[Victor Schrader]: All right, let's go ahead and get started while we track down our other committee member. Good evening, everyone. This is a meeting of the Medford Cannabis Advisory Committee, July 20th, 2022. I will roll call in the members that are here. Neil Osborne.
[Osborne]: Neil's here. Good afternoon.
[Victor Schrader]: Good afternoon, Chief Jack Buckley.
[Jack Buckley]: Present. Hello, everyone.
[Victor Schrader]: And Marianne O'Connor.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Here.
[Victor Schrader]: The original members of the band. We've lost a couple and have added one. And I'm sure Bob will be joining us soon enough. He is the new finance director for the city. So we have a single item agenda tonight and that's to review an application from kindly delivery and i know that the proponents are on here this evening for a delivery only license in the city of medford and when we Approved our ordinance these licenses were called delivery only now. They're called courier licenses state state level I believe those are exactly the same thing sure the applicant can correct me if I'm wrong and We received the application back in April, have reviewed it, asked for some additional information. The applicant has provided that to city staff and we reviewed the application again and believe that it is complete. so that's what's before the committee tonight for an initial review and to hear a presentation from the applicant regarding their their application and then you all have been through this process before but i'll state it again for for the public's benefit the cac process is to to to do an initial screening of the application. And then if you are satisfied with its alignment with the ordinance, you can request that the applicant holds a community meeting. Once that community meeting is held, the applicant will come back to the CAC for a more detailed review. And we've been scoring, CAC has been scoring these applications as well. So we can discuss whether that's appropriate in this case, but that's what we've been doing to date. So with that, does the committee have any questions? before I turn it over to the applicant to give us a brief presentation of their business plan and open it up to any specific questions related to the application.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I have one kind of off question. So as I read it, this is a warehouse and a delivery service as well in Medford, correct? So is it just a delivery license that we're approving? Or does the warehouse itself become like an establishment or a separate? It's not just delivery. It's a location plus delivery. So I don't know. how that works.
[Victor Schrader]: Yeah, I'll take a stab at that and then I'll let the applicant answer from our ordinance. It's they they need to have a physical presence in the community from which to deliver from so that that's it is a delivery only courier license with a with a physical presence to warehouse the product. So it's different beyond like a retail store delivering.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: It's a I guess that's right.
[Victor Schrader]: The public will not be able to enter the facility and purchase product. It's only for the purposes of delivery.
[Jack Buckley]: I suspect we'll hear from the client or the applicant, but I believe the delivery, there's two different types. You can have an agreement with, say, a retailer to deliver their product, or you can have a delivery license anymore with a wholesale product. You can kind of store your product, but you can't deliver with an agreement. So I'm sure they'll clarify that when we hear from them.
[MCM00001373_SPEAKER_05]: Yes, sir. You're exactly right. Lisa, do you want to take that?
[Victor Schrader]: Yeah, why don't you introduce yourselves? And if you're planning on sharing screen, I can make one of you co-host, and we'll jump right into the presentation. OK.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. I will present. So I'll share my screen, and then I can answer.
[Victor Schrader]: You should be a co-host, Lisa. And before you get started, just for the public's benefit, your full application is available for review online on the City of Medford's website under the Planning, Development, and Sustainability page under the Cannabis Advisory Committee tab. And Teresa, maybe you could drop that in the chat. Thanks. All right. Over to you, Lisa.
[Unidentified]: Thank you.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Okay, can you see my screen?
[Victor Schrader]: Not yet.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Not yet. Okay, let me go back.
[Victor Schrader]: Lisa, are you seeing the share screen?
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I am. And for some reason, it's not allowing me to do it. Of all days. Let me try it again.
[Theresa Dupont]: If I may, Lisa, this is something that you can. Hi, if this is something that you can send via like a link, I'd be happy to share it. And then you can just say next slide or next slide.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay. I'm sorry to have to do that. I share my screen all the time. I don't know why it's not working today for holidays, but, um, okay, let me do that. I'm just going to send it to you. Um, if you, let me try it one more time.
[Unidentified]: It's very funny.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let me send that over to you. Should I send it to you? I can send you something through the chat or via email.
[Theresa Dupont]: I just threw my email in the chat. It's up to you, whatever.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'll send it through email. I feel like that's pretty easy. Okay, what is your email address?
[Theresa Dupont]: It's in the chat, but it's tdupont.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[Theresa Dupont]: at medford-ma.gov.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Okay, thank you. So sorry about this, but I'm downloading and sharing it right now. Okay, I just sent that over.
[Unidentified]: haven't quite received it yet as an update. So I'm just refreshing my inbox a lot.
[MCM00001373_SPEAKER_05]: Lisa, did you see the email and the chat bar? Are you sure you sent it to the right one?
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: I did. Sometimes it just takes a moment. I'm sure she'll get it.
[Victor Schrader]: Is it worth kind of... spending a couple minutes to introduce yourself and talk about the concept and maybe ask, answer some of the questions while we're waiting. Thanks.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Okay, great. So first of all, just to circle back to answer your questions regarding the different license types. So you're correct, Victor, in that when the state created the delivery licenses, they kind of fell under the umbrella of delivery only. And then, since then, they have created two separate and distinct license types so one is a courier which you can think of as kind of like an uber eats. And then the other one so they would be, you know, picking up from dispensary and then delivering to customers. And then the second type that they created. is a delivery operator, and that's the one that we're applying for. So that one, there is a warehouse, and that really serves as a headquarters where we would store our product, receive orders, fill those orders, and then make the deliveries from there. Does that answer that question? Does that kind of clear that up? Because I know, you know, this is definitely a new license type for you guys. You've, you know, reviewed dispensaries and it kind of has similarities with the dispensary in terms of us, you know, fulfilling orders for customers directly to customers, but they would never be allowed inside the premises. Okay. All right, I'm going to do something else. So I shared before with you a link, but I'm going to send just through, it was directly through the Canva platform, but I'm going to send you an actual download and hopefully that will come through. Okay.
