The city will enter into an agreement with the state Department of Justice for aid in fighting illegal cannabis operations found in the city.
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Justice’s Cannabis Control Section, making it only the second city in the state to join the new program.
The Cannabis Administrative Prosecutor Program, or CAPP, is a program within the state Attorney General’s office that seeks to leverage the skills and resources of the Cannabis Control Section to work with local jurisdictions to administratively prosecute violation of cannabis regulations.
“The goal of the program is to increase levels of enforcement against illegal cannabis businesses and shift the cost of that enforcement back onto the owners and operators of illegal cannabis activities,” Ephraim Margolin, of the city attorney’s firm, said.
By working with local code enforcement and treating the issue as any other land use problem, enforcement actions can be faster and more efficient, Deputy Attorney General Justin Buller said in a presentation to the council in December.
California City has struggled to keep up with enforcement activities for its sprawling cannabis industry, with the bulk of the duties falling upon code enforcement. Partnering with the state will provide additional resources, as well as the means to streamline the process.
The focus of enforcement under CAPP is civil prosecution, not criminal cases. State resources can be used to identify those sites best suited for the CAPP program.
The program also creates the permanent infrastructure for combatting illegal cannabis activity.
Under the MOU, the city and state agency will work together in a seven-step process to first investigate the properties suspected of illegal activity, serve notice of violations and work with the property owner on voluntary abatement of the illegal activity. Then, if that fails, they would hold a due process hearing, issue a warrant to abate the property and seize any property from the site.
At the end of this process, the enforcement costs will be tallied and recorded as a property tax lien.
Cost recovery of the program is through tax liens on properties and voluntary settlements.
With Tuesday’s approval of the MOU, the program can go into effect as early as this week, Margolin said.
The city can back out of the program at any time, “but we’re hoping this will be the start of a long, fruitful partnership with the Attorney General’s Office,” he said.
Mayor Pro Tem Ron Smith cited three abandoned cannabis operations needing cleaning up that he would like to see addressed through the program.
“We could certainly use the attorney general’s help,” he said.
