Planning Commission asked to give medical marijuana recommendation to Sups by June 19; Susan Matsen steps down and Supervisor Sundberg to appoint Steve Paine

Susan Matsen, one of the Humboldt Planning Commission members has stepped down. In her place, Supervisor Sundberg plans to appoint Steve Paine. Mr. Paine, lives in Willow Creek, is a long-time business owner, who is retired.

He was a Willow Creek Community Services District member for four years, the general manager for the Willow Creek Community Services District for 7 years and on the Board of Directors for Mad River Hospital.

Text of the letter sent by Board of Supervisors to Planning Commission:

June 17, 2014
Robert Morris, Chair
Humboldt County Planning Commission
3015 H Street
Eureka, California 95501

Dear Chair Morris and Planning Commissioners:

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors received an update today from the Medical Marijuana
Subcommittee, composed of Supervisors Sundberg and Lovelace, regarding the draft medical marijuana
outdoor cultivation ordinance on small parcels that is currently before your Commission. This Board is
dismayed at the lack of progress your Commission has made in moving forward on this draft ordinance.
As a result, the Board has decided to send this letter to remind your Commission what your role is in the
adoption of a County land use ordinance and to clearly set out our expectations regarding the
performance of your Commission.
A planning commission is not the decision-making body for adoption of an ordinance and therefore, the
role of a planning commission in this area is advisory only. Your job is to provide 1) are commendation
that the Board adopt the proposed ordinance; 2) a recommendation that the Board not adopt the
proposed ordinance; or 3) a recommendation that the Board adopt the proposed ordinance with
modifications. Although we understand that your Commission has expressed a desire to re-write the
proposed ordinance, it is not a planning commission's responsibility to write or re-write a proposed
ordinance that is before them. That responsibility is vested in planning staff who are charged, as
professional planners and at the Board's direction, with drafting proposed land use ordinances in
consultation with legal counsel. If a majority of your Commission dislikes a proposed ordinance before
you and believes that theCounty should not adopt it as presented, then the appropriate action for your
Commission to take is to recommend that the Board not adopt the proposed ordinance as written.
The Humboldt County Planning Commission is a part of county government and as such, this Board
expects that the Planning Commission will perform its duties competently, professionally, and in an
efficient manner. This Board is frustrated that rather than discussing the proposed ordinance and
making a recommendation to the Board the past several times it has been on your agenda, your
Commission instead chose to spend its time discussing the public process involved in developing the
proposed ordinance. For example, at your June 5,h meeting, you discussed whether sufficient public
comment had been received during the development of the draft ordinance, how town hall meetings
held by members of the Board on this subject had been noticed, and whether additional meetings in
other locations should be held. These matters are outside the purview of your Commission. The Board
is satisfied that the public process leading up to the development of the draft ordinance before you was
sufficient.
Therefore, the Board of Supervisors respectfully requests that the Planning Commission complete its
review of the proposed medical marijuana ordinance currently before it and make a recommendation to
the Board bv the end of its meeting on June 19 . 2014.


Sincerely,
Rex Bohn, Chair
Humboldt County Board of Supervisors