[MCM00001373_SPEAKER_05]: While Lisa's doing that, I'll just introduce myself and give you guys a little bit of an overview of the affiliate of Kindly Delivery, which is Paper Crane Cannabis. And that's the vertically integrated cannabis company that Lisa and I started in 2019. We are located out in Hubbardston, Massachusetts, just a couple exits past Mount Wachusan on route two. Right south of Gardner and north of Berry. We're a licensed cultivator. Actually in one site, we have four licenses out here for our site and 56 Gardner Road. We have a tier six outdoor cultivation site. We have a tier four indoor cultivation provisional license, a retail provisional license for a small retail space at the front of the property. As well as a product manufacturing provisional license as well. We're currently operating under the we've commenced operations we're producing cannabis and are selling cannabis under the outdoor cultivation license. We're having a great year, obviously, we're in a little bit of a drought and a drought is actually good for cannabis so we're having a great year on the crop is looking amazing and the real goal of this. I guess this venture with kindly is to create a model. Not really, we haven't really seen anybody doing it. Other states that are a little further along in the cannabis implementation have it, but we're looking to do a farm to doorstep direct service to customer. So, you know, some people don't wanna go to dispensaries. They are, it's a lot of overhead. The delivery model is fantastic. We're a sustainable farm. We're an organic farm. And to be able to, you know, we're out here in central mass but to be able to get our products and our flower into the city and not have to. add another dispensary to another street somewhere which are, you know, I think there's 222 currently licensed in the state and another 200 provisionally licensed. About 10 will be opening every month statewide for the next 18 months or so as more and more ordinances are introduced in municipalities. So it's gonna be a slow, you know, going to be a slow roll, but we're excited to have this opportunity to get this delivery operator business going in Medford. Two of our key team members are from Medford, our general contractor and partner, and this is all, this will all be in the slides for the company. Carl he's a longtime resident of Bow Street in Medford last 1520s, he's on the house for a very long time, our general counsel is also a Fitzgerald is also a longtime Medford resident. Lisa and I lived in Somerville for 14 years. We're, you know, very familiar with your municipality. We love it. I have lots of friends in Medford and look forward to getting this going and really just being an open book to the advisory committee. Lisa and I did all of our own, all of the licensing for paper crane cannabis. So, you know, we are a family owned startup. just basically funded through friends and family originally for the original cultivation site. And this is, we're very familiar, I would even say as familiar as most attorneys with the law and with the process of going through the licensing process. So any questions, concerns, once we get through the presentation, we're just excited to be available to you really answer anything we can.
[Victor Schrader]: And I think we have received the presentation.
[Unidentified]: Yes.
[Victor Schrader]: Tariqa is going to share her screen and Lisa guide her through.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Okay. All right. You can forward to the next slide. That's just my opening page. I'm so sorry. Once again. Great. So I'll begin just simply with our mission. Kindly was founded with the mission to bring environmental responsibility, social advocacy, and a passion for providing beautiful high quality products to the delivery market so that consumers can receive and enjoy marijuana and marijuana products in the privacy of their home without ever having to leave home to receive them. So a bit about us and Bo touched on this already. So we are a subsidiary vertically integrated paper crane provisions. We hold four licenses in central Massachusetts. Our primary one and the one which we've received our commence operations for is for outdoor cultivation. We have a tier six So that's 40 to 50,000 square feet of canopy on our property in Hubbardston, Mass. We're nearing our final license for product manufacturing, and we also hold provisional licenses for retail as well as indoor cultivation. I should also add that we're both members of the state's social equity program. Beau was a member of the first cohort and I joined shortly after. And we founded Paper Crane in 2019 after his acceptance into the social equity program.
[Victor Schrader]: I'm a co-founder. Sorry. Our delivery only or courier license is only available to social equity or economic opportunity.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: They are. They were designed specifically for the equity applicants, EE and SEP. And we have exclusivity for those license types for a minimum of three years. OK, so about me, I'm co-founder and vice president I oversee all of the compliance, business development. I handle all of the application and licensing process. I liaise with the state. I'm just kind of the sort of behind the scenes person for both Paper Crane and Kindly. And I should also say our provisional license that we hold for retail is under the LLC Lovewell. So if you hear us talk about Lovewell provisions, we just set them up as separate LLCs. And you can go to the next slide. And Bo, I'll turn it over to you. You can introduce yourself again, and then take it from here.
[MCM00001373_SPEAKER_05]: All right, I'll just start over. Hi, everybody. Again, I'm Bowie Berthold, Chief Executive Officer of Paper Crane Cannabis, founder, and excited to have this opportunity. We came about starting Paper Crane Cannabis through the social equity program in Massachusetts where I was in the first cohort. It was fantastic. It was about eight months of great sort of overview general cannabis industry training. And you can go on to the next slide. You can pass through that. Ed's not here, our general counsel. He'll be obviously here for our, if we get to our host community meeting, he'll be here for that. Carl is here. Carl is our longtime Medford resident from Bow Street and our builder, general contractor, and basically the person we rely on to do all of our building out here on the site. And it's been extensive, as you'll see in just a moment. You can go to the next slide. Ben Sandroff, he's here also. He's our director of cultivation, co-owner. Both these gentlemen are also owners of the company. And Ben is a resident of Arlington, Mass. We are out here really trying to blaze the trail. Ben is our director of cultivation and we are the first social equity outdoor cannabis farm to commence operations in the state. So we're number one. And on top of that, also organic, fully organic and regenerative. So we rely on Ben for a whole bunch of stuff, but he's going to step in here and just say hello.
[SPEAKER_03]: Just wanted to say hello and say that we're just excited to expand the offerings in the organic marketplace because it's extremely limited and everyone, I mean, most people we know go out of their way to shop for good organic food and produce. And we'd love to see that trickle over into cannabis. Thank you.
