President Nicholas Welzenbach began the meeting at 12:30

Gregg Butterfield led the pledge of allegiance

Erika Buck gave us some inspiration.

We had two visitors. Mike Norcia introduced his guest Jean Marc Blanchard from a non-profit think tank in Los Gatos. And Tom Rossmeissl is visiting, in process to become a full member.

Nicholas’ music selection today is Long Train Running by the Doobie Brothers recommended by Lisa Cheskin. She and her oldest and best friend grew up on this song and they went to the Doobie Brothers last week. This song brought the house down. “Without love, where would you be now”

Doug Brent says we will soon get a ballot for us to nominate one member for the board nominating committee. Please vote. 

Member spotlight: Don Kuehn. He was recently Rotarian of the Year as well as a recipient of Rotary Foundation’s Major Donor Award. 

 

Rotarian October birthdays:

Steve Rice, Mike Norcia, Ed Stahl, Barbara Fishman, Dick Konrad, Myron Smith, Gregg Butterfiled, Tina Orisini-Hartigan, Jack Chevlen, Julian Rodriguez, Doug Brent. Happy Birthday!

Presidents Brunch. It’s back! Henry Viktovich wore a Santa hat to get us excited about the Presidents Brunch at Cinnabar Golf Club on December 5th from 10-12:30, dressy attire. Please sign up at the back table at the meetings or online starting around Nov 1. Bring a guest and the price is the same as last time- $55.

There will be a New Member Schmooze right after the meeting today. Red badge members must attend one of these as a requirement. Any new member (less than 2 years)  is welcome. Got questions about how things work? This is a good time to ask.

Rebuilding Together is this Saturday! See you there!

Virtual WineFest!

Suzanne Boxer Gassman reminded us this is our big fundraiser for the year and we depend on everyone to lend a hand in some way. 

3 ways to support: 

  • Buy tickets and show up
  • Help us recruit sponsors or follow up with sponsors who have helped us in the past
  • Donate something for the auction

It will be a great event- with a sommelier, wine kit, snacks, entertainment, auction, etc.

 

House of Hope is holding a clothing drive on Oct 24. 9-12pm Drop off clothing, coats, etc. You can buy new or give gently used. People are in need.

Sue Heller gave her Red Badge Bio

 

She began in Spanish and talked about one her many trips - to Honduras for her husband to do cataract surgery and for her to work on language skills. 

She married Marshall, an old family friend. They’ve been married 57 years with 2 sons, Brad and Greg. It was hard not to see grandchildren during covid but she is happy to be back visiting them again in Hawaii.

She has Masters degree in Recreational Therapy, became a fitness coach, and was chosen best personal trainer in LG twice. She has had many jobs including party planner and jewelry representative.

She has given a lifetime of service- she worked at Happy Dragon for Uplift, volunteered at kindergarten classes, and held exercise classes for cancer patients, to name a few.

She is very health focused- and has even run a marathon. But also she also likes baking!

She loves to sing- she has sung with the Fun Time Singers for 21 years and hopes they can do concerts again in the spring. 

She has traveled a lot. Portugal, Croatia, Israel, Japan, Thailand, and Africa are favorites. 

She showed off the skirt she was wearing a skirt made up of all of her father-in-laws Jerry Garcia ties. 

Why rotary? She has always served and now she wants to do something with a more global reach.

Announcements

Don’t forget Rebuilding Together

Next week: Paul Johnson will be our guest speaker AND we have a hands-on service project.

Nov 2- First Tuesday Happy Hour

Dec 5- President’s Brunch

Guest Speaker

Los Gatos Town Attorney. Robert Schutz

Cannabis Dialogue Community Workshop

Rob, a past Rotary member in Morro Bay, is making the rounds in Los Gatos in his capacity of town attorney to seek public input on the possibility of allowing cannabis businesses within our town.

Please take the online survey- he will send the link and it will be available on the town website. 

The town is only in the beginning stages right now, just finding out how the town feels about it. The town is interested in exploring the revenue benefits of the highly taxed business.

Cannabis is a plant containing 80 biological compounds that each have a different effect. Two commonly known ones are CBD for pain relief and the psychoactive THC for a high.

Cannabis is legal in California, but with restrictions. For example, we are not allowed to smoke in public or carry across state lines. You can grow up to 6 plants (inside only)  and be in possession of certain amounts of ounces depending on your age (over 18 or 21).

Commercial cannabis requires licensing. And the state gives a huge amount of local control.

The City of San Jose allows for 16 Cannabis retail stores. But, they are planning to expand to 32. Where? To the borders of towns without stores, like Campbell and Los Gatos. So we will have the impact but not the revenue. 

There are different businesses: Cultivation, processing and manufacturing, testing, distribution, and retail sales. But Los Gatos doesn’t have warehouses or industrial space or cultivation areas, so if we allow, we will likely only get retail. 

The Town is looking for revenue sources. Cannabis has a state tax of 15% on any retail sale, not including the tax on cultivation. Local taxes are added to that.

Potential revenue could come from: local tax, sales tax, business license fee, and/or development agreements. It’s hard to estimate future taxes or revenue, but initial research says maybe $300,000 to $1M per dispensary in revenue for the town. (San Jose gets $17M per year for their 16 businesses.)

Community concerns include public safety impacts, impacts on youth, noise and light and odor impacts, environmental impacts, traffic impacts. 

Council can decide where they would go to in relation to good police visibility, traffic, etc. 

To mitigate these concerns the Town can have buffers/regulations to protect youth, can limit odor and noise levels  (especially because our industrial area is very close to residential areas), can require sustainability, parking stipulations, etc. (traffic and parking is most common complaint from existing places with lines of people trying to get in).

The Town could constrain the businesses Commercial 2 locations, not so visible or easy to find.

What do you think our town’s objects and goals be with respect to cannabis?

Please take the survey! Stay informed. Check the website. 

Get your neighbors to take the survey.

There will be more opportunities to give input before the council makes any decisions in July and then puts it on the ballot in November. We have a year.