A question regarding the licensed sale of cannabis in Fullerton drew disagreement among the five candidates for city council who answered questions at the Collaborative meeting on September 9: “If elected, would you vote to bring cannabis business to Fullerton?”
Incumbent Fred Jung, Council District 1, said, “This is the education community. I will not advocate for cannabis.”
His opponent, Matthew Truxaw, said it is a waste of money to not license and regulate sales of cannabis. “Santa Ana, in the first 4 years, got $50 million in tax revenue from cannabis,” he said, referring to city taxes. Also, he added, in this educational city, “we have liquor stores all over. We have bars all over. Cannabis to me is less problematic… I would support it in a controlled way.”
Mayor Nick Dunlap, Council District 2, said, “I do not believe allowing retail dispensaries in our city is the best thing for our community – today or tomorrow. I do not support cannabis sales in our city. Period.”
Other candidates present were challengers for District 2 Jan M. Flory and Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo, whose opponents for the vacant Council District 4 seat did not attend the meeting.* Each stated their long connections with Fullerton in their introductory statements and reasons for running for a council seat.
Candidate Flory said she supports regulating such a business as cannabis. Jaramillo said what parents should fear is the illegal shop. “My goal is to go after the illegal shops. There are 13 illegal cannabis shops in Fullerton now,” that licensing would help the city financially.
Representatives of the four subcommittees of the organization, Next Gen Youth Empowerment, Early Childhood, Homelessness, and Health and Wellness, asked two questions relating to their areas of interest. The question regarding cannabis was from the audience. Answers from the candidates were not sharply different for the most part.
Mr. Dunlap said the council made great progress in the last four years and brought back programs that previous councils had discontinued, such as First Night. Opponent Flory said she is running because of the discordance she had observed among present council members, citing the disregard of the mayoral rotation policy and disrespect and dismissiveness of the public. Jaramillo agreed that it was “ugly, the attitude of the council to the public…change is needed up there.”
Answers were unanimous to the Next Gen question, “What direction would you provide city staff in providing services for youth and the newly formed Youth Advisory Committee?” Truxaw said:
“The city should not be providing direction; we should learn from them.” Jung said: “I have a hands-off view; I’d like to see the community bring suggestions to the council.” Jaramillo said: “The purpose of a youth committee is to listen; they are living it, they know what they want to know about, we do not tell them.” Flory said that the youth committee had been approved by the council in 2020; “It took four years to get it running.”
The Fullerton Collaborative is, it might be said, an organization of organizations. About 45 local non-profit groups are members, as are a few for-profit enterprises and a number of individuals “who are all working for the betterment of the city,” says the website. “As an alliance of non-profit organizations and individuals who enjoy making ‘good things’ happen for the community, we are able to provide community assistance where we are needed most.”
*Jamie Valencia, Linda Whitaker, and Scott Markowitz are the other candidates running for District 4 who were not present at the Collaborative’s Candidate Forum
The Fullerton Collaborative’s candidate forum is available for viewing on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbt-s-MxsZk
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Categories: Community Voices, Elections, Local News
Cannabis leads to drug use and damages young minds. CDC says that 10% of drug users go on to use stronger drugs. Society suffers while politicians see dollar signs. I vote for candidates who do not support cannibis sales in Fullerton.
I would like to know why Linda Whitaker, Jamie Valencia and Scott Markowitz skipped the forum. They also skipped the Observer free feature. Makes you wonder if any of them are serious candidates, and if elected, shows the disturbing way they would interact with the public.
Zenger – No Whitaker or Valencia showed up at the forum either – and the three also declined to participate in the Observer free feature on candidates. Interesting that you think Markowitz will take the trump voters away from Whitaker.
City Council positions are non-partisan. At least 20 people must sign a prospective candidate’s nomination papers in order to qualify to run. Some of us have friends in various political parties and it is not unusual to have people from different political backgrounds sign a candidate’s papers.
If Markowitz nominating papers had only democrats signing you might have a case but a few is not proof that he is a fraud.
The discussion on your blog calling him a fraudulent candidate – including the threatening comment asking “when are we all going to his home” – may be intimidating Mr Markowitz.
I don’t know him but I do know Vena who is a gentle person who signed the nomination papers when a conservative friend asked her to even though she doesn’t know him. Your blog’s persecution of her is terrible.
We are all neighbors and should not be acting as though we are at war over a city council election – it’s ridiculous.
Zenger – what do you mean? I asked you to print or forward Markowitz’s whole page registration history that you guys only printed two lines of but you refused to do either. If I was Markowitz I might decide to drop out rather than be the target of your blog and the terrible personal attacks that you have drawn on very thin “evidence.” It looks like intimidation to me. And the comment about “when are we all going to his home” is very threatening. So much for your “journalism” that apparently you hope people will just believe but are unable to back up. Also doesn’t say anything good about the candidates you favor.