City of Seattle - City Council - Committee - Finance and Housing - Committee Meeting
(August 17, 2022)

Here are some observations from the Wednesday August 17th Seattle City Council Finance and Housing Committee (City of Seattle - City Council - Committee - Finance and Housing) Committee Meeting.

My top 6 takeaways:

• Several public commenters had criticisms and strong opinions on the social equity council bills (CBs) the committee was preparing to consider.
  • Adán Espino, Craft Cannabis Coalition (CCC) Executive Director (audio - 2m, video)
    • Espino spoke ahead of the committee deliberations on the ordinances on August 11th after publicly addressing the members on February 16th.
    • Asserting that CCC represented “half of retailers in Seattle,” Espino continued to be troubled by proposed amendment 1 to modify the cannabis needs assessment in CB 120391 pertaining to city “commitments and plans for supporting cannabis workers and supporting communities disproportionately harmed by the federal War on Drugs.” He found the language “very specific” in its criteria which he felt was designed to steer the assessment to being awarded to WeTrain Washington, “an organization with close ties to UFCW [3000], a stakeholder in the process.” Espino commented that since both organizations had the same president, Faye Guenther, CCC had asked for “any other credible non-profit entities that fit the criteria as written” and hadn’t been given any.
    • This issue was serious enough to make it “difficult, if not impossible for the CCC and its members to participate in the needs assessment going forward,” he told the committee. Promising that his organization backed “a fair and neutral assessment to identify real and pressing social equity needs,” Espino’s view was that “giving one stakeholder more control of the process, or greater representation within it, would be inappropriate.”
  • Cody Funderberk, former Ponder Cannabis Manager (audio - 2m, video) 
    • Funderberk last spoke to the committee about labor concerns on March 2nd.
    • Funderberk stressed the importance of "high standards" in a needs assessment and its value to cannabis workers. Supporting Amendment 1 to CB 120391, they felt a non-profit group “with expertise in training and development” and “impartiality” would make the assessment more beneficial to “the overall intent we have here.”
    • Funderberk wanted “representatives of labor” to be part of a proposed advisory committee in the council bill, since they “stand to leverage the interests of cannabis workers besides owners.” They also supported amendment 5 to include representation of “those with lived experience in the criminal justice system” in a collaborative effort to expunge cannabis convictions in jurisdictions besides Seattle. To Funderberk, adding these changes “actively defines intentional elements of inclusion and justice within this proposal.”
  • Zion Grae-El, Have a Heart Belltown budtender (audio - 2m, video) 
    • Grae-El previously spoke to members about the ordinances on August 11th.
    • In favor of proposed amendment 1 and seconding Funderberk’s remarks, Grae-El felt the Freedom Project WA was “on the forefront of this expungement initiative” and called WeTrain Washington an “ideal” candidate to conduct the needs assessment. He hoped to see “workers, industry member, and key community members” involved in any program. 
    • Grae-El didn’t like a proposed change by Councilmember Sara Nelson which moved the assessment to a university. He found existing language about the advisory council "too owner and investor specific in regards to its composition,” but repeated an earlier offer to serve because “the legislation is off to a good start.”
  • James Adams, Mr. Greens Cannabis senior budtender and UFCW 3000 Steward (audio - 2m, video) 
    • Adams explained that when his store “broke off from its parent company,” there was a mix of worker layoffs and retention he called “extremely stressful because we all felt like we were on the chopping block” and treated as “replaceable.” As cannabis "businesses are bought and sold regularly," he wanted the law to give greater rights to workers, believing that because the plant remained “federally illegal, workers in the industry have little rights and are exploited on a daily basis.”
  • Paula Sardinas, FMS Global Strategies President and CEO and Washington Build Back Black Alliance (WBBBA) founder (audio - 2m, video) 
    • An advocate who took credit for drafting HB 2870, 2020 agency request legislation from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) which created the Washington State Legislative Task Force on Social Equity in Cannabis (WA SECTF), Sardinas claimed WBBBA was the “largest, most unified voice representing African Americans and the BIPOC community in cannabis.” She reported that her organization couldn’t support “certain provisions” of the CB 120391 amendment 1, though she lauded the city’s worker protections as among the strongest “in the state or the country.”
