By: Diane Benjamin
See 1:12:00 Tim Gleason tells the Council they can’t discuss the 2nd dispensary location because the city might get sued. You will never know the details of who is behind this location or hear if any ways have been found to detect drivers under the influence. Discussion was shut down by a majority of the council who didn’t want answers. See 2:55:15 too. Nick Becker commented about the process during alderman comments.
Gary Lambert gave an awesome (as usual) Public Comment – see 33:50. There is a growing movement to cancel 1/2% Sales Tax that was passed only to fix the “structural deficit” that no longer exists.
Condolences to Mboka, see 2:50:00. His father passed away so he will be out of the country the next several weeks.
2:38:00 Grant Walsh asks about tax relief for citizens during the Finance Report. Don’t expect any, the presenter waffled followed by Tim Gleason. Just because your cost of living is way up you have to understand theirs is too. Gleason wants to wait until the September Council retreat.
Tim Gleason had the funniest comment of the night even though he was totally serious. See 1:00:40. He stated it was STAFF’s fault Julie Emig didn’t recuse herself from voting on money to the Ecology Action Center while she sits on the Board. Hey Tim: Emig either didn’t read the packet or didn’t recuse herself on purpose. It isn’t STAFF’s job to research who sits on what board and whether an elected official should recuse themselves. Blaming staff was a nice attempt to deflect responsibility from Emig, but it failed. Only Julie is responsible for a lack of ethics or failure to read what she was voting on.
FYI: The packet for last Monday’s meeting is still not back on the City website.
Do you think the City Manager will blame staff once the discussion of what to do with the two 100 year old sewer lines ( one brick, one clay) that run under the new water park?
They will probably see fit to replace those because of their location. Never mind the ones located near people’s homes.
Council can and was allowed to discuss the the agenda item which was, a Special Use Permit for the location of the second dispensary. Rules were suspended for 15 minutes to allow Q & A with the petitioner. Only Alderman Walsh addressed concerns about the location. The Council was informed by Jeff Jurgens that if new testimony (additional information) was needed, the item should be remanded back to ZBA with specific direction for additional information at another public hearing to provide due process to the petitioner. A motion to that effect could have been made and may have gotten majority support, but wasn’t. Failing to provide due process can result in a law suit.
It was fascinating how the process played out. The Council Member who ultimately made a “motion to approve” had previously voted against and lost the vote to “suspend the rules.” The same Council Member was the one who “called the question,” all within parliamentary procedure. A majority approved the agenda item with civil discourse.
Re-adjudicating the current ordinance could result in expanding various cannabis businesses, including manufacturing and on-premises use.