We, the citizens of Los Angeles CA, petition the city to allow Micro Cannabis businesses to be apart of the application process for the Phase 3 social equity plan(SEP). Many qualified SEP applicants did not apply in Phase 2 of the SEP because they were waiting to apply for the Micro Business license in Phase 3. This will cause a great harm and a tremendous disadvantage to the SEP applicants that are skilled and qualified cultivators and manufacturers that should be given the opportunity to apply.
We are also petitioning the City to limit the amount of licenses that will be included in the Lottery for qualified SEP applicants that have retained and made monthly payments on buildings more than 6 months be limited to 10 licenses. The lottery should only apply to qualified and vetted SEP applicants to avoid unqualified investors and landlords to take advantage of the lottery.
The application process should be a merit based application that allows the most qualified SEP applicants to have the opportunity to work in the legal cannabis industry.
Each investment group or single investor should not be allowed to partner or invest in more than 2 SEP applicant under Phase 3. This will avoid "Stacking" and monopolization of retail licenses/locations by one entity.
SEP license holders should be required to designate at least 35% of the retail product shelf space to companies that are minority owned.
The integrity of the SEP program is at risk if the City does not have safeguards for the manipulation of Predatory investors and/or investment groups to SEP applicants. The SEP was designed to give opportunity to applicants and communities affected by the failed War on Drugs. This is being compromised by application requirements that may not be obtainable by the applicants based on complex applications without technical assistance, financial requirements for the initial application and the lack of green zoned real estate.
By eliminating the initial financial requirements, SEP applicants will be able to apply without investors and be able to negotiate better and equitable deals with investors once they have been awarded a temp license.