      • Sardinas served as a WA SECTF appointee from the Washington State Commission on African American Affairs (WA CAAA) until her resignation from the commission in 2021, which initiated her removal as co-chair.
    • Sardinas supported Nelson’s amendment to the needs assessment, feeling that “we cannot build this program on the backs of social equity applicants.” She called for “work on Black banking, state banking, and social equity issues with…the state universities” to be a component of a cannabis needs assessment, and warned that setting up tax dollars for a preferred organization was "neither equity, [n]or equality."
  • Peter Manning, Black Excellence in Cannabis (BEC) member (audio - 2m, video) 
    • Manning also spoke ahead of deliberations on the ordinances on August 11th.
    • Opposed to “to certain things with unions,” Manning suggested BEC members weren’t “really feeling that” non-profit assessments were warranted. He liked Nelson’s amendment to have a university take the lead as they would have “no ulterior motive.”
  • Sekani Perkins, Puget Sound Sage member (audio - 2m, video) 
    • Perkins and his brother had operated “Green Thumb Collective,” a “therapeutic herbal united medical branch,” from 2011 to 2013 that was “told to shutdown” because of “a preschool located in a basement of a church in West Seattle.” He supported cannabis equity proposals being developed and “felt it was imperative for my voice to be heard.”
  • Sekayi Perkins, Green Thumb Collective Co-Founder (audio - 2m, video) 
    • Sekayi echoed his brother’s comments, believing their collective was “intentionally specifically” closed for “technicalities” compared to other dispensaries in that area at the time. He attributed the treatment to “systemic racism” and wanted their experience on the record.
  • Brionne Corbray (audio - 2m, video) 
    • Corbray pointed to his former dispensary, the G.A.M.E. Collective, as another business “victimized by the system” and that his old location now had “White people running stores out of it.” He credited BEC advocacy as the reason why city officials hadn’t “just walked away” from discussing the topic altogether. He felt this followed a pattern of “lucrative industries that opened up aren’t opened up to people of color” and reinforced the need for the city to be “giving us back our stores."
  • Matt Edgerton, UFCW 3000 Cannabis division (audio - 2m, video) 
    • Edgerton said UFCW 3000 had begun a process two years earlier where “people from over 42 organizations surveyed a ton of cannabis workers about potential public policy changes,” particularly at the local level. He highlighted how a 2021 UFCW proposal to the city on equity had featured a tax to pay for worker training which wasn’t included in the proposed ordinances.
    • Edgerton deemed WeTrain Washington to be “an intermediary” which “sits beside” UFCW 3000 and workers had told him they wanted their voices to be part of any needs assessment for the sector. As city leaders reviewed the completed needs assessment, he encouraged a focus on areas where worker and employer needs were aligned.
  • Mike Asai, Emerald City Collective Gardens (ECCG) Co-Founder and BEC member (audio - 3m, video) 
    • Asai indicated he was in “full support of social equity in cannabis” and employee rights. He liked Nelson’s change for an “independent academic institution" to conduct “worker training and worker protection” but BEC members were concerned about a “union being attached to social equity." Asai said there had been criticism “from local and national media” of social equity applicants “being drug traffickers and selling to kids,” which he asserted had never been shown in his business, and was an “example of White supremacy causing more trauma to the Black and Brown community.” Finding that medical dispensary “pioneers" had established the Seattle cannabis industry before legalization, he told the committee those stakeholders "want to be heard" in the process because they “had the model that you see here today.”
    • Asai subsequently identified himself as Vice President of BEC on August 31st.
