SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The South Lake Tahoe City Council meets Tuesday night and will start off their meeting with a special closed session about the open city manager position. During the regular meeting, which starts at 5:30 p.m., they will present two “Keys to the City,” one to Lake Tahoe Community College President Jeff DeFranco, who is leaving his position, and the other to Roberta Mason, a decades-long college board member and one who spearheaded bringing the college to the community.
The cannabis ordinance’s community benefit grant has long supported those in the community who mitigate the effects of having legal adult-use cannabis in South Lake Tahoe, and the Council will be considering major changes to the grant program.
When the first cannabis ordinance was passed in 2018, the Council and partners worked through months of meetings and versions of the ordinance to create one that worked for all sides. Part of that result was ensuring half of the City’s receipts went to support those mitigating the results of having adult-use cannabis sales, mainly those working with children.
This was part of Measure G, which was voted on overwhelmingly by voters in 2022, and supported the City in enacting a gross receipts tax of up to 6 percent on retail, distribution, and manufacturing, and $20/square foot of canopy for marijuana businesses, replacing the previous community benefit fee. Owners of cannabis businesses successfully lobbied the City Council recently to cut that tax in half, reducing the amount available to community non-profits such as Tahoe Alliance for Safe Kids, the Boys and Girls Club, and Vista Rise, among others.
Also on the agenda: Electric Utility Ad hoc Committee, process of hiring the next city attorney, and dissolving the South Tahoe Joint Powers Parking Financing Authority.
For the full agenda and instructions on participation, visit https://cityofslt.gov/84/Watch-City-CouncilCommission-Meetings.