MENDOCINO CO., 9/1/2026 — Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall spent much of Tuesday morning’s regular Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meeting explaining what his new $4.5 million cannabis enforcement grant won’t be used for.
Not licensed growers, he said. Not federal immigration work, which he said he has no power to do. And not, Supervisor Ted Williams added before the vote, to go after seniors with code violations.
Supervisors approved taking the funds, awarded by the state from cannabis tax money set aside by voters in 2016 under Proposition 64 on a unanimous vote. The supes hung two conditions on it — quarterly reports from the sheriff and a plain-language explainer for the public about what the grant does. Sheriff Matt Kendall drew his line in the first minute that he spoke.
“The focus of the grant and this proposal was only for illicit marijuana,” he said. “It mentions absolutely nothing about our permitted growth sites.”
He said 75% of the county’s homicides last year and this year happened at illegal grows. “These grow sites are largely controlled by transnational drug trafficking organizations,” he said. “We know that for a fact.”
Lt. Aaron Clark, who runs the marijuana enforcement team, said deputies pulled 170,000 plants in July alone.
The budget filed with the agenda shows about 83% of the grant will pay for people — two detectives at $239,592 a year each, a half-time deputy, a half-time intelligence analyst and one code enforcement officer at $117,583 a year, or $587,915 for that position over the five-year grant. There’s $274,420 for trucks, night vision goggles, drones and radios. Another $100,000 goes to helicopter contracts and $75,000 to environmental cleanup.
Board supervisors kept coming back to one line on the budget: $150,000 for civil citation software run by an outside company.
District 3 Supervisor John Haschak asked whether that was the best use of the money. “Is that $150,000 best spent utilizing the software in the third party,” he said, “or is it better to hire another code enforcement person or staff to provide that support within the system we already have?”
Clark said the vendor takes a set fee for each citation, and the county keeps the rest. Haschak came back at it. “So there is kind of an incentive to fine as much as possible.”
Interim CEO Sara Pierce told them the money couldn’t be changed no matter what the supervisors decided at the meeting. The county can go back to the state later and shift the $150,000 to staff, she said, “but right now, our only option is to accept it the way it is.”
During public comments, Steve Amato, president of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, thanked the sheriff’s office for chasing the money and then asked for different language. “We represent the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance as licensed operators,” he said. “I would have preferred to have seen the grant say illicit unlicensed grows.” He asked that the money not lead to “mishaps of grows that are licensed and the helicopters come in and start doing some damage to the crops.” The grant budget funds $20,000 a year in helicopter time.
Attorney Hannah Nelson said her concern was “the remilitarization of cannabis enforcement.” The supply list includes tactical uniforms, headsets, gloves, respirators and four drones.
Corinne Powell asked the board to write a limit into the paperwork. “These tax-based funds cannot be used in conjunction with any enforcement imposed by the federal government,” she said, “and specifically, that none of these funds can be engaged with ICE activities, full stop.”
“I want to make it very clear to everyone that I am a state peace officer,” Kendall said, “and that the 10th Amendment clearly states that only a federal officer may enforce federal crimes. There’s something that’s going on across the news, across the nation, where people have this belief that I am a federal agent or something. And I am not.”
He said he can’t be compelled to enforce federal law as a state peace officer.
“It’s a tough moment in the United States,” he said. “Let’s put it that way.”
Haschak moved to approve accepting the grant a few minutes later and asked for the quarterly reports. District 2 Supervisor Mo Mulheren said she wanted something else in the motion first: an explainer doc for the public. County decisions get misread, she said, and the board needs something it can point to.
District 5 Supervisor Ted Williams said the misreading had already started.
“Before this meeting is over there will be fake news out there about what this board did,” he said. “I’m getting accused of kicking seniors out of their home for minor code violations, which I know we’re not doing. It’s escalating.”
If the board can explain what the grant is about and what it isn’t, Williams said, “I think the public will support it.”
The vote was 5-0.
You know it’s bad when they take that much money to turn against their own community. There isn’t that much weed anywhere.
Can’t post a comment unless you agree with this evil plan
Hip-hip hooray! It’s about time. The $75,000 is a good start towards cleaning up of all the toxic waste and environmental destruction. I assume the perpetrators will be heavily fined. This has been a long time coming. Finally maybe the licensed, conscientious growers won’t have to compete with the criminal plantations. Thank you Mendocino Board of Supes and State of California!