  • Amirah Ziada, UFCW 3000 Cannabis Division Contract Negotiator (audio - 2m, video) 
    • Finding that prior speakers had engaged in some "fear mongering" around her union, Ziada said her group endeavored to see "businesses thrive for the workers and for the owners." She’d heard lots of calls for social equity in ownership, but “we need equity in the workplace, too,” where many employees were “Black and Brown” people or were from “marginalized communities.” Alleging that employee perspectives were frequently “left out” of policy discussions, “and you can’t have a thriving company if you have high turnover” or untrained staff, Ziada promised UFCW 3000 wasn’t “scary" and wanted to be part of the process since “this is what we do.” She added that her own sibling had a previous cannabis conviction “in the early 2000s” and diverse perspectives mattered, but “we cannot forget the voice of the workers.”
  • Gabriel Prawl, A. Phillip Randolph Institute Seattle Chapter (Seattle APRI) Chapter President and ILWU Local 52 President, signed up to speak but was unavailable when called. He previously offered remarks on the topic on August 11th.
  • Committee Chair and City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda thought that there was “a lot of common ground" among commenters and condemned “racist comments about Black and Brown…cannabis owners and shops.” She was hopeful that the council’s work could be part of correcting “that narrative and push back against those racist attacks” (audio - 1m, video).
    • Racial vitriol against equity in the cannabis space had also appeared in some media commentary.

• Committee Chair and Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda introduced the topic of equity in the Seattle cannabis sector (audio - 6m, video) 
  • Equity among the city’s cannabis license holders and employees was a topic the committee had been evaluating for months before a trio of bills were proposed by Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office and introduced to the Seattle City Council on August 9th:
    • CB 120391 - “establishing the City’s commitments and plans for supporting cannabis workers and supporting communities disproportionately harmed by the federal War on Drugs.”
    • CB 120392 - “relating to licensing cannabis businesses in Seattle; establishing social equity applicant criteria for cannabis businesses; setting fees for cannabis businesses; expanding the purposes for which a cannabis license may be issued in the future; updating references in the code to ‘cannabis’; and amending Chapter 6.500 of the Seattle Municipal Code.”
    • CB 120393 - “relating to employment in Seattle; adding a new Chapter 8.38 to the Seattle Municipal Code; and amending Sections 3.02.125 and 14.20.025 of the Seattle Municipal Code.”
  • After thanking the mayor’s staff, Mosqueda took an opportunity “for us to really pause and reflect" before the staff briefing and consider “how many organizations, individuals, business owners, workers” had been “pushing back against harmful policies” at the federal level and “out of city hall, not even ten years ago.” She perceived their work as part of how the city and state could “push back” on federal policies and reevaluate city policies to help labor standards, “Black and Brown business owners,” and have a cannabis industry with additional support for training, worker, and technical assistance options. Mosqueda felt that “over time, with the advice of the advisory board” envisioned in CB 120391, city leaders could make other changes, with the ordinance being “a small step, in the right direction towards undoing some of those past harms."
  • She elaborated on the groups that had contributed to the committee’s actions on cannabis equity, naming BEC, ECCG, WA CAAA, and UFCW 3000, which she stated had “partnership[s] with Black-led community organizations over the last few years.” Mosqueda then complimented the work of “city staff, largely people of color-led," in the city’s Department of Finance and Administrative Services (FAS) and Office for Civil Rights who had been engaged “in community” with issues of cannabis social equity in events and published reports for years. Their work, including “directly having conversations on behalf of the city on how things could be done differently,” was “beginning to get put into statute.” Mosqueda thanked Mayor Harrell’s Policy Director Dan Eder and Labor Liaison Brianna Thomas, along with Thomas’s predecessor, Gerald Hankerson, and Advisor to the Mayor Devon Abdallah for their contributions, as well as Harrell’s overall leadership.
  • Mosqueda concluded that the city also needed “to invest in creating more equity and that will require budget conversations” with other city agencies “to recover from the deficit that we’re facing but continue to plan for deep investments in this community.” She further wanted their solutions “centering much of our policy strategies to address harm on those who’ve experienced harm directly: Black cannabis owners, workers, owners displaced when the state gave cannabis licenses away, and took ‘em away from Black-owned businesses and workers.”
    • Learn more from the Seattle City Budget Office.

