WA Task Force on Social Equity in Cannabis - Public Meeting
(October 26, 2020) - Meet the Members

Washington State Legislative Task Force on Social Equity in Cannabis - Legislative Members
[ Event Details ]

Meet the 18 appointed members of the Washington State Legislative Task Force on Social Equity in Cannabis in our first post on the inaugural meeting of this group.

  • Representative Melanie Morgan, representing the Washington State House Democatic Caucus.
    • Morgan served on her chamber’s cannabis policy committee, the Washington State House Commerce and Gaming Committee (WA House COG), after joining the legislature in 2019 representing the 29th Legislative District.
    • Morgan’s legislative biography stated that she is a “former school board director from Franklin Pierce Schools, a US Army veteran,” a commissioner on the board of the Pierce County Housing Authority and had “served on the board of Community Healthcare” in addition to being “a Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Advocate.”
    • During the 2019 legislative session, Morgan raised concerns about minority license ownership during a January public hearing on HB 1236, “Concerning the ability of business and nonprofit entities to obtain a marijuana license.” Also in 2019, Morgan filed an amendment to HB 1466 which would have cancelled its billboard ban, expanded the advertising buffer around schools from 1000 to 2000 feet, and created a 2000 foot buffer between cannabis business billboards. The amendment was withdrawn prior to consideration.
    • In February 2020 during the WA House COG public hearing for HB 2870, the legislation which created the task force, Morgan asked primary sponsor Representative Eric Pettigrew whether “African Americans need to come up to the same playing field as white people do before we open it to other communities of color” (audio - 2m, video). In a WA House COG work session on September 15th, Morgan asked researchers about outreach and engagement with “the black/African American community, people of color as well in the community” (audio - 5m; video). Morgan was an appointed member of the Office of Equity Task Force which began meeting in September 2019 and was similarly situated as part of the Governor’s Interagency Council on Health Disparities and staffed by the Washington State Board of Health (SBOH).
    • During her introduction to the WA Task Force on Social Equity in Cannabis, Morgan stated that equity was a “personal commitment” and she wanted to bring “people who have been marginalized” into a place where they could be “at the table” in policymaking (audio - 3m, video). Later in the meeting, Morgan was elected Co-Chair of the Task Force (audio - 9m, video) following her advocacy speech (audio - 6m, video).
  • Senator Rebecca Saldaña, representing the Washington State Senate Democratic Caucus. 
    • Representing the state’s 37th Legislative District, Saldaña was a key Senate supporter of HB 2870. On the Senate floor, she said that the bill represented “a wise and a prudent step forward” in “creating equitable opportunity” and asked Pettigrew about the proposed staffing of the task force on March 9th (audio - 3m, video).
    • Joining the Senate in 2017, Saldaña served on her chamber’s cannabis policy committee, the Washington State Senate Labor and Commerce Committee (WA Senate LBRC). During the 2019-2020 biennium she served as Deputy Majority Leader, vice chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, and was a member of the State Government, Tribal Relations & Elections Committee. 
    • Saldaña stated that “making our state a more equitable place” should be a top priority in her September e-newsletter, and expressed support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, economic recovery, and “environmental resiliency.”
    • In 2019, Saldaña was a co-sponsor of SB 5155, cannabis home grow legislation. She also co-sponsored SB 5985 which would have raised the cap on license ownership by individuals; created residency, naming, disclosure, and transfer exceptions for cannabis licenses based upon businesses paying a fee and having a labor peace agreement in effect; amend retail signage statutes; add definitions; and require disclosure of licensee demographic information. That unusual bill, introduced after legislative cutoff deadlines had passed, was briefly designated necessary to implement the budget (NTIB) to enable consideration and not revived during the 2020 short session.
    • Saldaña was formerly Executive Director for Puget Sound Sage, a nonprofit addressing affordable housing and transportation issues, where she helped secure “$16 million in city funding for Equitable Development Initiatives in the 37th Legislative District” according to her Senate biography.
    • During her introduction to the Task Force, Saldaña shared how she’d worked “not to ruin the bill” as it moved through the Senate. Pointing to I-200, she felt the state had no problem “with affirmative action as long as it’s affirmatively advancing and consolidating opportunities for white individuals that have settled here in the state of Washington and that everyone else needs to have barriers set up for them to be able to access the fullness of their lives.” Saldaña was trying to use her position in government to “undo” some of the harms from state law “so that we can all be together” (audio - 5m, video).
