Calaveras Voters May Get Choice Over Cannabis Ban
San Andreas, CA – Yesterday, prior to the end of a specially scheduled board session dealing with budget planning, District 4 Supervisor Dennis Mills voiced up to poll his colleagues as to whether or not they should reconsider bringing a ban measure to the November ballot so that voters could ultimately decide the issue. The poll resulted in a 4-1 decision that will return the item to the agenda for discussion in time so that a ban measure could ostensibly make the ballot.
Recounting the move to Clarke Broadcasting, Mills states, “I asked…whether or not the board would be willing to bring back an agenda item to discuss placing the current ban ordinance on the November ballot for an up or down vote.”
A Way To End The ‘Unrest’
Describing it as a way to put an end to related personal attacks on elected officials and private citizens, Mills continues, “I think there has been enough polarization…unrest over this whole issue. [Some constituents] don’t feel in some cases that the supervisors have represented them properly.”
He adds, “If the voters decide that they after looking at the whole issue…that they want to continue the ban, then it continues. If they would like to see some form of regulation and they reject it, then the new board will have to make that decision as to how to properly meet the requirements and requests of the voters.“
After months of often divisive internal politics and various attempts to bring a ban or a twin set of measures to the ballot that would include a permanent one for regulation, Mills continued to spearhead efforts towards a supervisors’ ban, which passed in a split decision back on Jan. 10. Voting with him was District 1 Supervisor and Board Chair Gary Tofanelli and District 5 Supervisor Clyde Clapp.
Possible ‘Hot Seat’ Relief?
All three face some uncertainty as to whether or not they will keep their board seats. Signatures are now being verified to determine if a recall measure against Mills will make the November ballot. Petitioners aiming to recall Tofanelli still have until June 28 to gather and submit sufficient verifiable signatures. Clapp, who won his seat in a recall effort that he himself led, is currently campaigning to keep that job.
District 3 Supervisor Michael Oliveira, who continues to maintain that the decision should be up to the voters, is in a competitive race this fall against Merita Callaway, who supports regulation and championed a failed citizens’ regulatory measure.
District 2 Supervisor Jack Garamendi, who favors strict regulation and whose district contains the majority of grows registered under the county’s former urgency regulatory ordinance, survived a recent recall effort when petitioners failed to turn in their signatures by the April 19 deadline.