• The first bill on Seattle “commitments and plans for supporting cannabis workers and supporting communities disproportionately harmed by” the war on drugs was the most contentious as committee members discussed more than a half dozen amendments before passing the measure.
  • Mosqueda moved for the committee to pass CB 120391 (audio - 1m, video, Council Bill). 
  • Amy Gore, Central Staff Legislative Analyst, shared a briefing on the ordinance similar to the one she’d given at the August 11th hearing, outlining the planned actions in the bill according to the summary and fiscal note (audio - 1m, video): 
    • “1. Include issues of cannabis equity on the City’s 2023 State Legislative Agenda.
    • 2. Include issues of cannabis equity on the City’s 2023 federal Legislative Agenda.
    • 3. Continue to advocate partnership with King County to seek the expungement of cannabis convictions handed down prior to 2014.
    • 4. Use summer legal interns to work on expungement of cannabis convictions.
    • 5. Continue to partner with organizations that represent communities negatively impacted by the federal War on Drugs to ensure increased opportunities to ameliorate that damage including, but not limited to, cannabis related business ownership.
    • 6. Partner with organizations advocating for the advancement, safety, and retention of cannabis workers.
    • 7. Pursue funds from the State and federal governments to support this work.
    • 8. Fund a Cannabis Needs Assessment to provide demographic information about workers currently employed in Seattle’s cannabis industry; determine the highest training needs of those workers wishing to advance in the cannabis industry and become owners; and include recommendations about whether and how to fund such training.
    • 9. Appoint an advisory committee comprised of workers, industry members, and community members impacted by the federal War on Drugs.”
  • Gore then went over an amendment table in the staff memorandum, first introducing Amendment 1, sponsored by Mosqueda, which included a new section “with more detail about who should do the cannabis needs assessment.” She specified a partnership between “a Seattle-based educational institution” and a non-profit “organization with experience in curriculum development, administering retail training,” and apprenticeship programs, but “is not primarily funded by cannabis business or employer associations.” Gore stated the revisions were "mutually exclusive" with another amendment offered by Nelson (audio - 2m, video). 
  • Gore then explained Amendment 2, which specified “that [the Cannabis Needs Assessment] shall be conducted by an independent academic institution” with expertise in “local experience identifying training needs for workers, developing industry, and job-specific training curriculum, and delivering job-skills programs.” She again stressed this was separate from Mosqueda’s amendment, “and therefore the committee needs to vote on one, or the other.” Mosqueda determined that the committee would hear sponsor comments and debate before voting on amendment 1. If that didn’t pass, she said they would then vote on amendment 2 (audio - 1m, video). 
  • Mosqueda said amendment 1 was crafted after comments on CB 120391 suggested changes were needed "to find some common ground here" and that city officials had “also expressed interest in contracting with a Seattle-based educational institution.” She claimed to not have been previously made aware of Nelson’s competing amendment (audio - 7m, video). 
    • Mosqueda read from the bill text about the proposed needs assessment “to further clarify what investments and improvements in this burgeoning industry could be supported by the City moving forward. At a minimum, the study will provide demographic information about workers currently employed in Seattle’s cannabis industry. In addition to evaluating the training needs of the incumbent workforce, the study will evaluate and determine the highest training needs of those workers who wish to advance in the industry beyond entry-level positions and also those seeking to become new owners. The study will include recommendations about whether and how to fund such training”
    • The emphasis on cannabis workers was important for her, calling it "in the same vein as workforce development," which she deemed a nationally popular, bipartisan issue. Mosqueda expressed her belief that “labor laws are strongest” with workers or unions involved with business owners in policymaking. She felt her needs assessment partnership between a non-profit and educational institution would “bring both business and workers to the table,” and argued her amendment was in keeping with Seattle labor laws that were already “some of the strongest around the country.”
    • Mosqueda felt the approach in the legislation followed a “universally applauded” strategy in other workforce development areas. She remarked that the bill offered training for worker safety, “upward mobility” in the industry, and would “ensure that we are looking at workforce development.”
