PUBLIC HEARING SET TUES. ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

A public hearing on how the city should handle the issue of medical
marijuana dispensaries will highlight Tuesday's regular meeting of the
Fort Morgan City Council.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 110 Main St., and anyone
wishing to offer comment to the council on this issue will be welcome
to do so.

Those who want to speak may have to wait a while, however, as the
public hearing is listed as the fifth agenda item for the regular meeting.

Ahead of the medical marijuana hearing on the agenda are
:

- -- A presentation on professional standards accreditation for the Fort
Morgan Police Depart-ment, by Broomfield Police Chief and Colorado
Association of Chiefs of Police Representative Tom Deland.

- -- A presentation of information from the 2010 Census and recognition
of the Morgan County Complete Count Committee by Patricia Rodriguez.

- -- A presentation on the impacts of three proposed state ballot
measures - Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101 - by
representatives of the Colorado Municipal League.

- -- A presentation of responses to the request for bids for
construction of a new airline taxiway at the Fort Morgan Municipal
Airport by city Community Development Director David Callahan.

The 7 p.m. regular meeting will be preceded by a closed-door executive
session at 5:30 p.m. for council discussion of the evaluation of City
Attorney Jeffrey Wells.

The council discussed the medical marijuana issue during last week's
meeting, and Wells said the council essentially had three options:

- -- A ban on medical marijuana dispensaries, either through an
ordinance approved by the city council or by a public vote of city
residents.

- -- Developing and enacting local regulations for the city to govern
the operation of medical marijuana operations.

- -- Choosing to take no action and allow any local medical marijuana
business to be regulated under state laws.

Wells suggested that the council hold a public hearing on the issue to
gauge community opinion, and the council decided to hold the hearing
this week in case the ultimate decision was to put the issue to a vote
of the people.

According to the agenda for Tuesday's meeting, the city wants comments
from the public re-garding the licensing of commercial medical
marijuana businesses within the city. The council would specifically
like input on whether it should allow medical marijuana businesses or
whether such businesses should be disallowed.

Anyone who would like to submit written comments for the record,
rather than speaking at the meeting, can submit them to Deputy City
Clerk Yolanda Eurich at City Hall before 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

The council may vote on what course of action to pursue following the
public hearing. Wells noted last week that any vote would be to direct
the city staff to begin working on whatever the council chooses to do
- - drafting an ordinance banning medical marijuana for a council vote,
for example, or preparing a ballot measure for a public vote in the
Nov. 2 general election - and could not be a vote to ban marijuana
dispensaries at that time.

The council will also consider approval of minutes from previous
meetings, listen to public comment, if any, on items not listed on the
meeting agenda, and hear reports from city officials and staff, and
information on bids, future meetings and other announcements.