City Council

(4) 24-0892 GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS COMMITTEE REPORT relative to the Social Equity Business, Licensing, and Compliance (BLC) Assistance Program in connection with the Department of Cannabis Regulation's Social Equity Program. Recommendations for Council action, pursuant to Motion (Padilla – Hernandez – Price): 1. INSTRUCT the Department of Cannabis Regulation to report to Council in 30 days on the Social Equity BLC Assistance Program, with said report to focus on its goals, scope of work, program usage and participant results and with said report to include: a. Details on how the Program generates revenue in the short and long term. b. Recommendations for the continued reinstatement, extension, and success of this Program. c. An analysis of Social Equity programming in other cities and their best practices. 2. INSTRUCT the City Administrative Officer (CAO), with the assistance of the Chief Legislative Analyst (CLA), City Attorney, and any other relevant City departments, to report to Council with recommendations to regularize the Social Equity BLC Assistance Program in the annual City Budget, with said report to include: a. Recommendations to establish an annual amount to be allocated to the program. b. Details on the feasibility of creating a new fund based on revenue generated by the City's cannabis tax, and how it could be a funding source for grants to support the BLC Assistance Program, among other supportive programming for cannabis license holders (i.e. tax assistance, compliance assistance, capital, etc.) and residents who have been systems impacted due to marijuana related controlled substance charges (i.e. social services, expungement, etc.). Fiscal Impact Statement: Neither the CAO nor the CLA has completed a financial analysis of this report.