The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors this week approved a plan for applying $4.5 million in Prop. 64 Public Health and Safety Grant Program funds toward addressing illicit cannabis grows in Mendocino County.

Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall told the Board of Supervisors at its Sept. 1 meeting that the grant funds would be used to “address public safety impacts from illicit commercial cannabis activity, and we’ve asked for the funding for personnel … and for some sort of citation system so that we can exact some fines and fees on some folks who were coloring outside of the lines.”

Because his office did not currently have the capacity to properly address them, Kendall said “we’ve seen illicit sites constantly used over and over and over again. We get a lot of calls that say, ‘you guys hit this site last week and it’s already being re-planted,’ so we need to stop that continuous cycle.”

Kendall described the illicit cannabis sites as “largely controlled by transnational drug trafficking organizations, we know that for a fact. And some of these sites have just blown up in size — while 10 to 20 years ago, we would hit sites that had somewhere between 500 and 1,00 plants, now we’re hitting sites and taking 10,000 plants a day. Just in the month of July,  we’ve taken over 170,000 plants.

“This is a marked increase over years past, and the evidence of the growth in this illegal market is being seen all over Mendocino County,” Kendall continued, explaining that the larger yields are a result of growers trying to extract the same amount of profits from a crop that has significantly dropped in value.

“One of the things that is going on is that with the reduction in value of marijuana, we’re seeing illegal cultivators … building much larger sites (and using farming methods that harm the environment such as) illegal pesticides, illegal grading and a lot of water diversions,” Kendall said. “And of course the big concern is the violence that we’ve had at some of the grow sites, because they’ve kind of gone a little bit untouched.”

When Board Chairman and Fourth District Supervisor Bernie Norvell asked for more details about the utilization of code enforcement and how the Kendall planned to keep cleared grow sites from being used again, MCSO Lt. Aaron Clark said that “what we were looking for with the grant is code enforcement’s ability to focus on illicit grows, and not just the cannabis itself, but the things that come along with it, such as the trash and waste that gets left behind, and the un-permitted dwellings. And since code enforcement is inundated with other things as well, the grant will fund an assigned position to work along with us when we come to these sites.”

Third District Supervisor John Haschak then asked Kendall about the $150,000 of the grant funds allocated for software, and if his “feeling is that the existing structure we have in code enforcement can’t address what is going on?”

In response, Kendall said the allocation was ultimately “completely up to the board,” but that his view is that “code enforcement is often sent out with a five-gallon bucket and has to put 10 gallons of work into it — everybody in the county is strapped, we have more work than we have personnel to deal with it, so they are constantly triaging. So if we don’t support them in being able to bring on some personnel and bring on some improved means of getting the work done, then they are going to continue triaging and some things are going to fall through the cracks, because there’s not enough (personnel).”

When Fifth District Supervisor Ted Williams asked what sort of success had been realized in extracting fines from cartels, Sheriff Kendall said, “it depends on how far down the ladder you ‘re going to be satisfied. Sometimes the land owner absolutely knows what’s going on and (code enforcement) has levied fines and fees, and they’ve taken lands, and that is successful.”

First District Supervisor Madeline Cline said that in July she attended a session with the state’s Department of Cannabis Control in which they reported that “60-percent of cannabis consumed in California is from the illicit market, so I appreciate that the focus is on that, (because) this kind of work is needed not only for our public safety broadly, but also to help the legal cannabis operators, who are doing their best to follow the rules, pay their taxes and be good contributors to society.”

Steve Amato, president of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, addressed the board to thank county staff for pursing the grant and “for really targeting something and seeing a big need for our industry and our community at-large. We’re tired of hearing about the black eye that Mendocino County has with all the illicit activities going on, and that’s just so overwhelming, like it’s a game of whack-a-mole, (but) it sounds like you’re really making a concentrated effort toward addressing it the best you can.”

In response to a citizen expressing concern that the funds be used for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities, Sheriff Kendall said that he was a “state peace officer, and only a federal agent can enforce federal law. Also, I cannot be compelled to enforce federal law as a state peace officer.”

As for providing status reports on the progress of the systems the grant funds would help implement, Sheriff Kendall said he was “absolutely certain that we will hear back from the community, which is probably our best barometer on this, about whether or not they are seeing improvements. And if the software and third party isn’t working, we need to have a reverse gear to say, ‘If it’s not working, we don’t continue down this road (and) we find something that does work.’”

Supervisor Haschak made a motion to support approving the grant funding and Second District Supervisor Mulheren seconded it, but added like she would like to see information generated that addressed people’s concerns and questions about exactly what law enforcement activities the money would be financing.

Supervisor Williams agreed, noting that “before this meeting is over, there will be ‘fake news’ out about what this board did. So if we can explain what this is about, how it is about going after illegal pesticides and tens of thousands of plants and cartel activity, I think the public will support it.”

The board then voted unanimously to accept the grant funding, and additionally to “direct the sheriff to come back quarterly with reports, and draft a (Frequently Asked Questions) list for the reasons for the grant.”