King County Council - Council Meeting
(May 17, 2022)

Here are some observations from the Tuesday May 17th Metropolitan King County Council Meeting.

My top 3 takeaways:

• Following a series of armed robberies in King County and neighboring areas in early 2022, the council was presented with a motion to establish a cannabis business security task force to promote strategies to reduce the crimes.
  • On April 5th, Councilmember and Council Vice Chair Reagan Dunn introduced motion 2022-0159, which was referred to the King County Council Law, Justice, Health, and Human Services Committee (King County Council LJHHS). The committee considered the proposal on May 3rd.
    • The staff report outlined the motion as a request that King County Executive Dow Constantine address “the recent increase in criminal activity targeting the marijuana retailers across King County by establishing a Marijuana Retail Security Task Force to develop strategies to prevent this criminal activity and enhance security at marijuana retail locations.”
    • The task force would be made up of representatives from King County’s Prosecuting Attorney's Office and Sheriff’s Office, as well as “marijuana retail shop owners, and impacted neighborhood groups and community organizations.” The executive would be expected to file a report on security and crime prevention strategies for cannabis businesses by August 31st.
    • King County Council LJHHS members approved the motion after adding amendments to its wording and expanding the scope to all cannabis businesses rather than exclusively retailers, resulting in motion 2022-0159.2.
  • Take a look at a spreadsheet compiled by Uncle Ike's staff describing cannabis store robberies and burglaries in Washington which showed 193 incidents in 2022 at publication time.

• Several representatives of the cannabis sector offered public remarks in support of the proposal’s potential impact on the safety of their businesses similar to what they’d expressed at the motion’s prior committee meeting.
  • Jamie Hoffman, Craft Elixirs Owner and Founder (audio - 3m, video)
    • Grateful to Dunn and the council for their “attention to this issue,” Hoffman laid out how her two processing facilities in Seattle were threatened by the “dramatic increase in cannabis business robberies” even as her business was in a “quiet neighborhood of Wallingford.” Claiming that police hadn’t responded to her reports of vandalism and robberies, she asserted that the incidents cost her “upwards of $50,000 in stolen goods and damage to our processing facility.” Thus far, crimes had occurred at night, but Hoffman remained worried that her employees would be “held up at gunpoint” and traumatized or hurt. She had hired overnight security, but couldn’t afford to keep them present full time and would reluctantly close her business if nothing improved. Supportive of a task force, Hoffman summed up the attitude of the cannabis sector as feeling “picked on and violated.”
  • Shannon Vetto, Evergreen Market CEO and Washington CannaBusiness Association (WACA) Trustee (audio - 2m, video) 
    • With five stores in the area, Vetto acknowledged that "cash is definitely the appeal" for would-be thieves, but also found the “intensity” in violence and duration of the robberies was increasing. She explained that a robbery was attempted at one of their locations on February 9th by individuals accused in a spree of violent robberies, including the death of budtender Jordan Brown during a robbery in Tacoma on March 19th. Vetto believed a task force could do much to improve the situation through ensuring there were “prevention opportunities” as well as “detection and prosecution” of those committing the offenses.
  • Vicki Christophersen, WACA Executive Director and Lobbyist (audio - 2m, video)
    • Christophersen brought up how robberies had occurred at "both retail establishments and producer/processor establishments” and her members were urging her to “speak out in every opportunity that we have.” While mindful that there was "no one silver bullet" that would “solve” a complicated matter like armed robbery, she felt “this task force really has the opportunity to create the level of coordination and strategic thinking” necessary to shift the dynamic. Christophersen complimented Dunn and motion co-sponsor Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles for "their leadership" on the matter.

• The full council was presented with motion 2022-0159.2, and shared some brief remarks before unanimously approving it.
  • Councilmember Girmay Zahilay moved that the council pass the motion (audio - <1m, video).
  • Prior to losing his connection to the meeting, Dunn indicated that King County Council LJHHS had considered and recommended the motion unanimously two weeks earlier (audio - 1m, video). He urged members' support and deferred to Kohl-Welles comments on the measure (audio - <1m, video).
  • Kohl-Welles brought up her past legislative advocacy of cannabis reform, finding that “one of the flaws all along" of Initiative 502 legalizing cannabis—which she supported as a legislator—was that "all the transactions had to be in cash because of federal requirements." While there was potential for action on the federal SAFE Banking Act which could bring some normalization to cannabis business banking, she was still hearing from constituents about “the real dangers" for "customers as well as employees as well as the proprietors of all marijuana legal businesses.” Kohl-Welles wanted to see change at the national level, “but until that happens, I think it's really important that we address what we can do at the county level.” She understood that leaders from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) were looking into banking, training, and other possible mitigation tactics, yet remained optimistic that collaboration by representatives of county agencies, cannabis businesses, and community groups would result in the most comprehensive report on the situation (audio - 2m, video).
    • On May 5th, WSLCB leaders announced a partnership with the Washington State Crime Prevention Association (WSCPA) to provide training for cannabis licensees and their staff featuring best practices which officials described as using “crime prevention through environmental design” (CPTED).
    • Agency officials followed up on May 11th with a bulletin on their contract with Setracon, a Tacoma-based security consulting firm specializing in training and data management. The WSLCB notice indicated that the firm’s “initial focus of the physical security and crime prevention assessments will be for the approximately 180 retail stores in Pierce, King, and Snohomish Counties.” 
      • The goal would be for voluntary participants to work with regulators and Setracon staff “to create a positive process to manage security risks at each individual store” so the company can support:
        • “Working with retailers to assess potential security risks;
        • Review[ing] criminal threats facing the retailer;
        • Evaluat[ing] and document present mitigations and suggest solutions for improvement; 
        • Providing retailers with a report of findings.”
      • Setracon maintains partnerships with commercial security organizations and corporate clients that include Washington transit companies Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit) and Community Transit in Snohomish County.
  • The motion was passed unanimously with Councilmembers Joe McDermott and Pete von Reichbauer excused from the vote (audio - 1m, video).
  • Under King County Charter Article 2 Section 240, motions passed by the council can be used to “make declarations of policy which do not have the force of law and to request information from any other agency of county government.  Motions shall not be subject to the veto power of the county executive.” 
  • According to archived information from the Clerk of the Council, successful motions “are assigned an enacted number.” Constantine might announce the task force as one of his administration’s initiatives, or include it within an existing priority like those his office already has for gun violence and public safety.