The Ballotpedia overview of Proposition 64 reflected the conventional wisdom at the time it passed: “Local governments were also allowed to completely ban the sale of marijuana from their jurisdictions.” The text of the ballot measure stated: “Allows local regulation and taxation of marijuana.”

And as CalWatchdog has reported, 80 percent of local governments have declined to authorize the opening of local pot stores.

But last week, the state Office of Administrative Law approved rules crafted by the state Bureau of Cannabis Control that say marijuana sales by delivery services can operate in any community – even if local governments object.

This led to an immediate backlash – and strong hints that the rules will lead to a court fight.

“This decision puts the public safety needs of communities across the state at risk,” Carolyn Coleman, executive director of the League of California Cities, said in a statement.

“We are deeply concerned with the adoption of the new cannabis regulations, which allow for the delivery of cannabis anywhere in the state. We are already having trouble enforcing a new and complex industry, and this allowance will only make enforcement even more difficult,” California Police Chiefs Association President David Swing told the Sacramento Bee.

Marijuana industry officials disputed the idea that the deliver-anywhere ruling went against the spirit of Proposition 64 or its language. They said the ruling reflected the will of Californians, who approved the measure 57 percent to 43 percent – a 2 million vote cushion.

But even some supporters of Proposition 64 appeared unsure if the cannabis bureau’s ruling squared with what the ballot measure said. Assemblyman Ron Bonta, D-Oakland, told the Associated Press that he thought only medicinal marijuana deliveries should be allowed. Bonta thinks clarifying new legislation may be in order.

Even with such legislation, lawsuits over the state regulations appear inevitable. California has decades of history of courts being asked to interpret poorly or vaguely written ballot measures approved by voters.

City attorney says Sonoma should defy state

The city of Sonoma could also be a flash point for local defiance of the state. After the cannabis bureau concluded that there should be no limits on recreational marijuana deliveries, the Sonoma Index-Tribune reported last month that Sonoma City Attorney Jeff Walter recommended to City Council members that they maintain their ban on recreational pot deliveries.

Walter criticized the rules as being “very vague” and said he did not consider them a legally binding “statute.”

“I think we should stay that course [of banning recreational deliveries] pending outcome of that regulation and the challenges that are likely to be against it,” he said.

Questions about the legality of marijuana deliveries are also coming from other quarters. On Monday, the Sacramento Bee reported that California Highway Patrol officers continue to arrest drivers and seize cannabis that they find during traffic stops of vehicles used for deliveries.

A CHP spokesperson told the Bee that “in order to legally transport cannabis in California for commercial purposes, a person must possess the appropriate [state] license and comply with [cannabis bureau] administrative regulations.”

Two licensed marijuana distributors who had $257,000 seized from them by the CHP have filed a lawsuit to try to get the money back. They insist that they had the proper credentials when the money was taken.

Supermajority eludes Democrats

Good morning. As you know, Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States in what felt like another mini Republican wave election.

In fact, Republicans seemed to have fought off a Democratic supermajority in the state Legislature Tuesday night, according to early returns.

With a supermajority, Democrats would be able to increase taxes, override gubernatorial vetoes and send measures to the ballot without Republican support. Democrats need two seats in the Assembly and one in the Senate in order to hold a supermajority — both chambers are a must.

But as of just before 2 a.m., Republicans looked like they would hold their seats in the Senate.

CalWatchdog has more.

In other news, here’s how the ballot measures did, according to the Los Angeles Times:

• The $9 billion in school bonds passed.
• Medi-Cal funding measure passed.
• Statewide vote on bonds of $2 billion or more was too close to call.
• Legislative transparency measure passed.
• Extension of Prop. 30 passed.
• Tobacco tax passed.
• Parole measure passed.
• Repeal of ban on bilingual education passed.
• The Citizens United advisory measure was too close to call.
• Condoms in porn was too close to call.
• The pharmaceutical pricing measure was too close to call.
• Death Penalty repeal was too close to call.
• Ammo regulation passed.
• Recreational pot was legalized.
• The measure redirecting the plastic bag fee did not pass.
• The measure to speed up Death Penalty appeals was too close to call.
• The plastic bag referendum was too close to call.

And in Congress:

• Attorney General Kamala Harris was elected to U.S. Senate.
• Democrat Ro Khanna knocked off Rep. Mike Honda, a fellow Dem. This was the only California Congressional incumbent to have been declared defeated last night.

Scheduling in Legislature:

• Gone till December.

Gov. Brown:

• No public events announced.