[MCM00001373_SPEAKER_05]: That word organic it's thrown around a lot in this industry if you go back to 2016 2017 even some Boston magazine articles about cannabis you'll see a lot of statements about all cannabis being organic in the state, not even close. Unless you investigate what the inputs of those flowers or products are, chances are most of it is nothing, almost nothing will be cannabis. But for some reason, they're still allowed to say it, but we are actually doing the work out here. If I have a second, I can actually walk the computer out to the farm, which is in all its glory right now at the end of July. You can go next slide, please. And this is the property when we purchased it in November of 2020. It was took a lot of vision to sort of see what we've created here but I saw it immediately and as you guys know, zoning is very tight and all the municipalities especially most municipalities that had been you know marijuana bands. So Lisa and I and Ben were on the hunt for, you know, starting really in 2016, 2017, when there was no zoning at all. So we kind of knew we would end up in Central Mass looking, since we are cultivators, we were looking for a cultivation site. Luckily, it wasn't out in Greenfield. So we're only, I live in Bedford, Mass. And, you know, I'm 55 minutes from Hubbardston. So it's still under an hour. And this was our site when we found it. It was almost just under three acres. It was basically a fallow old piece of retired farmland that two brothers built a couple still buildings and had a machine shop and built like hobby race cars. And we actually left all the structures intact, including that decrepit outbuilding, that storage building right there. I kept the the frame was good the footings were good we kept it you can go ahead and and scroll up please. took about a year and a half to do the renovation on the site again, we are family owned and operated so Lisa and I were. I'm still, you know, working other jobs and Ben and Carl were all working their other jobs when we started the renovation on this property and eventually, you know, came over, came in full time, committed and made a full transition and go to the next stage next. There you go. So we are fully we're fully renovated by last summer we were actually ready to grow. This week, the second week of July of last year, we were ready to start growing and just the licensing process dragged on. We actually ended up missing last summer, but we still had a great winter growing in our greenhouse and in our buildings. So it was still great just to get familiarized with the Massachusetts seed to sale software on a slightly smaller scale. You'll see one of our cultivators Juan in the the building there standing with his hands up on the trellising rails. We grew in that building throughout the winter. Oops. And now we are in the whole field, as you can see in some of the other photos. We're fully planted to almost to the maximum of our 50,000 square feet. Go ahead. All right, great. Let's see here. Move this over. providing quality and control. So I'll just read this little slide here. Paper Crane Provisions will supply the bulk of Kindly's products, allowing us to offer to our customers the highest quality marijuana and marijuana products on the market with affordability, control, security, and confidence. The ability to sell our own products will also maximize our financial contributions to the city of Medford directly via our HCA tax benefits. Also the community organizations in need of support. I'm just a couple things to touch on quickly for the affordability the control the security. and the confidence. As you guys know, you've done a lot of cannabis related meetings with the dispensaries, Lisa and I have watched them all. There is an immense amount of oversight that goes into the state licensing process to get these provisional licenses. I mean, they are on you like a shadow. So it's just something for people who maybe weary of the end of prohibition or maybe, you know, just not quite warming up to marijuana or still are skeptical about it is as much oversight is, you know, any town or municipality has over really licensing of anything you can just multiply that times 200 for trying to license a cannabis business. So the cannabis is extremely quality controlled. The security surrounding all the products is always extremely controlled. All the standards are very high, and there's just a lot of oversight that you can take a lot of comfort in. Go to the next slide, please.
[Victor Schrader]: I'm sorry. I just want to jump in to mention that our other committee member, Bob Dickinson, has joined the meeting.
[MCM00001373_SPEAKER_05]: Great, and I'm gonna actually let Lisa jump back in here. Lisa, do you wanna take over? You're on mute, you're muted.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: This is something that I touched on earlier just in terms of the definition, but I'll reiterate it again. So the delivery licenses defined by the CCC have been created exclusively for the social equity businesses, and that includes EE as well for three years. The marijuana delivery operator or delivery operator means an entity licensed to purchase at wholesale and warehouse. So that would be our location at 86 Swan Street. finish marijuana products acquired from a cultivator, product manufacturer, microbusiness, or craft marijuana cooperative, and white label sell and deliver finish marijuana products. We probably won't be white labeling, that would be for operators that have the capacity to repackage and things like that onsite, but that's just part of the definition. And sell and deliver finished marijuana products, marijuana accessories, and marijuana branded goods directly to consumers, but is not authorized to repackage marijuana or marijuana products or operate a storefront under this license. A delivery operator is an additional license type And allows for limited delivery of marijuana or product to consumers and shall not be considered to be a retailer. So it's quite distinct in that customers are not allowed to enter into our facility and in fact, I don't expect that. Many of them would even know that we exist unless they, you know, go expressly looking for the locations. So outside of like this meeting or you know anything that's publicly posted the location of our site is not easily available. or readily available, which is just an added security benefit. A delivery operator is authorized to sell finished marijuana products directly to consumers and a delivery operator shall register as a vendor with the Department of Revenue and collect and remit marijuana retail taxes. In other words, the City of Medford will be entitled to receive the 3% local optional tax for a delivery operator, just as for dispensaries. And so why delivery? It's become the norm for busy adults. The COVID-19 pandemic has shined a light on how much consumers value the service of items being delivered to their doorstep. Kindly, delivery understands that cannabis home delivery is the next frontier in this burgeoning recreational industry. There are other industries that are years ahead of us, like California, for example, and it's a billion dollar plus market there. And it can be a safe option, especially the pandemic has shown us that sometimes just the act of going out to a store, especially if you're somebody that is vulnerable suffering from health conditions. is not optimal, so it can be safe in that way. Consumers really value the option to be discreet in their cannabis use and appreciate that delivery is just simply the most convenient way to shop, especially for busy adults. Cannabis has been delivered through dispensaries to patients since April of 2017 with ease, success and without incident. So while it's a newer thing for the recreational market, it's been going on for five plus years. through the medical dispensaries. And we hardly ever hear about it. In fact, most people didn't even realize that that was an option for medical dispensaries because it's just been happening with such ease. And like I said, without incident. With home delivery, there's minimal risk of post-purchase public consumption. It encourages safe private consumption at home and reduces the likelihood of impaired driving. Home delivery can also reduce the traffic impacts and nuisances associated with dispensaries that are often concerns of abutters and residents. We acknowledge that this is a bit of a stigmatization. I think that that was true in the earlier days when the recreational dispensaries were first opening, but that's often not the case with most dispensaries. However, just the idea of mitigating that risk entirely is a very welcome thought. Of course, security is first and foremost. As I mentioned before, no customers would be allowed on the premises, nor will our location be made readily available to the public. American Alarm will install our state-of-the-art security system. They installed our security system in Hubbardston with high-end, high-resolution Avigilon cameras. both interior and exterior. Product is stored in a locked vault until order fulfillment. Orders are then located directly into vehicles, into their locked secure compartments, like a small vault that's located within each vehicle. In terms of vehicle security, products are kept in a locked compartment inside the unmarked vehicle. Vehicles are equipped with their own security cameras. Each vehicle is staffed with two drivers, both of whom wear body cameras, when they're outside of the car and they don't carry cash traveling along randomized routes. These are just some property photos that I included. As you can see, the one on the right, that's the exterior of the building at 86 Swan Street. There's a fence there that we're planning to have closed completely. We'll put that on like an automated electronic system so that as vehicles enter into that parking area, the fence will close behind them. And then, as you can also see on the left hand side of that photo there is a rolling garage style door. And so we can easily load the vehicles right there and it's the same way that dispensaries receive you know deliveries or send you know, perhaps product back to their manufacturers. And then on the left-hand side of the slide, there are interior pictures. The top has the old windows, the bottom, you can see there were some nice new windows that were replaced that are totally compliant. The top ones were not quite compliant. And so they've already started to begin some improvements on the space. And in the next slide, and I'm sorry, this isn't in presentation mode, because it's a little bit, you know, kind of squinty to see, is our site plan. And Beau, I'll turn it back over to you to speak about the site plan. Oh, there it is. Thanks. Thank you, Teresa.
