NO MEDICAL MARIJUANA REFERENDUM IN FLORENCE

FLORENCE -- In a 4-3 vote Monday evening, the Florence City Council
did not have a majority vote of three quarters, or six out of seven
council members, to put Ordinance 4-2010 on the Nov. 2 ballot, which
would have asked voters whether to prohibit the operation of medical
marijuana centers, optional premises cultivation operations and
medical marijuana-infused products manufacturers' operations. Council
members Nichole Prickett, Bruce Schneider and Charles Giebler, along
with Mayor Paul Villagrana voted to allow the measure, while council
members Ron Hinkle, Larry Baker and Joe Caruso voted against putting
the measure before Florence citizens.

Though the ordinance was put before the council at the July 19 meeting
and passed 3-2, with two council members absent, City Attorney Bryan
Fredrickson said the vote didn't count because the measure called for
an approval of three-fourths of the council, which would require at
least six votes for the measure. "At the last city council meeting,
there were five people here -- a quorum -- ordinarily enough to
conduct business," Fredrickson said. "The vote on the ordinance last
time was three to two; typically enough to pass an ordinance, which
needs the majority of a quorum under state statute, unless the
ordinance has what's commonly known as an emergency clause. If it has
such a clause, state statute requires an affirmative vote of
three-fourths members of the city council." The reason for the
emergency clause, Fredrickson said, was to enable the ordinance to
make the ballot by the November election. "I deem that an appropriate
and proper use of the emergenc! y clause under the statute,"
Fredrickson said. "The bottom line here is that even though the vote
last time was three to two in favor of the ordinance, it fell short of
the six votes necessary to pass." Prickett said she felt the council
needs to hear from the citizens as to whether they want medical
marijuana dispensaries within Florence. She also said citizens passed
a similar ordinance in 2000. "I would venture to say we had an
official ballot on this measure already," Prickett said. "Regardless
of anyone's opinion -- I don't care one way or another whether we have
this or we don't, unless our citizens deem that it's necessary -- but
they've already said yes. If we want to prohibit this, we would need a
vote from the citizens because they've already said yes. We are not up
here to second guess them or say somebody voted wrong the first time."
Caruso said the 2000 ballot concerned the use of medical marijuana
products and not dispensaries.

"The state of Colorado and Florence citizens voted on Amendment 20 on
the sale of medical marijuana for the use and treatment of
debilitating medical conditions," Caruso said. "They did not vote on
the acceptance or denial of medical marijuana dispensaries or use of
infused products or manufacturers' operations." Fredrickson said
citizens who disagree with Monday's decision have a short time to get
a petition going to reverse the council's decision. A requisite number
of signatures are necessary by Sept. 6. The current moratorium
continues in place until next summer. Since the ordinance to put the
measure on the November ballot did not pass, the council will conduct
a workshop in the near future to decide how to proceed. In other
business, the council approved an intergovernmental agreement between
the city of Florence and the Western Fremont Fire Protection District
for the city of Florence to provide dispatching services on a 24-hour
basis using city pers! onnel. During the term of the agreement, which
begins today, Fremont Fire Protection District will pay the city $20
per call. "This is on the western side of the county," Finance Officer
Sunny Warzecha said. "We currently provide dispatch services to
Florence Fire Protection District; we provide dispatch services to
Penrose, and we provide them to Northwest EMS. This is just adding
another entity that we would provide services for. They average about
18 calls a year, so it's not a huge increase to our dispatchers." In
other action, the council:

- - Approved a special event liquor license for Florence Elks 611 for
Sept. 16-17.

- - Approved the award of a bid for water tank demolition and removal to
Bonnie's Car Crushers.

- - Approved acceptance of a Cirsa quote for the Junktique Market on
Sept. 17-18 for $177. 29.

- - Approved acceptance of a Cirsa quote for Pioneer Day Festival and
Parade on Sept. 18 for $520.28.

The next Florence City Council meeting will be at 7 p.m. Aug. 16 at
600 W. Third St.