Tips: matt@calwatchdog.com

Follow us: @calwatchdog @mfleming

New follower: @DonZoltan

Prop. 66 caps death penalty appeals at five years. What happens then?

Good morning. Happy Election Day Eve. Hope you had a great weekend. Your Morning Read author had his first persimmon this weekend — yet another reason to like California. 

The election is tomorrow, and one of the closest choices voters will have to make is what to do about the death penalty. There are two competing measures: one speeds up the process while the other would stop it entirely. 

If approved, Prop. 62 would repeal the death penalty and commute the condemned sentences to life without parole. And slightly further down the ballot, Prop. 66 would speed up the process by expanding the number of courts and attorneys able to hear and try death penalty appeals to meet a five-year cap on the appeals process that currently takes decades. (If both measures pass, the highest vote-getter would become law.)

But failure to meet the five-year time frame would not commute the sentence or throw out the appeal, according to the proposed language. So what happens at the five-year mark?

CalWatchdog answers that question. 

In other news:

• The Los Angeles Times points out 10 things voters need to know about Prop. 64, which would legalize recreational pot.

• More bad news for Republicans: “What once was one of the few key minority groups the California GOP could bank on at the polls increasingly trending Democrat and independent. Today young Vietnamese voters are now more likely to register Democrat than your average young Californian.” The Los Angeles Daily News/Calmatters has more. 

• Gov. Jerry Brown is doing his best to down Prop. 53, as one of the measure’s biggest benefactors cries foul, reports Politico. 

• “For Californians who have had enough political intrigue this year, there might not be much of a respite even after Nov. 8 if Kamala Harris wins the race for the U.S. Senate, as most polling suggests. Harris’ current post as California attorney general would become vacant, leaving open one of the state’s most powerful and influential positions for Gov. Jerry Brown to fill through the end of her term in 2018.” The Los Angeles Times has more. 

Legislature:

• Gone till December. 

Gov. Brown: 

• No public events announced. 

Tips: matt@calwatchdog.com

Follow us: @calwatchdog @mflemingterp

New follower: @martinsmallbook

Rules on driverless cars tick off industry

Good morning and Happy Halloween. Today’s newsletter is totally free of news about Hillary Clinton’s emails. Instead, we begin with innovation and regulation — nothing more California than that. 

Hopes that California would emerge as the global center for what eventually could be a multitrillion-dollar industry — self-driving vehicles — have taken a step back.

New proposed rules unveiled this month by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles drew sharp complaints from the leading companies in the field — Google, General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen and Honda — as being far too onerous and certain to slow innovation. They are among 18 firms with licenses to test autonomous vehicles in California.

A nascent industry group — The Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, whose members include Lyft, Uber Technologies and Volvo — released a statement that the rules “could greatly delay the benefits that self-driving vehicles can bring to safety and mobility for individuals.”

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• Bad news for Republicans: “More than 2.5 million Californians already have voted by mail, and Republican returns statewide are down about 1.4 percent from 2012, according to Political Data Inc., the voter data firm used by both Republicans and Democrats in California. Democrats, meanwhile, were exceeding their 2012 turnout at this point by two-tenths of a percent,” reports Politico.

• More bad news for Republicans: “Perhaps the starkest view of the party’s problems comes from a poll last week by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. In short, the Republican brand has become radioactive. Of the state’s likely voters, 72 percent have an unfavorable opinion of the GOP. That’s eight points higher than two years ago, 14 points worse than four years ago and a massive 21 points above the party’s unfavorable rating six years ago. And then there’s this: 50 percent of registered Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of their party.” The Los Angeles Times has more.

• Non-Republican news: “Businesses in California were given state tax breaks worth about $2.67 billion over the past two decades, with more than half the money going to two sectors of the economy – those trading in war and circus.” The Orange County Register has more. 

• If voters legalize recreational pot, how will that work with federal laws? The Los Angeles Times answers that question. 

Legislature:

• Gone till December. 

Gov. Brown:

• In San Francisco at a breakfast benefit of the Willie L. Brown, Jr. Institute on Politics and Public Service.

Tips: matt@calwatchdog.com

Follow us: @calwatchdog @mflemingterp

New follower: @barbsolish

UC’s Napolitano fights for free speech on campuses

Good morning! No doubt we’re all just killing time until the vice presidential debate tonight, so we’ll do our part, starting with a story about the First Amendment. 

With a single op-ed, UC chief Janet Napolitano has become an unlikely ally of conservative and traditionalist critics of the speech-policing movement among campus crusaders nationwide. 

In a Boston Globe op-ed entitled “It’s time to free speech on campus again,” Napolitano unburdened herself of judgments she appeared to have been forming over the past several years in the hot seat of one of the country’s most progressive university systems.

