FBI denies portion of El Dorado County's commercial cannabis ordinance, DOJ asks for revision

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - It has been almost 18 months since the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors approved its cannabis ordinance, one that allowed not only cultivation operations but also retail sales by approved businesses.

As of today there are no retail cannabis businesses under this ordinance in the unincorporated areas of the county.

When South Tahoe Now first asked Sheriff D'Agostini and the County about the lack of approved cannabis retail businesses we were told it was due to fingerprint and background checks, and getting approval from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to conduct the checks. A series of calls and emails with the FBI office in Sacramento over a few weeks in December ended up with their asking us to contact the California Department of Justice (Cal DOJ) for the answer as to why El Dorado County is not being approved for these fingerprint checks. The background checks are required in the ordinance before a retail permit is approved. DOJ referred us to the County in January.

On Friday, February 19, the Cal DOJ informed the County that the FBI has now denied the County's request for the necessary approvals to perform background checks for commercial cannabis permits.

The resolution requesting the approvals on the ordinance relied on one of Cal DOJ’s template resolutions, but the FBI has been exercising more scrutiny, said El Dorado Deputy County Counsel Breann Moebius.

What portion of the template in question has not been disclosed.

The City of South Lake Tahoe has been able to conduct fingerprint and background checks on its cannabis businesses without issue or delay. Three new retail businesses are now open in the city limits. The west slope portion of the county had previous medical cannabis businesses and they have been able to move to adult-use sales due to state regulations, also the case in South Lake Tahoe.

During that Friday meeting, Cal DOJ re-affirmed the denial is not because the request is for commercial cannabis permits and they anticipate approval will be granted with a revised resolution.

Three perspective cannabis retail business owners have been waiting for months to see which one of them will be approved for the single permit available in Meyers. Real estate transactions have been tied up waiting on a process that was supposed to be concluded by October.

"This is obviously very frustrating for the permittees as well as us in the County that believe we need to get these permits moving forward," said Supervisor Sue Novasel.

Cal DOJ is working with the County to seek preliminary review from the FBI of a new resolution before it is formally adopted by the Board of Supervisors and submitted to the FBI, said Moebius. They received a draft of a new resolution from Cal DOJ that has been reviewed by the County Counsel office and the Sheriff's office. That new resolution was submitted to the Cal DOJ on Tuesday, February 23.

Moebius told South Tahoe Now Cal DOJ considers the County's request a top priority and will work with them to expedite the process.

There is no timeline for the County receiving the review of the suggested resolution. Once received it will go to the Board of Supervisors so they can vote on a revised cannabis ordinance.

.