Marysville City Council to vote on agreement for cannabis, agriculture lab

Marysville City Council members will vote today on Ordinance 1418, a development agreement for a cannabis and agriculture laboratory in city limits.

The ordinance would allow the city to receive quarterly payments of 3 percent on gross receipts from Certified Ag Labs’ revenue.

The ordinance was unanimously approved in the first round of votes at the June council meeting. The second vote is scheduled on the consent agenda today, which means that unless there is any further discussion, the ordinance is projected to pass, City Manager Marti Brown said.

“I’m definitely in favor of it,” Marysville Mayor Ricky Samayoa said. “I haven’t heard anything negative from any of the council members.”

Brown said that if approved, the revenue will go into the general fund and that the city conservatively projected the lab would produce about $10,000 in revenue the first year.

“We were very modest because we don’t have any industry to compare it to,” Brown said, noting that the city used the same modest estimates when projecting revenue from the cannabis dispensaries that opened last year.

Certified Ag Labs is currently conducting testing on cannabis and agricultural products with a conditional use permit, which the council approved on May 9. The lab is International Standardization for Organization (ISO) certified and can test products from plants to edibles according to its website.

Samayoa said that with the passage of Proposition 64, legalizing the adult use of marijuana, the need to have reliable labs to test cannabis for chemicals and metals has only increased.

“There are not a lot of laboratories in this area and there’s going to be a lot of need for it,” Samayoa said.

Today’s meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at 526 C St., Marysville.