The Long Beach City Clerk’s Office is in the process of raw-counting signatures on a petition that would lift the current ban and propose a new medical-marijuana ordinance to the city council.
Maria de la Luz Garcia, Long Beach city clerk, is in charge of the raw count.
Garcia said that if the number of signatures exceeds 24,909, then the second phase of the process can begin.
“Phase one is the raw count,” she said. “Phase two is a random sample technique.”
According to Garcia, the random sample technique is used to verify that randomly selected names on the petition are also on the Long Beach registered voter list.
However, that phase cannot start until the raw count is completed.
“I have five seasoned staff members working to count,” she said. “I plan to have it done by the end of the week or next week.”
The proponent of the petition, the medical-marijuana advocacy group Long Beach Neighborhood First, said it submitted 35,000 signatures.
According to Garcia, if the validity rate of the signatures reaches 110 percent, then the clerk’s office will submit a certificate of sufficiency to the city council.
To reach that 110 percent, the number of signatures submitted is multiplied by the valid number of signatures proven by the random sample technique and divided by the sample size, which is 3 percent.
After the certificate is submitted, the city council has 10 days to either adopt the ordinance without alterations or to order a staff report from the city clerk.
If a report is made, it will then return to the council, who will have 10 days to order an election or to adopt the ordinance without alterations.
A third option is to have the ordinance on the ballot so voters can decide.
Adam Hijazi, Long Beach Neighborhood First board member, is confident that the signatures will pass.
He said that the driving force of the petition is to allow safe access to patients and people who need medicinal marijuana.
“I talked to thousands of people,” he said. “They are ready to support it.”
Hijazi said the ordinance proposed on the petition includes: buffer zones to schools, parks and beaches; installed security cameras and shipping manifests for tracking cultivations; taxing on the cultivations; and audits.
Signal Hill is not affected by this process.
According to Charlie Honeycutt, Signal Hill city manager, the City is waiting until November to make a decision.
However, Honeycutt said that two similar petitions by two different proponents were submitted to the City.
The first petition was proposed by Signal Patients Access PAC and the second by a Michael Doyle.
Signal Patients Access PAC proposes to allow the cultivation, dispensary and delivery of medical marijuana in Signal Hill and to put a tax in place.
Doyle’s petition proposes a measure ballot title and summary ordinance.
The proposed ordinance will require the city attorney to give a proponent a title on the ballot as well as a summary of the proposed measure.