    • “The comments that I’ve seen submitted via letters, and some of the public testimony…brought up a lot of concerns around unions,” observed Mosqueda. She found that "the anti-union comments are actually anti-worker. That’s harmful rhetoric." Mosqueda thought that sentiment wasn’t befitting the city or state and hurt the economy. She offered her amendment to ensure there was “an entity that is knowledgeable about this sector” and changing regulations around cannabis generally who could be a good partner for both staff and business owners. She stressed that the final decision on contracting was up to the Mayor’s office.
    • Mosqueda hoped that terms like “workforce development,” “‘union’ or ‘non-profit’” weren’t considered “dirty words” in their community, bluntly establishing that the Finance and Housing Committee that she chaired was “not the place for that kind of a discussion.”
  • Speaking to amendment 2, Nelson voiced appreciation to those who’d been engaging state and Seattle officials on the topic. She spoke of the history of FAS on cannabis equity, work of other city offices to “eliminate racial disparities on cannabis,” and a 2020 public forum on the matter. Nelson then called out a Racial Equity Toolkit for cannabis that produced various equity recommendations, and a 2019 survey and analysis from the city as efforts to “figure out ways to redistribute wealth in the cannabis industry.” All this led her to think “the city supports the cannabis industry…and really does want to see it thrive,” but being concerned with equity meant listening to “the community that has spoken, the Black community members who have come today.” Otherwise, the legislation could be considered “a vehicle for advancing” outside interests - or more singularly “a special interest" (audio - 6m, video).
    • Despite earlier efforts to suggest policy changes, Nelson would support a needs assessment “to surface additional ways that we can advance equity” and for city officials to contract with an entity for a “useful” report. She mentioned UW and the Seattle Central College Cannabis Institute as other institutions city staff could approach, noting the Institute was “designed to help workers progress” in the cannabis field.
    • Nelson argued that the needs assessment process needed to “have the trust of everybody involved” rather than advance "an agenda that's already been pretty clear" to her in private and public meetings. If stakeholders lacked this trust, any assessment "won't be useful" as it wouldn’t be considered credible, she reasoned. Nelson felt that officials had to avoid a situation that could prompt “the retail owners to leave the table because they’ll be implementing” any changes required by the city. She was also curious about “what non-profits” Mosqueda’s amendment 1 was “contemplating.”
  • Vice Chair and City Councilmember Lisa Herbold was grateful to Mosqueda for agreeing to remove the explicit mention of WeTrain Washington from the amendment. She thanked the chair for making the educational institution the “lead” organization, as well as making clear that the final contracting decision resided with the mayor’s office. Herbold mentioned “academic works” had contributed to other Seattle industries and the “outcome of our labor laws.” She added that WeTrain Washington was a “labor-management joint organization” and that she agreed with Mosqueda’s view that workforce development programs had successfully “come about” due to similar partnerships. Herbold advocated for amendment 1 as the best approach to ensure “everybody is at the table moving forward as part of the assessment” (audio - 2m, video). 
  • Mosqueda moved for a vote on incorporating amendment 1 into CB 120391 (audio - <1m, video). She offered a final comment, reiterating that "the word ‘non-profit’ should not be a scary thing” and claimed that a specific example had initially been listed at the urging of legal counsel for the city. Mosqueda’s wish was for the needs assessment on the cannabis industry to “lift up the value of bringing both employers and employees to the table” (audio - 1m, video). 
    • Nelson was opposed to amendment 1 as it just said "educational institution," while her alternative stated the institution would be “independent.” She further felt the advisory group created in CB 120391 had a “role for labor” which would contribute to a “scope of work” for a neutrally conducted assessment (audio - 2m, video).
    • Mosqueda took issue with the idea her amendment wouldn’t allow for a neutral assessment (audio - 1m, video) 
    • During a final vote, Mosqueda, Herbold, and City Councilmember Andrew Lewis voted in favor of amendment 1. Nelson and City Councilmember Alex Pedersen voted against it (audio - 1m, video).
  • Senior Deputy City Clerk Emilia Sanchez interjected that with amendment 1 adopted, amendment 2 was “out of order,” though it could be reconsidered by being brought before the full city council when they debated CB 120391 (audio - 1m, video). 
