Board’s Measure A hangover

Butte County supervisors were nursing a marijuana hangover Tuesday (June 12) at their first meeting since June 5, when county voters heaved their medical-marijuana-cultivation ordinance, in the form of Measure A, right off the cliff.

The supervisors were feeling the pain of a failure that came after they and county staff had spent a long, difficult year, and put up with some major abuse, to come up with an ordinance that would make considerate neighbors out of growers.

The county’s intentions were good, but it botched the process. At the board’s first public hearing on the ordinance, on Feb. 22, 2011, District Attorney Mike Ramsey and Sheriff Jerry Smith kicked things off by making a presentation on the proliferation of pot gardens in the foothills, complete with photos.

This quickly framed the situation as growers-versus-authorities. To the growers who’d packed the supervisors’ chambers, it seemed like a declaration of war, and a number of them were openly rude and hostile toward the supervisors.

It didn’t help that the draft ordinance called for steep fees, setbacks that would be unmanageable in some cases, strict limits on the number of plants (only two on an acre or less), and that doctor’s recommendations be registered with the county. The growers also objected to being frozen out of the ordinance-drafting process.

County staff came back a few weeks later with a revised ordinance, but it was no more popular than the first one. Although it reduced the fees, it allowed no plants to be grown on parcels smaller than a half-acre. That pleased the anti-pot folks, but it angered the people growing for personal use.

At the last of three huge public hearings, this one held at the Gridley fairgrounds, Supervisor Maureen Kirk suggested a compromise: to permit growing on small lots inside a greenhouse, as is allowed in Biggs. Several speakers endorsed this option, but the rest of the supervisors didn’t support it.

Tuesday’s discussion had the supervisors asking “What now?” By law, the board can’t reapprove the ordinance, or even one similar to it, for a year. The options, CAO Paul Hahn said, were to do nothing or begin working on a substantially different ordinance.

The supervisors are plainly sick of the issue. Bill Connelly, who represents the Oroville area, said he was frustrated on behalf of constituents who live near pot growers and feel “intimidated and scared.” He said he was going to start referring them to his board colleagues so they could see what it was like.

Hey, I’ve got my share of such folks in Cohasset and Forest Ranch, Kirk replied in so many words.

Board Chairman Steve Lambert pointed his finger right back at the board: “If we’d compromised last time, like on the half-acre thing, we’d have an ordinance right now.”

For her part, Kirk had long believed the county ordinance wouldn’t have stood up in court anyway. She said she was willing to work with county staff and interested parties on crafting a new measure.

Hahn said he’d come back in July with a plan for doing just that, and the supervisors happily moved on to a more welcome topic: solid-waste collection.

Robert Speer is editor of the CN&R.