Modesto to talk about marijuana, moving council elections

The City Council will hold a workshop Monday to discuss what types of marijuana businesses to allow in Modesto and moving council elections from odd to even years.

The council will make no formal decisions at the workshop but will give city staff direction. The public can attend and ask questions.

Besides commercial activities, the council will discuss regulations regarding residents growing marijuana for their personal use. Modesto is looking at requiring these grows of as many as six plants to take place indoors.

Staff is recommending the council have regulations in place by January. That’s when the state will start issuing commercial marijuana licenses.

This comes after Modesto voters approved this month letting Modesto impose a tax of as much as 10 percent on marijuana businesses’ gross receipts.

The council also will discuss moving from odd-year to even-year elections to come into compliance with the California Voter Participation Rights Act, which is aimed at increasing voter turnout.

Modesto’s odd-year council elections in recent years have a turnout of about 25 percent, which is less than half of the city voter turnout for even-year statewide elections, according to the city.

Modesto needs to have a plan in place by Jan. 1 when the CVRA takes effect and move to even-year elections by November 2022, according to the city.

The change will require voter approval. The city is considering asking voters to approve a one-time extension of council terms from four to five years or a one-time reduction in council terms from four to three years.

Voters just re-elected council members Bill Zoslocki, Jenny Kenoyer and Tony Madrigal to four year terms.

The workshop starts at 1 p.m. in the basement chambers of Tenth Street Place, 1010 10th St.

This story was originally published November 11, 2017 at 3:59 PM with the headline "Modesto to talk about marijuana, moving council elections."