[MCM00001373_SPEAKER_05]: Well, this is, it's pretty straightforward. So 86 Swan Street, it's just being currently used as an annex to an auto body shop. So it's really, it's right now, I don't think it will generate basically be the same style of usage except right now they're doing auto body work in there will simply be loading vehicles and then of course storing the marijuana. If you guys are familiar with this area, you'll see James Street the DPW is right over there to the right, all the way to the right, and all access to the building for our intents and purposes is there through that gateway, and then there's also. door and egress there. It's pretty straightforward. For the interior renovation, it would be bathrooms. The large construction project is really just the vault. And that is climate controlled space built to state and local specifications as a certain burn rating. And obviously, you know, high security and Again, it will be all in compliance with state law. So I think we can move on from that. All righty. Lisa, you want to take this back?
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Sure. So now we're kind of getting into the hows and whys. and the logistics of the delivery program. So we will deliver to the cities and towns within a 10-mile radius of Medford and only where deliveries are permitted, according to the CCC's municipal zoning tracker. So some cities and towns have decided to opt out. for receiving deliveries. It's typically those cities and towns that have also passed on hosting cannabis marijuana businesses like dispensaries or any type in their towns or cities. We're only permitted to deliver to residences, excluding federal HUD housing, college and university housing, and any non residential establishments including businesses. So the cities and towns that we're planning to deliver to our Medford Somerville Cambridge Melrose Malden Arlington. Belmont, Watertown, Newton, and Boston. So although we're planning to deliver just within a 10-mile radius, we feel that, you know, those cities and towns that are included within that 10-mile radius are just amazing and just very rich and densely populated. Deliveries may only be received by the person who placed the order. and with proper ID verification. It has to be a government-issued ID. They must be at home to physically receive the package, so they will place the order. That same individual has to be there to physically receive that item. Like in dispensaries, there's a purchase limit of one ounce of flour or its equivalent in finished products. To start, orders placed after 2 p.m. will be ready for next day delivery, and those placed before 2 p.m. will be delivered same day, later on that day. And as we expand and we kind of get a sense of what our volume is and we add more vehicles, we might be able to, you know, have something that is more of like a two-hour window for delivery, but we feel that this is a very safe promise to start out with. So in year one, we'll have four delivery vehicles, and we plan to expand to six vehicles in year two, and by year four, we hope to expand to 10 vehicles. In order to accomplish this, we'll have some third-party technology provider partners. One of them is called Dutchie. It's probably, I think, in fact, the most popular cannabis technology platform in the country. They're an e-commerce platform, and customers would use that to place orders. through their phone, on an app, or online. And it's all through a cashless payment platform. So again, our drivers will not be carrying cash. Everything has to be paid for in advance. So, Dutchie is going to integrate with On Fleet, and On Fleet will provide route and dispatching services. And it's great, as you can see, like the middle kind of portion of this slide, there is like a, a picture of a text message update so they'll it'll allow customers to track where the drivers are and it'll send them a notification letting them know that their driver is nearby with like a specific location and what their eta is so that they can be there because again they have to be there physically in order to receive the item. On Fleet ensures compliance with age verification of delivery with the valid government ID issued for every single transaction. That's the top slide. And so that is just the photo. It'll scan using their technology to make sure that it is a valid government issued ID. And so we have put together a hiring program that prioritizes hiring locals from Medford. And so part of that plan is that 50% of our new hires will be from Medford. So we realize the benefit to the community that jobs offer will prioritize. receiving Medford residents applications and allowing the applicants to interview ahead of everybody else. We know that the ripple effect of creating jobs in the community, it just expands and extends into all areas and it benefits everybody. And in order to accomplish this, the Mystic Valley Area Branch NAACP has agreed to partner with us, and we'll advertise for opportunities to help facilitate our prioritization of Medford residents, and they'll help us meet our diversity goals as well. So for year one, we plan to hire 20 people to help with order fulfillment and drivers will provide training. And we're also planning to hire and promote within the company for any new positions that open up so that there is just a lot of opportunity for folks to come in, kind of start perhaps maybe an order fulfillment or driving and then go up the chain and to management and executive positions. We offer competitive wages and benefits. So we've partnered with an HR company called Adaptive, and they have a 401k program. We also include paid time off, paid 12 weeks maternity leave, paid six weeks paternity leave, paid sick and family leave, health benefits, as well as an option, as I mentioned, to enroll in a 401k. And we can go to the next one. And so within hiring Medford residents, we also have a lot of diversity goals and measurements that we'd like to meet. So we'll implement our diversity plan to promote equity among minorities, women, veterans, persons with disabilities, and those falling under LGBTQ+, with 70% of those hired falling into the demographics of 25% women, 15% minorities, 10% veterans, 10% persons with disabilities, 10% persons considering themselves LGBTQ plus. And as I said before in the last slide, we'll partner with the branch area NAACP for recruitment needs. And we'll measure that and make sure that we're accountable to whatever our goals and our programs are. So at the end of one year, we will review those metrics and see if we were able to hit our goals. And if we haven't, we'll do better. Hopefully we have, I have no doubt that we will. Good. Another goal that we have is promoting an individual per year, which falls into the above demographics to positions of management. And so we'll provide professional trainings and management pertaining to operating an establishment to those employees who fall into those demographics and promote them to positions of management within kindly delivery, or I should add Lovewell provisions, which is our retail or paper crane provisions if there isn't a position immediately available at kindly delivery. And of course, they're interested. This training program will be open to a minimum of one employee per year. The training program will consist of one-to-one individual, I'm sorry, mentoring or training that will help promote skill sets, management experience that is individualized for each employee to help them obtain management positions at the company or outside the company in another marijuana establishment. So I think collectively between us and with our past experience, we're