Dec 5 Newsletter - BOS meeting Dec 9th
December 5, 2025
December 5, 2025
No discussion, no public comment, before final vote?
The December 9th Agenda for the Board of Supervisors, released on December 1st, caused much consternation. The final Cannabis Update hearing was listed on the “Consent calendar” to be heard at 10 a.m. According to the County website, matters placed on the consent calendar are routine financial and administrative actions and are usually approved with no discussion by a single “yes” or “no” vote. There are 34 consent items on the December 9th agenda and the Cannabis Update is #26 and #27.
Below is copied from the County website:
Consent calendar: These matters include routine financial and administrative actions, they are usually approved by a single majority vote. There will be no discussion on these items prior to voting on the motion unless Board Members or the public request specific items be discussed and/or removed from the Consent Calendar.
Nothing remotely routine in the County's proposal
There is nothing remotely routine about the Cannabis Update and proposed recommendations. We know many individuals and organizations have requested that the Cannabis Update item be removed from the Consent calendar, the public hearing reopened, and discussed by the Board. Unfortunately, as of this writing, no-one from the County has extended the courtesy of answering the question regarding whether these requests will be honored.
We regret this lack of information. Be assured we have and will continue to press for the item to be removed from the Consent calendar. Sadly, what this latest silent treatment confirms is lack of transparency and clarity of this whole process and what seems to be a deliberate effort by Permit Sonoma to provide confusing instructions and information to the public. That attitude by the County now has culminated in a display of utter contempt for the public at the most critical stage of the process. After many years of faithfully submitting suggestions and ideas, the County has responded by placing this crucial, county-altering item on the Consent calendar!
To compound the confusion, Deputy County Counsel Kuteria has given the Supervisors unclear legal instructions regarding communications with the public which they communicated to their staff. As a result, some Board members will refrain from reading any communications from the public during this interim period even though the straw votes they took on October 28th are not final or binding. Supervisors should be reading and considering all relevant information and hearing from their constituents before casting a final vote, otherwise why have two hearings? The votes on December 9th should not simply rubberstamp the straw votes. The constituents need to be heard, and the Supervisors need to re-assess their decisions based upon all relevant and updated information. If the communications simply go into the administrative record, their only function is to provide more cannon fodder for a lawsuit of this problematic proposal and procedure.
Please attend the December 9th Board of Superivsor's hearing and demand your right to be heard