Press release from the county:

Photo illustration by Christian Testanier. (No, she didn’t actually wear this hat.)

The California Cannabis Authority (CCA) Board has elected Humboldt County Supervisor Estelle Fennell as its first president to lead the organization. The newly established county Joint Powers Authority met for the first time last month in Monterey County. The CCA was established by the CSAC [California State Association of Counties] Finance Corporation to help counties and other local governments better manage their cannabis regulatory and taxing information to help ensure compliance at the local level. The CCA is currently comprised of San Luis Obispo, Monterey, and Humboldt counties, with more on the way.

CCA will develop and manage a statewide data platform that will gather, collect, and analyze information from a myriad of data sources into one resource. The data will help local governments ensure cannabis regulatory compliance and also provide necessary information to financial institutions that wish to work with the cannabis industry.

The idea for CCA was borne out of CSAC’s work on the Treasurer’s Cannabis Banking Working Group, and our policy work on cannabis regulations. It became clear that there was a need for enhanced data for both regulatory and tax compliance, and detailed and real-time information for financial institutions that might be interested in working with cannabis clients.

Local governments can use the data platform to enhance their local cannabis programs to ensure that adequate tax payments are being made; assist local law enforcement and code enforcement officers with accurate and defensible information for speed of compliance; provide public health officials with product information and flow, and inform community planning efforts by understanding locations, concentrations and potential past or future land use patterns. In addition, the data platform can provide necessary information to financial institutions that wish work with the industry.

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in March. agreeing to join the JPA and appointing Supervisor Fennell to serve as Humboldt County’s representative, and Treasurer-Tax Collector John Bartholomew to serve as an alternate.

CSAC is currently working with a number of interested counties and would encourage any counties that are regulating and/or taxing cannabis to contact us. To learn more about the CCA, please contact Cara Martinson, CSAC Senior Legislative Representative & Federal Affairs Manager at (916) 650-8113, or cmartinson@counties.org, or Alan Fernandes, CSAC Finance Corporation Executive Vice President at alan@csacfc.org, or (916) 650-8120.