John Gerardi Guest Hosts - Fresno Smoke Shop Battle

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It appears that we may be headed to court over
a city ordinance trying to limit the number of smoke
shops in the city. And I'm gonna break it down
for you all. This is John Girardi in for Trevor
Carrey today. I am the host of the John Girardi Show,
which is usually six to seven pm here on this

(00:22):
very fine radio station. Also the host of Right to
Life Radio every Saturday morning from nine to ten AM.
I might do a little bit talking about some of
the stuff you'll be hearing tomorrow morning with Right to
Life Radio. A little later on the show, we got
President State Bulldog Baseball coming up at five thirty today.
Hope you will tune in. All right, I want to

(00:44):
talk about this smoke shop ordinance. So the city is
the city passed. The city Council passed with a four
to one vote, one abstention and one absence. They passed
in ordinances for tighter regulations on smoke and vape shops

(01:06):
smoke shops and vape stores. What this would have the
effect of this proposal if Mayor Dyer doesn't veto it,
And apparently it only got a four to one vote,
which with two people didn't vote. Nick Richardson is who's
a Marine Corps reservist, I guess was called in for

(01:27):
he has reservist duty he's got to do. And then
Mike Carbassi, I guess abstained. So the mayor could veto
this if he wanted. He can veto something when it's
only passed by four of the seven members of the council.
If this passes forty nine, only forty nine of the

(01:49):
existing one hundred and seventy tobacco shops that currently exist
in the city will be allowed to continue to operate.
So there's around one hundred and seventy in Fresno. This
would only allow seven per city council district, so forty
nine total. Andrew Jans, the city attorney, says that only

(02:11):
about ninety of those one hundred and seventy actually have
proper business licenses at the moment, and actually there's some
dispute about like exactly how many are there. Apparently it's
not one hundred percent clear. Now my antenna picked up
because a lawyer that I've got, a lawyer I know of,

(02:34):
is representing the smoke shop owners. This guy, Todd Weinkoop,
who I think is a really brilliant lawyer, and he's
from a McCormick Barstow, which is a big law firm
in town, and he is making the argument on their
behalf that hey, I think this city ordinance is a

(02:54):
violation of the rights of these shop owners. My eye
brows were raised a lawyer that you know, I would
have assumed smoke shops let me well, let me first
give my opinion. I hate these smoke shops. I think
they're bad. I think a lot of them, as has

(03:15):
the Attorney General has made this point in the city
attorney has made this point. A lot of smoke shops
throughout California are basically just fronts for selling marijuana illegally.
They sell marijuana illegally at the back. The city only
has approved so many legal marijuana dispensaries. People don't want
to buy legal marijuana because it costs more it you

(03:38):
have to pay taxes on it and stuff. People are
still very enthusiastic here in California for buying weed illegally.
So you get some vape shop smoke shop and they're
selling you know, marijuana illegally out the back. You go there,
you buy your marijuana. Apparently there's still like a six
billion dollar illegal weed industry going on in California. So,

(04:01):
you know, the the grand promises of marijuana legalization, something
I never voted for, have not come to pass. So
I hate these smoke shops. I think they're no good
and they apparently they it's not just selling marijuana out
the back. They are blights on the landscape. They are ugly,

(04:24):
They attract bad dudes. A lot of these smoke shops
have been associated in one way or another with other
kinds of unlawful activity happening, gambling, some have been connected,
apparently the sex trafficking. So these are bad places, and

(04:47):
I think it's totally legit for the city to say, hey,
we don't want more of these shops. This is getting
out of hand and we should regulate it. And I
would say, so far as you legally can go for it,
as much as you can, is fine with me. And

(05:09):
I've you know, look, I've got a lot of preconceived
biases going into this whole thing. I hate marijuana. I
hate legalized marijuana. I never bought any of the arguments
for medical marijuana. I never bought any of the arguments
for recreational marijuana. Everyone else in presno politics got strong
armed by the SOB stories from the marijuana lobbying entities. Oh,

