{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"KZYX News","title":"Referendum effort succeeds","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":389,"description":"September 15, 2021 — The People’s Referendum to repeal the new cannabis ordinance, Chapter 22.18, has been victorious.The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously yesterday to repeal the ordinance, rather than place the decision on the ballot for a special election, which was the other option. Supervisor Mo Mulheren spoke up first during a straw poll before the vote.\r\n“I was an active community member during Measure A,” she recalled of her time as a Ukiah City Council member in 2016 when Measure AF, the Mendocino Heritage Act, a fiercely fought citizens initiative that was widely opposed due to perceptions that it would allow for increased cultivation. “Watching this cannabis referendum on both sides behave in a way that’s detrimental to our community, I have no desire to place this item on the ballot,” she told her colleagues.\r\nRon Edwards is a local nursery owner who has been involved in the ordinance process since the beginning. He stopped just short of saying I told you so. “I and other members of the community have pleaded with you, have brought you information, time and time again, around cannabis, and it seemed to just be rejected...I don’t know how to participate better. I don’t know how you were thinking. I don’t think the citizens know your train of thought...it was quite clear where the public was going with this referendum vote. Yet you steadily went forward with where you wanted to go. And I am just confused.”\r\nCounty Counsel Christian Curtis reported that case law is scarce and ambiguous, but the board is prohibited from crafting another ordinance that has the same essential feature as the one that’s now off the table. Kate Marienchild, who spearheaded the successful referendum effort along with Ellen Drell, said her legal counsel advised her that the board can bring back any item that was in 22.18 that was not specifically a target of the referendum. Proponents supported several environmentally conscious elements of the new ordinance. Marienchild...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/xZpAumwbhFUpJUYcwaQ1-q6snzOyqAm13l7cW6AWPCM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mMzkz/NjAwNjc2OWMyZmFk/YWY2YTdmYjI5M2Mz/YWMxNy5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}