Boys and Girls Club of Lake Tahoe receives $200,000 from City's cannabis revenue

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - During its Tuesday evening meeting, the South Lake Tahoe City Council voted to give the Boys and Girls Club of Lake Tahoe $200,000 for its building fund. The monies come from the allocation of the available balance in the Cannabis Program fund which at the is time is about $660,000.

The agenda item was for a $100,000 disbursement, but the discussion moved to a higher amount after a community member suggested it since the fund has it available and will only grow in the future.

"I am so incredibly grateful to the City," said a very surprised BGCLT Executive Director Jude Wood of the donations. "It takes us a step further down the road to completing the building. The City has been so supportive of us."

“Utilizing the Community Benefit Fee in this manner is completely appropriate and
I am grateful to see the community coming together to invest in such an important community asset,” said City Manager Joe Irvin.

As conditioned by each development or settlement agreement with local cannabis businesses, they are required to submit to the City on a monthly basis the Community Benefit Fees payment which is six percent of receipts.

All but two approved businesses (Perfect Union and Redefining Organics) are operational and have been submitting their Community Benefit fee to the City monthly.

For fiscal year 2018-19, the City received $239,463, $755,007 for 2019-20, and $541,908 to date for fiscal year 2020-21. Almost $900,000 has gone to the General Fund and salaries with net revenue of $660,475.

Mayor Wallace also acknowledged her appreciation of the Boys and Girls Club and Executive Director, Jude Wood. “We are so blessed to have the Boys and Girls Club and Jude Wood in our community. The Boys and Girls Club kept our community running during a global pandemic as it allowed many parents to go back to work. Some people even in this meeting today can attest to this. My own children, along with many others have attended the Boys and Girls Club and have gone on to do incredible things in our community. I so look forward to seeing what the kids who are there now, and will be the recipients of this amazing building, go on to do in
our community.

City Council will be establishing a policy for distribution of the funds in the future where local schools, governmental agencies, and non-profit organizations for programs or projects designed to mitigate the impact of the cannabis industry in the community can apply through a grant-like program.