  • Mosqueda introduced amendment 3, optimistic the language expressed “common ground” between herself and Nelson (audio - 1m, video). She moved to consider “walk on amendment 3, version 2” which was a compromise of her original amendment 3, and Nelson’s amendment 4 (audio - <1m, video).
    • Nelson presented amendment 3 as a way to have the advisory body in the bill be reflective of the industry and stakeholders. It was a proposal to “amend Section 9 to provide additional guidance on the composition of the Cannabis Needs Assessment Advisory Committee, specifying that the committee should include (audio - 3m, video):
      • three business owners or industry association representatives; 
      • three representatives of labor, including unions and workers; and 
      • three representatives from communities that have been historically harmed by the War on Drugs and have advocated for cannabis equity in King County, with priority to those who meet the social equity criteria as defined in RCW 69.50.335.” 
      • Nelson said this was “fair and even” representation of people who had an interest in the outcomes of the needs assessment and city policies and brought Seattle into “alignment” with state definitions of social equity and who “we’re trying to help.”
    • Mosqueda appreciated the chance to work with Nelson on a solution, agreeing that the stakeholders on the advisory group were “equally balanced” (audio - 2m, video).
    • Nelson also thanked public comment that allowed them to "hone our interest in this” amendment (audio - <1m, video).
    • The committee then voted unanimously to adopt amendment 3, version 2 (audio - 1m, video).
  • Turning to amendment 5, Mosqueda moved for a change she co-sponsored with Herbold to have city leaders partner with other governments (audio - 1m, video).
    • Herbold opened debate on the change in “Section 3 to specify that the City will partner with King County and with communities negatively impacted by the War on Drugs and with lived experience in the criminal justice system, to seek the expungement of cannabis convictions.” She commented the initial language didn’t have “everyone at the table,” and she was seeking to have people and groups and "communities negatively impacted" be part of the discussion on expunging criminal records with King County representatives (audio - 1m, video). 
      • Dyneeca Adams, Freedom Project WA Advocacy Director, previously offered her organization's assistance on expungement work at the committee meeting on August 11th.
    • Mosqueda offered her thanks for Herbold’s leadership on the amendment and for centering those impacted by the criminal justice system to see “true expungement occurs” (audio - 1m, video).
    • Amendment 5 passed with Herbold, Lewis, Mosqueda voting in favor while Nelson and Pedersen abstained (audio - 1m, video).
  • Nelson informed the committee she had emailed withdrawals of amendment 6 and amendment 7 “for now” (audio - 1m, video).
  • In preparing for final comments on the amended CB 120391, Mosqueda thanked the committee for their work on the bill, and the “community-driven process” from the FAS and mayor’s staff. She was happy to have “found a pathway forward on some of these items” resulting in a “stronger” bill from everyone’s contributions (audio - 1m, video).
    • Though in favor of the “equitable goals” of the bills and "numerous sections" of the proposal, Pedersen was still “concerned about how the bill was substantially modified" and whether the needs assessment would be accepted as objective. He advised a “competitive request for proposals process” soliciting independent academic institutions (audio - 1m, video) 
    • Nelson echoed Pedersen in asserting that the "the voices of community were not heard" and she announced she would oppose CB 120391 on “process grounds" (audio - 1m, video).
    • Herbold noted that they’d been assured by Eder there would be a competitive contracting process during their prior hearing on the bill (audio - <1m, video). Mosqueda concurred and found the "rhetoric is frankly divisive, not helpful" to the communities which they wanted to help, like businesses and the “workers in harm's way” (audio - 1m, video).
    • Pedersen liked the promise of a competitive request process, but remained opposed to the ordinance (audio - 1m, video).
    • Nelson believed that if only one organization was qualified to apply, then calling it a competitive process was misleading. "When we talk about partnering with a non-profit" there should be “enough to choose from,” she stated (audio - 1m, video). 
  • The committee voted on the amended bill with Mosqueda, Herbold, and Lewis supporting it, and Nelson and Pedersen opposed (audio - 1m, video).