(05:31):
medical marijuana is so necessari there's really not a ton
of solid Frankly, I think the case for medical marijuana
as actually helping out very significantly has been grossly overstated,
and so I never bought any of that stuff. And frankly, like,

(05:52):
let's think about the dynamics here. People, the pro marijuana
legalization side, what did it have to gain, well, being
in on the ground floor of a billion dollar industry
in California. So yeah, there was a lot more lobbying,
a lot more paid for research to all of a
sudden conclude oh, well, well marijuana is really not so

(06:15):
bad for you. The anti marijuana side had what to gain,
absolutely nothing, a sense of Christian virtue. So yeah, all
the lobbying money was going towards the pro side. And also,
you know, you know what, local governments and state governments
love things that generate revenue, Things that generate revenue where

(06:36):
you don't have to forcibly tax somebody or raise their
taxes in a way that they don't want. If you
smoke marijuana, that's on you. Well, but it generates tax revenue. Hooray.
So state and local governments love that crap. The state
and local governments can't spend in the red the way
that the Feds can. All right, anyway, So I have
all these preconceived notions. I hate these smoke shops. I

(06:56):
think they're bad, and I assume that they're all filled
with grungy potheads who are morons. So the fact that
they got Todd Winkoop to represent them in a really
high profile law firm like Mccormickbarstow caught my attention, and
reading his legal argument, I gotta admit, for someone who

(07:18):
hates smoke shops as much as I do, he's making
some pretty dang good points. So the point he's making
is that these standards to the city plan are being
applied retroactively, not prospectively. What that means is you're gonna automatically,

(07:45):
with a snap of a finger, render a bunch of
these smoke shops illegal and unable to exist. It's gonna
result in people losing tons of money, losing business. This
is a taking on the part of the government. So
he makes this point. Let's see where does he say. Basically,

(08:12):
he says what we don't dispute the authority of the
city to make changes to its city plan utilizing this
here he is simply here, he goes, as you are
aware this proposed amendment, this law will require new and

(08:32):
existing smoke shops to obtain a conditional use permit to
continue operating their businesses. While we do not question the
power of the city to enact ordinances that proactively alter
the city's general plan, the retroactive application of the proposed
amendment exceeds the city's police and regulatory powers. Simply put,

(08:52):
the city's proposed retroactive application of SEQUA the California Environmental
Quality Act as a weapon would violate the rights of
existing small business owners in the city. So that's the
point he is making, and he goes. He goes on.

(09:14):
An analysis of the practical impact of the retroactive application
of the proposed ordinance demonstrates the problem. First, the proposed
amendment would limit the number of available smoke shops to
seven smoke shops in each city council district, for a
total of forty nine city wide, Assuming one the accuracy
of the city that there are eighty two licensed and
permitted smoke shops currently operating in the city of Fresno,

(09:36):
rather than the higher number indicated by other sources, and
two that the city issues all forty nine cups to
existing smoke shops, then the proposed amendment would force thirty
three existing and properly licensed and permitted smoke shops to
permanently shutter their doors. The casualties of this undirected and

(09:57):
arbitrary exercise of the city power, which is result in
thirty three business owners deprived of their investment backed expectations
in their existing businesses, their employees, and the families of both.
So is that going to stand? Andrew Jans seems to

(10:20):
think it will. He's seeming to express confidence that it's
still going to work. We fully expect to be challenged,
but we are confident that this ordinance will survive judicial
scrutiny given the thoughtful and careful drafting of the law.
Jan said. Apparently the forty nine permit winners will be
determined by a lottery, which is seems even more a

(10:42):
little unfair. So I don't know. I'm I must admit
I am a little skill a little less confident about
what I think about all this. Again, no one dislikes
marijuana more than me. No one does. It's like these
smoke shops more than me. I don't like them. I

(11:03):
think they're terrible. I don't trust them as far as
I can throw them. I think they are a blight
on the landscape. I think they're bad for other surrounding businesses.
I mean, you know, we are Right to Life. We
rent a building on Fulton Street, just south of Olive.
We have a building right next to Planned Parenthood, the