very well qualified to offer this type of training to help those that want to navigate into higher positions within the industry. So even if there's not a position that's immediately available in our company, we'll give them some training and assist them to move up in the industry in general. Kindly Delivery will hold semi-annual meetings of the Kindly Delivery Diversity Board made up of myself and one or two other female employees, preferably also falling into one of the other categories noted above, depending on our employee count to be named later. The board will meet to discuss the progress of the diversity plan and to schedule community outreach and amend the plan as necessary. Great. Okay, yeah, that's perfect. Thank you. Municipal and community benefits. So as a social equity company ourselves, we have truly felt the direct positive impacts of a program that is designed to give back and will carry this theme of giving back to our host community throughout all that we do. So far, I'm really proud to say that we've done that in paper crane and it's not, it's Not just part of our business plan, but it's truly a passion of ours, it really informs everything that we do, I can say that in moments through this arduous journey, this has been a long process for us, I continuously connect back to what our mission is. into this idea of giving back, and it's helped us to just sustain our energy and motivation to keep going forward. We've created a program called Kindly Contributing to optimize and monitor our charitable efforts. We're excited about fostering close relationships with local nonprofits, organizations, and communities in need of support, whether that is through economic charitable contributions or in the form of voluntary community service. like trash pickup pictured on the left or planting a tree. And something that I think is really unique about Kindly Contributing is that that will be an option at the moment of checkout. So since we are gonna be an online ordering platform, customers will either be, as I mentioned, placing their orders through an app or online. At that moment of checkout, they'll have the opportunity to donate to an organization of their choice, or they could just make a donation you know, a general donation. If they don't opt to, we're going to, no matter what, take a portion of each sale and donate it to an organization of our choosing. And the other thing that I think is really nice about this is that it'll give our customers an opportunity to read about each of the organizations. So at that moment of checkout, it'll have a list of the different organizations that we'd like to donate to. And so even if you know, they're not choosing to opt in to donate above and beyond. They're still just receiving a bit of information and education about a lot of organizations that could just use some awareness. So some of these organizations, and I have to say it was hard to choose. We looked locally within Medford to find some organizations that we felt were really aligned with our mission of inclusivity, public health, the arts, support of the environment, and our youth. And I know that sounds broad, but these things are all really near and dear to us. We're parents, we have a sustainable an organic regenerative farm. We are heavily involved in the arts, Bo is a musician. So it was really hard to limit it. So we kind of chose an organization that represented each of our passions. So the first one, and you guys I'm sure are pretty familiar with these organizations, Medford Health Matters. It's a community coalition that works to improve the health status and quality of life for people who live or work in Medford. They strive to incorporate concerns about the environment into a healthy living lifestyle, hold an annual walkathon, provide linkages and information for Medford residents to existing services for social and emotional support and emotional disorders, treatment, prevent substance abuse, and has a youth advisory council, also known as Teens Against Drinking and Drugs. The Medford Educational Foundation It's a nonprofit foundation committed to supporting innovation and excellence in the Medford Public Schools. Their goal is to enhance educational opportunities for all Medford students by investing in classroom enrichment and professional development to support innovative teaching. Trees Medford is a local citizens advocacy group dedicated to sustaining and enhancing Medford's tree canopy. Trees Medford supports the city's tree wardens work and advocates for tree planting and tree maintenance projects. We love that this organization is not only contributing positively to the environment and beautifying Medford in the process, but it's also creating equity for its residents by planting trees in lower income neighborhoods, which historically have had fewer trees and overall less canopy. And I have to say, I thought that just really knocked me out. I thought that that sort of dual mission of supporting the environment, but also beautifying the neighborhoods of lower income families where historically there haven't been a lot of trees and was just powerful. And cachet. I know you guys are familiar with the Coalition for Arts, Culture, and a Healthy Economy. CACHE in Medford is a nonprofit organization made up of a coalition of over 20 different cultural institutions in Medford, collectively advocating for the arts in Medford and working together to make the community a more vibrant place. This coalition was founded in 2010 as a way to bring diverse cultural organizations of Medford together and has quickly grown from five organizations to 20. including Circle the Square and the Mystic River Celebration. I just want to add Bo as a musician has performed at these festivals and it's kind of a full circle moment for us to be able to sponsor and contribute to hosting these events. So we are thrilled to make financial contributions to the city of Medford as our host community. We estimate that our financial contributions of both the HCA and local taxes will be upwards of 5 million in just the first five years. And I wrote about this a bit in my application and I'm not sure how much you guys are following policy in the state of Massachusetts around cannabis, but there is pending but very strongly favored legislation it's already passed the House and the Senate that an additional 1% of revenue will be given to the city of Medford just for hosting a social equity company so that money typically would go to the state fund but the state is then gonna give it back to any municipalities for hosting a social equity company. And so I'm happy to go over the numbers here. So as I said, in year one, we'll have four delivery vehicles. These numbers are based on a very modest four deliveries per hour. I think that our drivers would likely be able to do a little bit more just considering that the neighborhoods are a little bit more densely populated in some areas. And an average customer basket of $100, we would have a minimum order. That's something that I know other delivery companies do as well. And so we would likely place a minimum order of about $80 to $100 for each order. So to say an average customer basket of $100 is very fair and reasonable. And that would be for 12 hours of operation per day. And so I'll not read all the numbers, but if you just want to take a moment to take that in, that's fine. And I can move on in a moment. I want to also add, these numbers are pretty conservative. You know, delivery is a burgeoning part of the cannabis industry here in Massachusetts. And our market research shows not only do customers prefer online delivery for a lot of their typical shopping