“As president of the University of California system, I write to show how far we have moved from freedom of speech on campuses to freedom from speech,” she wrote. “If it hurts, if it’s controversial, if it articulates an extreme point of view, then speech has become the new bête noire of the academy. Speakers are disinvited, faculty are vilified, and administrators like me are constantly asked to intervene.”

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• “While some legislators may find humor in (passing resolutions), taxpayer groups and other critics say they are no laughing matter. They argue that they have become excessive and costly, and that there is little public benefit from them,” writes the San Francisco Chronicle.

• “The push to legalize pot for all has deeply divided the medical marijuana community,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

• “Blocked by lawmakers at the 11^th hour and facing a fiscal emergency, the State Bar of California has gone directly to the state Supreme Court seeking authority to levy dues on thousands of attorneys. The Bar, which filed the request Friday, said it would go out of business early next year without the money generated by the dues. The Bar has about 500 employees and an annual budget of $146 million.” Capitol Weekly has the story.

• ICYMI: CalWatchdog highlights some of the most significant legislation from the most-recent legislative session. 

Legislature:

• Gone ’til December. Although the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture will meet today in Bodega Bay to talk crabs.

Gov. Brown: 

• No public events announced.

Tips: matt@calwatchdog.com

Follow us: @calwatchdog @mflemingterp

New followers: @change4solar

With legal recreational marijuana potentially around the corner in November, California’s public and private sector has scrambled to keep up. In both cases, observers have suggested, the likely result will be increased centralization of what was once a scattered, underground industry.

Although the legislature in Sacramento has labored to stay on top of California’s shifting cultural and legal sands when it comes to marijuana, even at the highest levels, growing pains have been apparent.

Lori Ajax, chief of the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation, “has two years to set up California’s first system to license, regulate and tax medical marijuana,” as the Los Angeles Times observed; but she has already had to prepare for adopting a much broader role if state voters approve a ballot initiative that would legalize the recreational use of the drug as well.

Broad new powers

In February, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Ajax, a Republican and the first person to hold the position — a job paying $150,636 a year and requiring state Senate approval, the Associated Press noted.

“Some of the key features of the medical marijuana framework the Legislature approved — such as limiting how many licenses an individual person or business can hold — were modeled after California’s alcohol license laws,” the AP added. “Ajax was chief deputy director of the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, where she has worked as an investigator and administrator since 1995.”

But if voters do approve legalized pot, they will have handed Ajax increased powers. “The measure,” reported the Times, “includes a provision that would transform Ajax’s office into a Bureau of Marijuana Control that would also be responsible for regulating non-medical cannabis, significantly expanding Ajax’s responsibilities. Ajax’s office has been loaned $10 million by the state to set up a 25-person bureau that can begin issuing licenses on Jan. 1, 2018.”

Remaking an economy

A yes vote had analysts braced for changes that would reverberate throughout the California economy, far beyond the direct market for marijuana, accessories, and snack foods. For years, regulators and officials have already witnessed turf wars between conservationists and growers, whose crop demands substantial amounts of water.

If pot goes legal, indoor growing will be poised for a tremendous expansion. “Warehouses for cultivation are expected to be in high demand,” the LA Weekly noted. Jason Thomas, CEO of a Colorado firm that provides pot-related commercial real estate services, told the Weekly that the rate for warehouse space in Denver nearly doubled since 2013.

“Three years ago, just as Colorado was implementing adult use, warehouse vacancy rates sat at 6 percent and rent was $5 a square foot. Many warehouses were underutilized and set to be replaced with condos. That is, until Colorado’s pot boom. Now the vacancy rate is 3 percent, and warehouse rent is $13 to $18 a square foot — if you can even find a place zoned for pot cultivation.”

A cultural crossroads

In California, the Weekly added, cities authorizing marijuana cultivation have seen a run on applications and parcels of land. Desert cities like Adelanto and Desert Hot Springs, the New York Times reported, “have raced to be first to permit commercial marijuana cultivation,” with some long-time industry figures worrying “corporate money will squeeze out not only the small-time growers, but also the hippie values that have been an essential part of marijuana’s place in California culture.”

Not all of the state’s old heads have sounded the alarm, however. Tommy Chong, who has “long been synonymous with California’s outlaw stoner culture,” has begun negotiating through representatives with an Adelanto company that would crank out his “Chong’s Choice” brand of weed for the mass market, according to the Times. “If conglomerates come in, my answer is: God bless ’em — it saves me the hassle,” he told the paper.