  • Senator Curtis King, representing the Washington State Senate Republican Caucus.
    • King, the ranking minority member of WA Senate LBRC, represents the 14th Legislative District. He joined the legislature in 2007 and is a long serving member of the Senate Rules Committee and ranking member of the Transportation Committee.
    • King’s biographical page stated he was “a past president of the Central Washington State Fair Board and has served as an active member for 16 years. He ran a commercial cabinet shop with his father and brother, [King Brothers Woodworking] growing it into a successful company with 40 employees.”
    • In 2019, some of King’s notable amendments on cannabis legislation included:
      • HB 1094 - “Establishing compassionate care renewals for medical marijuana qualifying patients.” King successfully amended the language to make it more similar to the senate companion.
      • SB 5318 - “Reforming the compliance and enforcement provisions for marijuana licensees.” King attempted to amend additional requirements of licensees and expectations for the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) to assist local jurisdictions concerned about resale or trafficking of legal products outside the state.
      • SB 5678 - “Creating additional training requirements for licensed marijuana retailers and their employees.” King succeeded in suspending a 5-day notification rule so that WA Senate LBRC could hear the ultimately unpassed budtender permit bill.
    • During a February 25th Executive Session on HB 2870, King proposed an unsuccessful amendment to remove all provisions in the bill in favor of an interim “study group on marijuana social equity.” On October 7th, it was publicized that King was appointed to represent Senate Republicans on the task force, the final appointment after most other members had been announced in late July.
    • King successfully pushed an amendment during the final passage of HB 2870 in the Senate and remarked that “the legislature is really giving up some of their authority here." He felt the task force as proposed would be less “focused on trying to get those licenses into the hands of minority businesses in a fair and equitable way” leaving King “very concerned that this may be used as trying to set the precedent of how we move forward and that this group may look at substantive changes to our law.” King particularly objected to representation from a labor organization on the task force before leading Senate Republicans in their unsuccessful bid against the bill despite being joined by Democrat Senators Tim Sheldon and Claire Wilson (audio - 2m, video).
    • During his introduction to the Task Force, King stated that he was “interested in this task force and this topic” and that he wanted to “understand” it better. He hoped the task force would “be fair, and I want to be fair to everybody” (audio - 2m, video).
  • Representative Kelly Chambers, representing the Washington State House Republican Caucus. 
    • Chambers had been the assistant ranking member of WA House COG since 2019 when she began serving as representative of the 25th Legislative District. She also served on the House Rules, Transportation, and Health Care and Wellness committees.
    • Chamber’s about page explains that she had served as president of the Health Care Providers Council of Pierce County and was on the board of Puget Sound Honor Flights, a nonprofit organization transporting Western Washington vets to Washington D.C. “to visit and reflect at memorials.” A former schoolteacher, Chambers and her husband own Visiting Angels, which provides “in-home support for seniors and members of the disabled community.”
    • Chambers was one of several lawmakers who questioned WSLCB Enforcement Officer John Jung during a March 2019 hearing on SB 5318 regarding staff interactions with licensees and accusations of a “toxic culture” within the agency (audio – 8m, video).
    • Chambers said she “was new to cannabis and had been taking in as much as I can” since joining WA House COG and looked forward to continuing that education with the task force (audio - 1m, video).
  • Paula Sardinas, representing the Washington State Commission on African American Affairs (CAAA).
    • Sardinas became a prominent supporter of cannabis social equity following her appointment to CAAA at the end of 2019. She shared her background on cannabis policy at Seattle’s Cannabis Equity in Our Community forum on February 22nd, during a contentious hearing on HB 2870, and throughout WSLCB’s BIPOC engagements. She’s described her familiarity with other legal cannabis state equity programs and the personal toll of having a sibling incarcerated for a cannabis offense.
    • Sardinas was also appointed to the state’s Financial Education Public-Private Partnership (FEPPP) in August 2017.