needs, but that there is a real opportunity to tap into what is still a black and illicit market in Massachusetts. A lot of those people that are still, you know, choosing to buy their cannabis through the illicit market, I think would opt for delivery over going into a dispensary for a lot of reasons, discretion, convenience, that seems to be where there is the most opportunity for bringing those over into the regulated market and being able to capitalize on that tax revenue. And that's something that we fully support. We can go on from here. Sustainability is at the forefront of our operations at both Kindly and our primary source for providing marijuana, our own cultivation facility at Paper Crane. It's not just at the forefront, it's really just at the heart of what we do. It really drives and motivates us in terms of how we run our business So we're an outdoor or otherwise known as a sun-grown cultivation facility. We've made a direct pivot, a very conscious and direct pivot away from energy costly practices of cultivating marijuana indoors. Instead, we cultivate on a beautiful sun-filled rainwatered agricultural style farm, setting ourselves apart from an industry which generally uses high energy, high pressure sodium light bulbs, extensive HVAC and watering system, which are all energy inefficient. And as we've said at the outset, beyond that, we are an organic farm and we utilize regenerative farming practices, which basically just means that we're really harnessing the energy from the earth. So we're doing everything that we can to naturally strengthen and fortify our plants. We use things like beneficial bugs. living soil. It's a kind of specific way of cultivating that basically it just goes above and beyond your typical agricultural practices. We're taking things to the next level with how we operate. So Kindly also, in kind, will be an energy efficient operation. As a delivery service, we know that the best way that we can support the environment is by committing to the use of fuel efficient vehicles. whether they're hybrid or completely electric. We'll make a promise to utilize the most eco-friendly option reasonable and are currently researching the best option for our first small fleet. A vehicle that comes to mind that so far, you know, we have researched and that we've liked is the hybrid RAV4, Toyota RAV4, just as an example. We'll ensure that there is no idling when performing deliveries. Our delivery agents will be trained to turn off their vehicles while making stops at customers' residences for delivery. And our Medford warehouse will also use only LED lights and incorporate energy saving practices whenever possible. We'll offer a water filling stations to our employees to discourage the use of single use plastic. We'll have separate trash and recycling stations and encourage the use of recycled and compostable products for things like office supplies, food product wrappers, et cetera. And we'll seek out other eco-friendly companies whose environmentally sustainable values are aligned with ours to purchase marijuana and marijuana products to be sold when we're not able to provide them ourselves from paper crane provisions. And that concludes our presentation. On behalf of all of us at Kindly Delivery, I want to say thank you for your time. We're really happy to be here and presenting this information to you. And I'd love to open it up to any questions that you might have at this time.
[Victor Schrader]: Thank you, Lisa. Any questions?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Thank you, Lisa. That was very Very thorough and really great presentation so I know you talked a little bit about folks won't really know even that your, your presence I imagine the facade of the building isn't changing it's just going to stay looking like. Connected to the auto body warehousing kind of thing signage is there going to be signage at all, no signage Okay. I'm also really interested of course about the identification verification, as far as diversion to use.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Sure, I'm happy to speak to that. So it's actually just very similar to how a dispensary would do an ID verification. The difference would be that we would do it at the point of delivery. But I should also say that there are two points of verification. So when a person is placing an order, they'll upload. So it's required that they upload their license. online when they're placing the order, and then that same ID will be verified at the point of delivery at that person's residence. So, you know, in the same way that, you know, somebody when they're coming into a dispensary needs to show their ID and then they show it at the register at the point of sale, you can kind of think about it in that way. So it'll be uploaded at the time that they're placing the order and then verified again digitally when that item is being dropped off.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: And then the technology you're using obviously allows to, you know, identify fake IDs and... Yeah.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. So it's actually... It's very likely the same technology. So there's a lot of crossover between the technology platforms between dispensaries and delivery. So we're using Dutchie and on fleet and they integrate with other, you know, software systems. So typically, you know, it's it's not a super crowded space in cannabis for technology. It's becoming a little bit more, but they're usually, you know, kind of the same like platform, software platforms that are being used. Does that answer your question? Yeah.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yeah. And your delivery, what is, so obviously your folks would be trained on all of that. And then if they've ever, you know, if they're caught or if it, comes apparent that there was a transaction with the youth. What's what's the follow up?
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: The onus would be on our part, you know, I mean, I and I'll have to ask my friends that own dispensaries, you know what happens to that person, you know, that unlawfully purchased it. But if that was discovered, we would certainly have to pay a fine to the state and the CCC. I mean, our license would be in jeopardy. It's probably at the very, you know, kind of top of the list. Anti-diversion, those tactics are what all of our SOPs are created around is, you know, not serving to minors, making sure that there is no diversion. within our facility. So everything, you know, all of our operations, I can say, are pretty much kind of designed around not allowing, you know, any products to get into the hands of miners, just in the same way that like, all of the packaging, you know, the lack of, you know, being able to market all of those things, it's really to make sure that there are no products that ever, you know, land in the hands of miners.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Thank you and I did read in your application and believe that you use like childproof packaging for a lot of your products.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we do. It would be consistent with anything that was purchased in a dispensary. So, you know, jars that are childproof. You know, there are like these bags that are, you know, like a, you know, kind of like a, almost like a Ziploc that's like really impossible to open. It has kind of like a, know, a tricky way of getting into it. You know, there's pretty sophisticated packaging, you know, that is being engineered and designed around the cannabis industry in order to make sure that, you know, kids and those under 21 can't access them.
