Mendocino County Cannabis Equity Grant Program

Grant Operations Update (04/13/2023)

Local Equity Entrepreneur Program (LEEP)

The Mendocino Cannabis Department is working diligently to get LEEP running in full.  Here are a few updates on what has been taking place behind the scenes.

1. The contract with the Elevate team has ended, as such, we are not able to accept any new applications at this time.


 
2. For those that applied, but had not received their funds prior to this pause, please know that you are not forgotten! Our team currently consists of only one fiscal and two admin to work all things administrative and financial; a fully staffed admin team for this office would typically have 6 to 8 people. We have very recently completed training one admin to handle the processing, and you will start to see movement here, slowly but surely. It should also be noted that the review process has stages that take place outside of our department, and it is possible that there is a hold-up in one of the other departments as well.


 
3. Lastly, those that have received their direct grant funding are still allowed to turn in waivers for fees covered. Due to shorthanded staffing, the waivers are taking longer than normal to process. Please note that every waiver we receive is stamped with the date that it was turned into our department. We have regular communication with all departments related to the waivers, and any assumed fees or interest are typically removed once the back-dated waiver is processed.

Local Jurisdiction Assistance Grant Program (LJAGP)

On March 14th, the board unanimously voted on item (4) (f), directing The Mendocino Department of Cannabis to work with the California Department of Cannabis Control, to identify mechanisms to streamline CEQA reviews and to support the timely compliance of provisional licensees with state law. To resource this effort, the DCC requested that Mendocino County pause the issuance of unspent Local Jurisdiction Grant funds to assess how best to align the use of  these dollars to support CEQA compliance of provisional license holders.  In light of this assessment, Mendocino County will discontinue any disbursement of funds including those towards the grant program until the assessment is complete. Both Departments are committed to work collaboratively and have initiated their assessments efforts.