    • Sardinas is the CEO and Chief Lobbyist for FMS Global Strategies, which “specializes in #BIPOC governmental advocacy, grant, and contract procurement within municipal, state, and federal governments in Washington, Florida, Georgia, New York, California, Nevada, Puerto Rico, Texas, and Colorado,” according to her LinkedIn profile.
    • On her CAAA profile, Sardinas identified past work with business and government groups:
      • Vice President of Legislative Affairs for the Northwest Credit Union Association
      • Vice President of Innovation and Transformation at HAPO Community Credit Union
      • AT&T Florida’s Legislative & Regulatory Affairs team member
      • She had also “worked with and for the Administrations of Presidents, Clinton, Bush, and Obama on various programs to increase opportunities and access for women and children.”
    • During her introduction, Sardinas explained she endeavored to represent the views of African Americans who had “suffered 401 years of oppression” and had been excluded from cannabis and other industries. She felt that African Americans lacked “lobbyists” and “advocates...and I raised my hand” (audio - 2m, video). Sardinas was elected Co-Chair of the task force following her advocacy speech (audio - 5m, video).
  • Craig Bill, Director of the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs (GOIA) representing that office.
    • Bill was appointed GOIA director in March 2013 where he “serves as an advisor on tribal issues and liaison between the State of Washington and Indian Tribes and tribal organizations for the Governor’s Office.”
    • Bill was formerly Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Advisor to the Tribal Chairman for the Lummi Nation tribal government and “an enrolled member of the Swinomish Tribe and descendent of the Colville Confederated Tribes and Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.” Bill served with Morgan on the Office of Equity Task Force.
    • Bill described his goal to “support the work that’s kind of happening,” advocate for “tribal communities,” and engage “on behalf of all American Indian/Alaskan native citizens” (audio - 4m, video).
  • Michelle Merriweather, Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle President and CEO, “representing the African American community.”
    • Before working with the Urban League, Merriweather provided consulting services to the City of Los Angeles. Prior to that she was a Business Development Manager for Starbucks.
    • Merriweather was not present during task force member introductions due to another obligation, but spoke briefly before the lunch break (audio - 1m, video).
  • David Mendoza, Progreso Board President, “representing the Latinx community.”
    • Mendoza’s previous experience included employment with the Washington House of Representatives as policy counsel and senior advisor to the Mayor’s office in Seattle tasked with addressing the “proliferation of unlicensed medical marijuana stores.” He was Front and Centered’s Lead & State Co-Chair on the Environmental Justice Task Force, another task force similarly situated with the Governor’s Interagency Council on Health Disparities.
    • Mendoza told attendees he was there because of his work facilitating “Latino civic engagement and issue advocacy,” and that while he’d had cannabis businesses employ him as a lobbyist in the past, “I’m here fully representing the Latino community” (audio - 3m, video).
      • Mendoza faced criticism from community members throughout the meeting for his work on Seattle’s program to shut down medical cannabis delivery services and dispensaries in 2014 and again in 2016 following passage of SB 5052, which attempted to merge the state’s unlicensed medical and licensed recreational markets.
      • In 2019, cannabis retailer Have a Heart employed Mendoza as a lobbyist, according to his Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (WA PDC) profile. The first state retailer to unionize, Have a Heart’s parent company Interurban Capital Group, was acquired by Arizona-based Harvest Health & Recreation for a reported $85 million in March 2020 and rebranded as “A Cannabis Store...y.”
  • Joe Solorio, a member of UFCW 21, representing “a labor organization involved in the cannabis industry.”
    • Solorio said UFCW 21 included cannabis businesses and that his priority was to have “our workers taken care of as they go and help make these cannabis shops a lot of money” (audio - 2m, video). Solorio did not otherwise speak during the first Task Force meeting.
  • Ollie Garrett, WSLCB Board Member, representing that agency.
    • Garrett talked about her previous experience and motivation to increase cannabis equity during WSLCB’s Cannabis Advisory Council (CAC) in January 2019, and again during Seattle’s equity forum and WSLCB’s BIPOC engagements.
      • In late April, the WSLCB Board agreed to recommend Garrett to legislative leadership for appointment to the task force. The first round of appointments were announced on July 29th.
