During a busy week for the WSLCB Board, staff continued to make up for cancelled meetings, turnover, and vacancies as they negotiated a significant number of parallel rulemaking efforts.
Here’s a look at cannabis-related policymaking events on the calendar in the week ahead.
Monday November 6th
At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events were scheduled.
Tuesday November 7th
WSLCB - Board Caucus
On Tuesday at 10am PT, the weekly Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Board Caucus was scheduled to recur.
- [ Event Details ]
- The weekly board caucus was cancelled three weeks in a row in October.
- At the Tuesday October 31st caucus, board members delved into survey responses detailing selected social equity applicant demographics, then themes and possible improvements from their own staff focus groups.
Wednesday November 8th
WSLCB - Board Meeting
On Wednesday at 10am PT, the bi-weekly WSLCB Board Meeting was scheduled to recur.
- [ Event Details ]
- At the last board meeting on October 25th, members approved the start of a rulemaking project on retail medical endorsements, heard a status report on social equity applicants, and Board Member Jim Vollendroff’s impressions of an ongoing prevention summit.
- In late September, Policy and Rules staff mentioned plans to introduce the implementation of SB 5080, the 2023 social equity bill, at the October 25th meeting. The WSLCB Laws and Rules screen was subsequently updated to indicate that effort had been pushed to the November 8th board meeting.
- The last rulemaking update was provided at the October 11th Board Meeting.
- SB 5080, which was signed on May 1st and became effective on July 23rd, requires agency rulemaking. Previous dates publicly mentioned for kicking off the rulemaking effort ranged from June 21st to the latter half of September.
- Former Policy and Rules Manager Kathy Hoffman planned to take some of the SB 5080 work with her into her new role as Research Program Manager. During the last Research Program briefing on October 3rd, staff described preparing two different analyses of cannabis license density in accordance with a legislative mandate to consider the amount of stores which could be added to the social equity licensing program in light of population changes. Hoffman left the agency shortly thereafter, and her replacement had not been hired at publication time.
WSLCB - Executive Management Team
On Wednesday at 1:30pm PT, the three-member Board and agency leadership were scheduled to convene their monthly WSLCB Executive Management Team (EMT) meeting.
- [ Event Details ]
- The October EMT meeting was cancelled and not rescheduled.
Thursday November 9th
At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events were scheduled.
Friday November 10th
At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events were scheduled.