabis charge. I thought i did not qualify for thi the Equity Program because every as i live in did not zone in the zone. I knew i did qualify because my brother had some cannabis arrests here in San Francisco. I did not realize he had been arrested. With all of my work and my 25 years here, i didnt think i qualified. So that census, zoning of your residences address. There were people across the street from me that would have zone, but the addresses i held did not zone. As far as helping the patients, because thats really important. There were all these sorry, your time is up. Thank you so much. I just really want to say its important to maintain what the patients access and its very true the disenfranchisem t disenfranchisement. Thank you very much. Next speaker please. Good afternoon supervisor. My name is ed donaldson. Im a lifelong resident here in San Francisco. Im also an equity applicant on two deals with norcal cannabis. Im also the director of Community Development for norcal cannabis. Beneath of of these two things without did not happen without her. She has an application for seat 12 and seat 14. I dont want to go into her qualificati qualifications, but i want to talk about the attributes i noticed. Shes authentic, shes tough, she has integrity and more importantly, she has compassion. She cares about the plant. She cares about people. She is a native of San Francisco and she cares about this city and what happens here. More importantly, shes a woman in a men dominated industry. I believe there should be room for voices of women to really speak to the issue of cannabis here in San Francisco. All of these things have really contributed to some very special things that are happening at r norcal, where we have been able to get outside of the box and think of equity in a different fashion and its given rise to things im encouraged about as the industry moves forward. I hope that you would support her candidacy as well for the Cannabis Oversight Committee. I want to speak on behalf of all