• The next action amended a bill for a city-level equivalent of the “social equity applicant criteria for cannabis businesses,” while also modifying fees, “expanding the purposes for which a cannabis license may be issued in the future,” and changing ‘marijuana’ to ‘cannabis’ in the Seattle Municipal Code.
  • Lisa Kaye, Central Staff Legislative Analyst, went over CB 120392 in a review similar to her first description of the council bill, detailing the proposal for a municipal “social equity cannabis license, and establish[ing] eligibility criteria for that license consistent with” draft rules for social equity from WSLCB. There would be no fee for an equity license and, and the legislation would waive fees “for reinspection and license reinstatement,” she said. Other activities like cannabis delivery, or on-site and ”special event consumption” would be included, noted Kaye “should the state enable these in the future.” The ordinance would change cannabis terminology in city code consistent with state legislation passed in March, she added (audio - 2m, video, Council Bill).
  • A single amendment had been offered by Herbold to lower “fees for small cannabis production businesses and for cannabis transport businesses in Seattle,” Kaye indicated (audio - <1m, video). 
    • Herbold moved to add her amendment into the bill (audio - <1m, video). She then remarked that she’d “committed to” lowering cannabis business fees following a previous budget vote she co-sponsored increasing fees without full consideration of “the equity implications” of increasing fees from between $500 and $1,000 to $3,500 fees “for all businesses.” Herbold stated that in 2020 FAS found that cannabis tier 1 producer licensees had “lower margins” than other businesses, but the same “regulatory requirements.” Because “a licensee’s ability to pay” was a consideration in city fee determination, she found removing the cost to be a fair change, even as it only impacted two current licensees. Additionally, they indicated transporter premises inspections took the least amount of time, so she was backing “the smart change” in inspection costs, even though “no transporter business” was located in the city. The fiscal implications were “very slight” as so few businesses were impacted by the amendment (audio - 4m, video).
    • Mosqueda gave her support to the change as “another step towards meeting our equity goals” and encouraged others to vote in favor of it (audio - <1m, video).
    • The amendment was passed unanimously (audio - 1m, video). 
  • Nelson pointed out that she’d prepared another amendment on August 11th prioritizing former cannabis dispensaries with “licenses in the past, but lost ‘em in the transition to recreational.” Following comments from Herbold, it was clear to Nelson the idea couldn’t be “operationalized” and shouldn’t be included in CB 120392 (audio - 1m, video).
  • The committee adopted the amended bill unanimously (audio - 1m, video).

• The final proposal “relating to employment in Seattle” would add to, and alter city codes, and garnered little debate from committee members.
  • Jasmine Marwaha, Central Staff Policy Analyst, had previously explained CB 120393 and told members the “cannabis employee job retention ordinance” would require employers to “increase transparency and reduce job insecurity caused by changes in ownership.” A cannabis license holder would have to give employees written notice of the names of owners and enterprises, something she stated would be added to the Notice of Employment Information used by the city. Additionally, Marwaha reported “outgoing cannabis businesses” would have to provide a “preferential hiring list” which new owners would have to hire from while posting a notice of the change in ownership for “180 days after the change in control.” Existing employees hired up to 30 days before a cannabis license assumption would be automatically retained, she commented, “unless there is just cause to discharge them” (audio - 2m, video, Council Bill). 
  • Mosqueda thanked the mayor’s staff again and thought the unamended initial version of the council bill was symptomatic of “a job well done” (audio - <1m, video).
  • Mosqueda moved for passage of the bill (audio - <1m, video) and members unanimously backed the measure (audio - 1m, video).

• All three ordinances were scheduled for a committee report and possible debate, amendment, and a final vote by the full Seattle City Council at their Tuesday September 6th meeting.
  • At publication time, Mosqueda and Nelson had co-sponsored a revised amendment on the needs assessment in CB 120391 requiring it be “conducted by an independent academic institution with local expertise in:
    • identifying training needs for workers in a variety of industries;
    • developing industry- and job-specific training; and
    • delivering job skills programs.”