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Finance and Management Services <br />www.santa-ana.org/finance <br />Item # 26 <br />City of Santa Ana <br />20 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701 <br /> Staff Report <br />July 20, 2021 <br />TOPIC: Ordinance Amending the Cannabis Public Benefit Fund <br />AGENDA TITLE: <br />Consideration of Ordinance Amending the Cannabis Public Benefit Fund Restricted Uses <br />for Additional Youth Services <br />RECOMMENDED ACTION <br />Introduce and conduct first reading of an ordinance amending the Cannabis Public Benefit <br />Fund to provide authority to transfer allocations between youth services and community <br />enforcement activities. <br />DISCUSSION <br />When the City Council adopted an ordinance approving adult cannabis uses in the City <br />and placed a measure on the ballot, asking voters whether to tax the adult cannabis <br />businesses, the City Council asked staff to ensure that the resulting tax revenue would <br />be directed toward providing enhanced youth services and enforcement services. Staff <br />proposed and the City Council adopted Ordinance NS-2959 to set aside cannabis tax <br />revenue for specified services (Exhibit 1). The ordinance created the Cannabis Public <br />Benefit Fund. <br />The existing ordinance provides for the establishment of a Cannabis Public Benefit Fund <br />funded by setting aside two-thirds of Cannabis tax revenue from commercial and retail <br />activities, with one-third for enhanced youth services and one-third for enforcement. <br />Youth services, intended to assist those under 24 years of age, would include, for <br />example, athletic, recreational, health, educational, and human services such as social <br />services or prevention services. Enforcement services would be those services provided <br />by Code Enforcement personnel, the Police Department, and the City Attorney’s office to <br />ensure the proper enforcement of all general code and quality-of-life requirements with <br />an emphasis on enforcing violations of the City’s cannabis regulations, as well as the <br />Finance Department for collection and audit of cannabis tax. The current ordinance <br />provides that any amendment, suspension or elimination of the Cannabis Public Benefit <br />Fund would require the City Council to take the same steps required to access the <br />General Fund Reserve, including making fiscal emergency findings and a two-thirds vote <br />of the entire City Council.