    • “It has always been a passion of mine to fight for the people that was not able to speak and have a voice for themselves,” Garrett commented, going through her history working with African American businesses and how it led to her appointment to the WSLCB board. Once there, she tried to find out “what was the reason that African Americans were feeling like they were being left out of the industry.” Garrett described her upbringing in Mississippi “back during the Civil Rights movement” including having “the opportunity and honor of marching with and meeting Martin Luther King [Jr] and Medgar Evers.” She’d grown up in “a small town where blacks weren’t allowed to do certain things” and Garrett’s mother soon recognized that “‘we have to get her out of Mississippi’ because anything they say a black can’t do, I would go and try to do...and ‘this girl is going to get us killed’” (audio - 3m, video).
  • Christopher Poulos, Executive Director of the Washington Statewide Reentry Council at the Washington State Department of Commerce, representing that agency.
    • Poulos said the reentry council attempted to “improve outcomes for people who are exiting our prisons and jails.” He intended to represent both organizations.
    • Poulos explained he was also an adjunct professor at Seattle University dealing with the history and “future of drug policy” both locally and internationally. He was arrested for a cannabis offense at age 15 before serving a “multiple-year federal prison sentence” for a different “drug-related conviction.” He wanted to be sure that the task force considered people “directly impacted by cannabis laws” and to remove any barriers from their entry to the cannabis market (audio - 3m, video).
    • Kendrick Stewart, Deputy Director of the Department of Commerce, was initially appointed to represent that agency.
  • Cherie MacLeod, City of Seattle Strategic Advisor and Marijuana Regulatory Program Manager, representing the Association of Washington Cities (AWC).
    • MacLeod was one of the key organizers of Seattle’s Cannabis Equity in Our Community forum.
    • MacLeod shared how she’d worked with cannabis businesses for as long as Seattle had licensed them and had become “interested in the industry.” She pointed to Seattle’s creation of a racial equity toolkit centered on cannabis policy. MacLeod added she was happy to be part of a group that could “roll back some of the harms” from the current market (audio - 4m, video).
  • Tamara Berkley, Owner of Natural Blessings Recreational Marijuana, representing cannabis retailers.
    • Berkley’s shop, self-identified as “Washingtons First Black Owned Pot Shop,” holds a medical marijuana endorsement from WSLCB.
    • Berkley said she wanted “to see a level playing field,” have “the stigma change” around cannabis, and assist former medical dispensary owners and patients who “feel like they were put on the back burner” (audio - 2m, video).
  • Pablo Gonzalez, Owner of The Bake Shop, representing cannabis retailers.
    • Gonzalez shared that he’d grown interested in the cannabis “business as a whole” when I-502 passed and he was running for the state legislature. He was moved to “get more engaged and involved” after reading that most of the people expected to benefit from licensure were “non-minorities” (audio - 2m, video).
    • Gonzalez’s first retail shop opened in September 2015. Months later, he appealed a fine of an employee selling cannabis to a minor, saying at the time he planned to “show them this will never happen again.” He settled with the agency, agreeing to pay a lesser fine than was initially levied after instituting stronger preventative measures. Gonzalez now owns three retail cannabis stores.
  • Raft Hollingsworth, Co-Owner of Hollingsworth Cannabis and Hemp Company, representing cannabis producers and processors.
    • Hollingsworth said his business was incorporated in 2013, licensed to produce cannabis in 2014, and had sold cannabis in the 502 market “since the beginning.” He believed the market had started with “no monopolies” and relied on a “hodge-podge” of small businesses, but since then their company had become the “last black-owned cannabis farm in the state.” Because of this, HB 2870 “could not have come at a better time” as he speculated that “15 people in the entire state controlled 90% of the flow of cannabis, from producers, to processors, to retailers, to everybody in between” exercising “major control over who wins and loses” in the 502 market (audio - 5m, video).
    • Raft Hollingsworth’s sister and business partner, Joy Hollingsworth, spoke during the first and final BIPOC engagements, and testified in HB 2870’s senate hearing.
  • Monica Martinez, Owner of The Calyx Co., representing cannabis producers and processors.
    • Matrinez is a member of the Washington SunGrowers Industry Association (WSIA).
    • Martinez said that her business was “one of the first 50 growers to be licensed” in 2015 and was Latino owned. She hoped to focus on “equity within the full industry,” not just for available retail licenses (audio - 3m, video).

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