[MCM00001373_SPEAKER_05]: And these are all constant, this is all part of that constant oversight. So when we are developing new SKUs at the company or we're warehousing and selling somebody else's SKUs, each individual product has to be, it's not like you just go online and you buy marijuana childproof packaging. These products all have to be each, individual package you have to have approved before they go out. So the state is approving things before they're ever gonna go out for delivery. And it's not just a, oh, all these packages, Lisa and I have been ordering packaging for our pre-packaged flower for this year's harvest. And you would think in a Mylar bag or a jar with a pressure lock, or a childproof cap, and it would just be simple. It's not. You constantly, like everything is, you have to submit it if you want to use it, get it, get the labels on it, have it approved before it can go out. So it's not, you know, even, there's just a lot of oversight for all the products along the way. If that makes any sense. And then going back to the seed to sale tracking system which we use here in Massachusetts, which is actually what everybody uses and all the recreational states called metric. really how you track the life of products, including the end destination and the origin point. So if by chance, uh, something were, this is a little bit of an aside from delivering to a minor, but say there was a recall on a product, these products, everything is known where the endpoint is, where they went, who they went to. and where they originated. And even if it's a product with co-mingled resources, all of the original cultivators or product manufacturers that made a product for that end product, everything is tracked along the way. The amount of oversight is absurd. I have friends who work in the liquor industry who just like, I cannot, it's people who are uh, the end of probe is going out. The ingredients, the packaging scrutinized and, uh, the, that flower pen or edible literally on a time that are in, out of room dates as well.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yeah. I mean, I thought of, you know, but no, accidental, I mean, that packaging is good. Happens. Last question. Uh, just how are you going to, uh, day to day this, that would have been disposed back to you.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Yep, you just said it. So any product, any marijuana or marijuana products that we no longer want, if there's, you know, an item that's defective or anything like that, it would go directly back to the source. So either, you know, the cultivator or a product manufacturer, there would be no destruction of any marijuana or marijuana products on site. So we can just be very clear about that. And then in terms of other just kind of regular day-to-day trash, we'll have, there's a dumpster that, I don't know if it's worth going back to the site plan. I think you guys, you all have a copy of the site plan. There's a dumpster. Yeah, there it is. That is located just behind the fence on, yep. And so that would be where our dumpster is. And we'll have, of course, separate trash and recycling. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: I'd be up next. A couple of quick questions. Can you just clarify again, hours of operation? I just wanted to write them down and have it on the public hearing.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Of course. Yeah, sure. So in the state of Massachusetts, the latest that we would be allowed to deliver is 9 p.m. So we were proposing you know something perhaps between 9am and 9pm I think I'd put on my application originally 10am to 10pm but then it was clarified that the delivery window would close at 9pm, so something with the within those hours. I think that's something that makes a lot of sense would be for us to keep our, you know, windows of service, maybe consistent with the dispensary's, you know, of course, with the cap being at 9pm. So, yeah, something within within that timeframe, 9am 9pm 10am 9pm.
[Jack Buckley]: Okay, excellent. So very well presented. I read the application I listened to presentation you covered a lot answered a lot of my questions and do you have any experience in the I know you have marijuana experience with delivery of this have you ever done this business before. It's a pretty good business plan, but is there any experience, and I know you're not allowed to have another delivery, you can have two delivery licenses, but have you done it before?
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: No, and in fact, there are only three other companies in Massachusetts that have, because it's such a new license type. So everybody that is kind of entering into a delivery license is brand new to this license type within the industry. One of our primary investors actually has one of the largest taxi services in the state of Florida. And so he's been advising us a lot. There's a lot of overlap, of course, between, you know, the taxi service, just in terms of like how they, you know, operate their like routing and dispatching and, you know, maintenance of vehicles, insurance and all of that. So he has been a tremendous resource and advisor for us. But if I'm just being totally honest, you know, this is a brand new license type outside of the medical delivery.
[MCM00001373_SPEAKER_05]: And that is a close family friend of ours who they own. His name's Phil Griffin. He owns Bluebird Taxi in Sarasota, Florida. And I'm childhood, very close friends with his son, Michael, who runs Bluebird Taxi. They're close family friends. And one of our, you know, aside from our friends and family raised, They were the largest friends raise and but we consider them family and they were really pushing us when this license got became available to actually get into this because they have I think right now they're running 140 vehicles. So, they have a large fleet they have a large facility they have access to vehicles but they also are, you know, they're They're taxi transportation logistics experts. And when we get this thing rolling, Michael and Phil come up frequently. They're invested in the cultivation site as well. They come up here two or three times a year. They've been to 86 Swan Street. Phil helped us sort of sketch that original drawing up that we presented to you. And they're going to come up here and really have a big hand in sort of, you know, guiding the implementation of this. And I should just mention one other thing, someone who's not on the application, but is also, he's currently working for one of the larger courier services in the greater Boston area. He's actually going to come on to be one of our general managers and directors of operations there. I can't mention him right now, just because he's still currently at his other position. But aside from Phil, we are bringing in another person who's been at one of the larger courier companies for over 20 years. And he started as a bike courier. And now he's a, you know, he's basically running the show for a large operation. So we don't have experience in the delivery realm. I'm really a, I'm a musician farmer. Lisa went to MassArt. We have other, you know. We have other profession, professional qualities but we have great guidance on this, and that's, they were pushing us, you know, Phil was really pushing us to do this because he was like, I can, I can get you got you know I got all this stuff that you guys need in my taxes so I don't know if that. set your mind at ease a little bit. But in terms of vehicle logistics, you know, the routing of the vehicles, all that stuff, their software guy and us have already been in touch. He's actually doing legit, their software guys doing logistics for some medical dispensaries in Florida as well. So we we have some talent in house that should help us roll it out smoothly.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent, thank you. And One of the issues that I'm going to look into what I've done is, is the, the three year exclusivity. I know if you're a social equity program participant, you get the 36 month exclusivity, but is that for all delivery businesses or could another social equity program participant seek a license? And what I'm getting at is if the advisory committee recommends and you go forward and you get a delivery license for the city of Medford, is that it for us for the next three years? In theory, right, because if it's if you have exclusive rights here then, but is that for any delivery business or for just, or is it still open to other social equity program participants.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you know the answer I'm going to look for myself but it is you so you that would kind of be up to your ordinance and I can tell you on your ordinance. says that there is not a cap on the number of delivery only licenses and that they're accepted on a rolling basis. And so that exclusivity period refers to the state's designated exclusivity period. So if another economic empowerment applicant or social equity participant decided to apply to the city of Medford for a delivery only license, per your ordinance right now, they would be allowed to apply. So that's, you know, again, that's kind of up to the city of Medford. But as I said, right now, that is so.
