The Calexico Chronicle
ALEXICO — Months following a report on the city’s cannabis permitting program that declared it a “failure,” a task force led by the Police Department and including various city departments is working to get a handle on the legal pot trade in Calexico.
“The cannabis enforcement task force has begun its work. It is currently conducting comprehensive assessments, inspections and information-gathering efforts to determine business compliance with both local and state regulations,” according to former Interim City Manager and current Police Chief Armando Orozco.
The task force includes representatives from the Calexico Police Department, Fire Department, Community Development, Code Enforcement, Finance and legal counsel, Orozco stated in an email.
“We are also working in collaboration with the state Cannabis Bureau as they are available. Additional departments or agencies may be added as needed to ensure full compliance assessments,” the chief stated.
When former interim City Manager Rick Daniels studied the city’s cannabis program a little over two months ago, he found that numerous cannabis businesses were operating in the city without the proper permits. At the time, he said only two businesses had the two required permits — one from the city and one from the state cannabis bureau.
“This, candidly, has failure written all over it,” Daniels said.
Orozco confirmed in the weeks after Daniels’ report that only two businesses have been confirmed to possess both local and state permits. “Several others have been identified as operating out of compliance and are currently under active review,” he stated.
Legal cannabis was intended to be a boon for the city of Calexico, with 23 businesses permitted starting in 2019. In the second year, the city topped out with $290,000 in earned cannabis tax revenue. After that, Daniels reported, earnings took a steep decline and never recovered, either by businesses closing or businesses failing to report their taxes.
“If you’re going to allow this type of business to exist in the community, you need to have an effective regulatory mechanism that has visitations to each of these places at least once a month, with the ability to do stock checks, to do inventory analysis, to do revenue forecast, to require that there be receipts for everything that’s sold, that there be 360 degree (visibility) inside and outside,” Daniels said.
“It is going to cost the city approximately, at a minimum, about $150,000 a year to put in place that regulatory system,” he added. The implication was that a successful cannabis program would offset that cost.
It’s unclear what the current task force is costing — or what exactly it’s doing — as ongoing efforts are being treated as a law enforcement detail with sensitivity and tact, according to an email from acting Lt. Miguel Carbajal.
“While we remain mindful of operational sensitivities, I appreciate the importance of transparency and public awareness surrounding cannabis enforcement. I’m happy to provide an update where appropriate,” Orozco stated.
Without providing an update, Orozco and Carbajal did delve into the scope of work the task force is undertaking, including conducting onsite inspections of cannabis businesses and reviewing permit compliance at both the local and state levels.
Inspections, Orozco stated, also include evaluation of signage, including any barring on-site consumption; inspection of in-store camera systems; verification that a receipt-printing cash register is in use; review of up-to-date inventory and verification of manifests for all incoming product deliveries; assessment of packaging to ensure all products are sealed, clearly labeled, and certified as tested and free from pesticides and herbicides; compliance with the state’s track and trace system, which follows all cannabis products from cultivation through sale and post-sale use; and verification of licensed security personnel and the use of certified identification verifiers.
