ISSUE IS HIJACKING CITY AGENDA

Editor, The Gazette:

Grand Forks and the surrounding communities are facing serious times:
funding shortfalls at our schools and hospitals, further reductions
in social services, and an increasingly bleak private industry outlook.

As elected officials, the responsibility of city councillors is to
ensure that meaningful discussion and policies are developed to
address these prominent issues.

For the past several city council sessions one councillor and one
issue have hijacked the agenda: Joy Davies and her personal medical
marijuana crusade. It seems that Ms. Davies has decided to use her
role as city councillor to advocate and promote her own personal
agenda, resulting in a divided and distracted city council.

This was made abundantly clear when Ms. Davies attempted to use the
recent debate regarding the use of watercraft on our rivers as a
segue into yet another discussion of medical marijuana and later when
she introduced a motion to use city funds and time to form a
committee to lobby government to change federal marijuana legislation.

As Ms. Davies seems to be using her role more as a lobbyist rather
than a councillor, I would like to add my voice to the growing chorus
asking for her resignation.

Robb Stevenson

Grand Forks