[Jack Buckley]: Excellent. And the last question I had, and it was in the chat, so I'm just going to repeat it. And then it was already answered, but we can do it. The person here is, do you intend to deliver your own product or exclusively deliver your own product? But I see you can answer that yourself.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so not exclusively. We will deliver our own product and you know there are a lot of reasons for that. It certainly benefits us and it benefits the City of Medford because we would be able to maximize our capital contributions by doing so. But Paper Crane won't have you know enough of a kind of diversity of products. Like we're not in the you know kind of like you know, extracts and oils and gummies. And there's, you know, just kind of a wide range since we're more of a niche operation, you know, that is creating an organic, sustainable, regenerative, you know, product. We would certainly, you know, go to other brands and vendors to also supply to our customers. But as much as possible, you know, we'll certainly provide our own products.
[MCM00001373_SPEAKER_05]: And absolutely, if there is a marijuana cultivator, I think, did you guys issue, is there a marijuana cultivation? There is a cultivation license.
[Unidentified]: An applicant, yeah.
[MCM00001373_SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. We would, you know, obviously I'm sure any of the dispensaries would be thrilled to have shelf space for that, you know, local cultivator, but we would as well.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: We would love to, in fact. And I think I saw Michael join the meeting and, you know, it's something that we carry over from the way that we do things out in Hubbardston. We're all about supporting local. So, you know, for us out there, it's supporting other local cannabis businesses. We support other farms. You know, we don't see this as, you know, a competition, but really a collaboration. So we, you know, we really just want to support other businesses that are local to us as well.
[Jack Buckley]: So thank you for, uh, for the answers and for the presentation.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[Osborne]: Thank you, Neil or Bob. I'm good for our presentation. Much appreciated. Yeah, no, I'm I'm I'm good.
[Victor Schrader]: Bob, just for your benefit, we discussed this a little bit at the beginning of the meeting. The CAC's role this evening is to hear from the applicant and if you determine that their application is complete to vote. to allow them to proceed with holding a community meeting. Following the community meeting, they would come back to the CAC and you do a more detailed review of the application. And as we've done in the past, actually score their application. We have a scoring rubric that we've created. So that would be the next.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I did have one question I forgot to ask. So I know in our ordinance we had written in for retail establishments that they, you know, couldn't be within 500 feet of a school. But that's not written in as far as our ordinance goes for deliveries but I know other communities, I've heard that you can't deliver within 500 feet of a school. Is that a local thing or is that a state. So just a local requirement, you know.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: That would be local. Yeah.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: So that would be specific to, yeah. Okay. Makes sense. Thank you.
[Victor Schrader]: And Marianne you had asked that question of me earlier and I jumped on the Cannabis Control Commission's website and they have a pretty good FAQ section on career licenses and I was planning on sharing that with the committee and I think we'll find a way to post that on our City website so that folks that are interested in learning more about how this works can can review that Lisa, would you agree that that's the best source of information for the current regulations at the state level.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: I certainly do. In fact, in the early days of just understanding the license type myself, it's something that I referred to often. I think it's pretty thorough and would probably answer a lot of questions for you. Of course, you can always reach out to me. I'm happy to answer any questions that are specific to Kindly, but the more general ones, that's a great resource.
[Victor Schrader]: At this time, if the committee has no further questions, we'd welcome any questions from the public. Feel free to raise your hand or submit them through the chat. And like I said, there will be a community meeting that's publicized based on the guidelines that the committees have created. We'll work with the applicant to push notice of that meeting out if the committee is accepting of the application and supports a follow-up community meeting.
[Osborne]: Well, I'll go ahead and move the motion to accept their application to move to a community meeting.
[Jack Buckley]: I'll second.
[Victor Schrader]: Great. I'll call the roll on that. Marianne O'Connor? Yes. Chief Buckley?
[Jack Buckley]: Yes.
[Victor Schrader]: Bob Dickinson? Yes. And Neil Osborne? Yes. Great. Well, thank you very much. And Lisa will be in touch about identifying a date and time for the community meeting. And if the committee has any follow-up questions, you can submit them through me and I'll pass them along to the applicants so they can prepare for the more detailed review when it's scheduled.
[MCM00001373_SPEAKER_05]: Fantastic. Awesome. Thank you guys so much. It's nice to meet all of you. And we look forward to getting deeper into this with our host community presentation.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Thank you. Thank you for the presentation.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. In the meantime, I'm going to troubleshoot my screen share. I'm so sorry again for the shaky start. I appreciate your patience and the opportunity in general to present kindly delivery to all of you. Thank you.
[Jack Buckley]: Thank you.
[MCM00001382_SPEAKER_00]: Okay, good night. Motion to adjourn.
[Jack Buckley]: Second.
[Victor Schrader]: Bob Dickinson.
[Osborne]: I'm still, I'm not muted, so good. Yes.
[Victor Schrader]: Neil Osborne.
[Osborne]: Yes, we can adjourn.
[Victor Schrader]: Jack Buckley. Yes. Marian O'Connor.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yes. Thank you.
[MCM00001373_SPEAKER_05]: Thanks, everyone. Thanks, everyone. Have a great night.