Prince George's County Cannabis Reinvestment and Restoration Board Meeting - May 22, 2026
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Prince George's County Cannabis Reinvestment and Restoration Board Meeting - May 22, 2026
Note: The transcript indicates the meeting was held on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, but the provided instruction specifies the date as May 22, 2026. This summary uses the provided date.
The Cannabis Reinvestment and Restoration Board met virtually to discuss legislative updates, finalize the grant methodology, and plan next steps. The meeting began with a delay due to lack of quorum but later achieved seven members.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes from May 6, 2026, were approved with a correction on the adjournment motion. Vote: 7-0.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made.
Discussion Items
- Legislative Update: Vice Chair McDowell reported that the executive branch had decided not to submit legislation with a lead agency, as previously discussed. Council member Ayala expressed that she was not comfortable releasing administrative fees (15%) and preferred that they go toward grants. Board members discussed the need for administrative funding to manage the process, including town halls and application review. Shannon Rogers (Grants Director) agreed to follow up with OMB and the chair.
- Methodology Finalization: The board reviewed the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for grant administration. Key debates and decisions included:
- Section 6.1: Adjusted language to read "based on one of the 89 disproportionately impacted areas within the designated zip codes in Prince George's County as identified by the Office of Social Equity and confirmed by the state's attorney's office." The phrase "confirmed by the state's attorney's office" was clarified as operational.
- Funding Categories: The board agreed to align the categories with state law (A through H) and to add subcategories/examples for clarity. Marion Nyang volunteered to draft example subcategories.
- Role of the Board in Award Determination: A lengthy discussion occurred over whether the board should directly select grantees or rely on an external panel. Several members (e.g., Nyang, Doris, Garrett) argued the board should be heavily involved, while others (e.g., Campbell, Eubanks) cautioned about appearance of impropriety and noted that the grant department typically manages such processes. It was clarified that the board can design its own process for prioritizing requests.
- Timeline: Council Chair Ayala requested that grant recommendations be submitted to the council by August. Many members, including Doris and Mims, expressed that this timeline was unrealistic given the remaining work. The board agreed to prioritize finalizing the methodology first.
- Subcommittees: Members volunteered for specific funding categories: Mental Health/Substance Use (Campbell, Jordan), Education/Youth (McDowell), Housing/Homeless Prevention (Doris), Workforce Development (Nyang), Justice Involved (Mills), Accessibility/Transportation (Mims, Atchison).
Key Outcomes
- The board will meet again on May 27, 2026, as a working session to finalize the methodology, including subcategories.
- The council chair will be invited to the next regular meeting on June 3, 2026. The board voted 5-0 (with two staff abstaining) not to invite her to the May 27 meeting.
- Subcommittees will develop lists of example subcategories for each funding area.
- The methodology document will be updated by staff and circulated for final input before the next meeting.
- The board acknowledged the need for administrative support to meet the accelerated timeline and will communicate this to the council chair.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, everyone. Everyone is well. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Crystal is always celebrating her daughter's graduation. We certainly wish them all the best. And I think we all have experienced that at some point with our young scholars. Um reaching that point in their lives. So certainly happy times and blessings to them. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Am I going to be sharing the agenda on my screen, or is that going to be shared by someone else? Someone else is going to share it for you. All right, great. Thank you. And right now we only have five members. We can meet, but we can't vote on anything. We need a majority of seven. All right, so we have five of our members. Are there six others a guest? Yes. Okay. Um we can wait a different two minutes if you all are okay with that to see if other members are joining in. Like I said, I don't even know if Crystal being out. Um there's certain some important things on our calendar that we definitely need to speak about on this evening. Cindy banks, what do you say? Yes, I think we can we can let's wait till 6 05 if that's okay with everyone. That's fine with me. That's fine. Okay. Maybe the thumbs up from everyone if that's all right, please. Thank you all so much. Appreciate you. Thank you. Right. Okay. Good evening, everyone again. Time is now 6.06. We certainly want to uh get moving on our meeting uh agenda. I'll wait for the agenda to come up so we can uh say according to that few items up. Can you not see it, sir? No, ma'am, I can't. Okay. That's fine. I have my copy until you get up on the screen there. Uh call this meeting to order, like to welcome everyone on tonight uh to the Prince Shorts County Cannabis Reinvestment and Restoration Board meeting uh Wednesday, May 20th, 2026. It's our virtual meeting. Like to welcome everyone uh who's in attendance. Uh can we have uh someone to approve our minutes from May 6, 2026, please?
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