NEVADA CITY, Calif. March 2, 2016 – The upcoming Nevada County Board of Supervisors meeting on March 8 will be a morning-only session with public comment scheduled at 11:45 am. As of now, no agenda item regarding Measure W is scheduled to be discussed. For Measure W, a previously decided item, to be reconsidered, consent by a Board member who voted in the majority at a prior meeting is needed. Despite pleas from community members to carve out an exception for sick children or to pull the measure from the ballot and rework the current ordinance, the majority of the BOS appears unmoved.
Meanwhile, the writ against Measure W is winding its way through the court system. A hearing is scheduled for the end of this week, according to attorney Heather Burke. Due to the seriousness of this issue for the Hurd family, Burke asks that only other families with children suffering from intractable epilepsy attend the hearing. “We are thankful for the groundswell of community support,” says Forrest Hurd, “but we ask our supporters to allow us to deal with this personal issue with the families of those children whose lives depend on the outcome of this decision.”
Measure W seeks voter approval of an update to the county’s urgency ordinance on marijuana cultivation. At the January 12 BOS meeting, supervisors voted 4-1 to ban all outdoor cultivation on all parcels in the unincorporated areas of Nevada County. The blanket prohibition went into effect immediately. The ballot measure, asking voters to approve minor changes to the revised ordinance but not a Yea or Nay vote on the actual ban, was approved that same day.
On February 9th, a resolution clarifying the intent of the BOS was passed. It reads, in part: If the Ballot Measure is not approved by a majority of the registered voters voting on the measure, it is the intent of the Board of Supervisors to reject the Ballot Measure, to repeal the ban on outdoor cultivation of marijuana and to consider and adopt other outdoor regulations at the next available meeting after the results of the election have been certified by the County Elections Official.”
At the same meeting, the BOS adopted their new “Vision, Mission and Value Statements.” The first Value Statement reads: Customer Satisfaction -We tailor our products to meet the unique needs of our customers, not presuming that “one size fits all.” To do so, we make every effort to understand what customers need and value.