(11:24):
abortion clinic, where we interact with women and couples going
in and out and offer them alternatives to abortion. It's
been one of our really one of the more beautiful
things that we do through Right to Life. But the
place we rent it used to be a print shop,
and the owner of it was saying to us, oh
my gosh, I'm so glad that you guys are renting
from me. Before I got you, the only places, the

(11:48):
only businesses that I could recruit that were coming to
me wanting to lease the space or smoke shops. There's
a smoke shop just down the street. It's not a
good part of town. There's another smoke shop just right
down the street from us. It's like the Buddha is something.
You know, everyone's clearly people are doing drugs in there

(12:08):
like it's it's shady. It's a shady thing. I don't like.
I don't like late night massage parlors. It's very incredibly
suspicious late nights. Oh, yes, a very reputable massage parlor.
Of course, a massage parlor would be open from the
hours of eight pm to three am. Yes, that makes

(12:30):
a lot of sense. Definitely nothing suspicious going on there.
Everything definitely seems on the up and up. In short,
I want the city to be able to regulate the
assisted Trevor Terry Show, Mondo Valley's Power Dog Jean Girardi
filling in for Trevor Carrey today we got president State

(12:52):
Bulldog Baseball coming right at five point thirty. So wrapping
up the show today for those who enjoyed the show,
the director at Right to Life of Central calif Even
if you didn't enjoy the show, I think this is
still true. I'm the director at Right to Life of
Central California RTLCC dot org. If you thought, hey, this guy,
he can do a solid radio show. If that's the

(13:13):
thing you think, why don't you go check out Right
to Life of Central California. Give us a donation. Maybe
check out our radio show, which is every Saturday morning
right here on this fine station, hosted by yours truly,
where we talk about the abortion issue as a public
policy question, etc. We're talking about this week, we'll be
talking about an absurd stonewalling of a perfectly good adoption

(13:36):
bill that was introduced into the state legislature, and talk
about problems how adoption has become so much less prevalent
in the United States. We do all kinds of other things.
We do educational presentations all up and down the sanwalkin Valley.
If you'd like me to come to your church, to
your civic group, or business group, whatever it is. You

(13:56):
can get in touch with us at Right to Life
of Central California. Again. You can find us at RTLCC
dot org. You could call us if you want it.
Five five nine two two nine two two two nine.
One of the great things that we've done we started
a pro life nonprofit Obgyn clinic. I didn't purely do
it for this reason, but it's it's always this thing

(14:19):
where people you know, I mentioned that I do pro
life activism. I speak for youth groups and churches and
schools and I do my radio show and I help
out women, or you know. One of the things we do.
We directly interact with women going into and out of
the local abortion clinic, offer them alternatives to abortion. We
give them resources and help. We have about thirty babies

(14:40):
we're just walking around over the last year year or
two here because we were there, we happened to talk
to their moms and the moms changed their minds. And
people will ask me, though, well, as you're pro all
you pro life is all you care about is fetuses.
You don't actually care about adults. You don't care about
babies after they were born. So then I just went
and I started a nonprofit obgyn clinic just to stick

(15:02):
it to them. So that's what we did. We started
a pro life, nonprofit obgyn clinic that helps little income
women in president. It's called the Obria Medical Clinics of
Central California OH b R i A and the clinic
has been open for three plus years now. It's helping
out women in need and it's doing great, great work.
There's a huge percentage of women in South Fresno who

(15:24):
don't get any prenatal care whatsoever before they deliver their babies.
I think medical I think funnels pour women into abortion.
It is genuinely much more affordable and much more subsidized
by the state for a woman in a difficult financial
situation to have an abortion rather than to have a baby.

(15:46):
And it's more financially advantageous for doctors to abort baby
to for doctors to abort the babies of medical women
rather than help them carry those babies to term. I
think it's a horrible situation anyway, So we started a
clinic to help women in those situations. If you would
like to donate to help that clinic, go to O

(16:07):
b R I A three sixty five dot org, or Hey,
you're pregnant you need help seven O five sixty nine
one five nine seven O five sixty nine one one,
or look up Obria Fresnoy Assistant Trevor Carey show MONDE.
Valley's Power Talk