City Council - Regular Meeting

Just in support of the extended moratorium, obviously, you know, we've come up with some good criteria, you know, increasing security, increasing buffer zones so that if these facilities are allowed into our community, we're able to, you know, isolate them and restrict them into places that aren't gonna be so close to children and other people. We just need more time for our lawyers to approve the measures that we've asked them to take.

Lots of good testimony tonight. Thank you for everybody that came out and wants to contribute to, you know, a voice of the public in Pascoe. I think at the heart of this, and I took notes on every speaker that came up and just a lot of good insight, but I think to sum this up, what's really bringing all of us here is, at least the ones that are against the expansion of the cannabis dispensaries, is that they're selling something addictive that's causing mental illness. And the more of that that we have, the bigger the problem we're going to create. And so that's why I'm voting against this. Ar

Yeah, just one more thing, especially on behalf of the people here that came expressing concern for the youth. I mean, naturally, we understand that the youth are not allowed to have this product. That's against the law. The issue is they're getting it anyway, and they're getting it when the dispensary is close to them. That's the issue. The number of people, I spoke about this last time, from 12 to 20 years old, experiencing cannabis use disorder when there's a dispenser within 10 miles of their home, it's going up 7%. And so they're getting it, they're getting more cannabis use disorder when

whether we want to provide as a city an affirmative consent. And the two questions in front of us are, do we approve of the applicant, which is Compass LLC, and do we approve of the location? It's a yes or no, the checkbox. So what arguments do we have to not approve of the applicant, if you can share those, outside of the sector of business that they're doing? Then we heard some of these things here, Like they're setting the standard of what a business should be overall. I wasn't here in 2023 and four of us weren't here in 2023 when you all took the decision to open it up to begin with. And I

Mr. Hernandez. I'm in agreement with... Councilman Figueroa, Councilman Campos, and Councilman Perales. They did the work. It is, like Councilman Figueroa said, strictly two questions. One has been answered. The other one is, are we going to punish them after they've done all the work just because it is cannabis? I don't think that would be fair, so I'm in favor of this.

Yeah. Please, by all means. Yes, thank you, sir. I mean, I stand where I'm firm on the five and cabinet. I mean, I know you say it's wishful thinking, but that's why we codify it in the PMC. And like I said, some of us have three more years. And as long as I'm here, I will be adamant about that. And you can check me on that. You can come back. Some of us aren't seeking re-election. Some of us are in the next year, right? So I think that if we put it in the PMC and we address our heart of this is where we're at. But it goes back to It's a risk, that's a risk that they're choosing to make, right

Yeah, just to answer Councilman Figueroa's question. I think we had a couple people come here tonight and say that the process is out of order. We have somebody doing all the hard work like he talked about, getting their ducks in a row, but there was never a fifth spot open for them to be eligible to work into. And so if you lift the cap first and say you're going to allow one more store, and then everybody gets to apply for it, then it's like fair for everybody. But now we're bringing it to the point where we're just, well, do we approve of campus or no? Because they did all this work, but th

So I would like to move to authorize the city manager to execute and submit the Washington State Laker and Cannabis Board local authority notice indicating that the city's affirmative consent for COMPAS LLC WSLCB application number 445257.

Yeah, first and foremost, go Cougs. And don't worry, on our end, it was crimson and gray, your slides. So I appreciate that even more. But this is a great resource. As you talked about a lot of the stuff, it just takes me back to My childhood, I mean, being the first in my family, having English as my second language, being that civilian, translating at times for traffic stops, and a seven-year-old kid, like some of these terms you have no idea how to translate them into. But I think it's important, and I appreciate the research that our Pasco PD can take, and I see a lot of the great work, yo

Thank you for the presentation. Have you thought about using AI for interpreting at all?

I used to work at the courthouse, and they were working on a program to actually use AI instead of interpreters, because interpreters are very expensive, especially in a courtroom. So is there a plan for that at all?

Thank you, Mr. Cotton. Thank you. You answered my question with Cal's question. So thank you, and thank you. Good job on the presentation.