FM CITY COUNCIL TO VOTE ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA BAN

Only One Speaker At Public Hearing

After listening to comments from only one person during a public
hearing Tuesday night, the Fort Morgan City Council voted unanimously
to prepare an ordinance that would ban medical marijuana dispensaries
in the city by a vote of the council.

The council had considered the possibility of putting the issue on the
November ballot for a public vote, but several council members said
they had received input from constituents who said they would prefer
to see the city ban marijuana dispensaries on its own.

The one city resident who spoke during the public hearing, Timothy
Morland, spoke in support of allowing medical marijuana facilities in
Fort Morgan. No written comments were received.

Morland said he was a disabled veteran and licensed user of medicinal
marijuana who must drive to Denver to get his prescription filled. He
said it costs him about $80 a month for his medical marijuana.

"I grew up in this town, I like to spend my money here," Morland said.
"I wish you guys would vote so that we could have at least one place
around here where I could go."

After Morland spoke and the public hearing was closed, Councilman
Brent Nation said Morland was the first person he had heard express
anything along the lines of a need for a medical marijuana dispensary
in the city.

"And I've gone out of my way to ask a lot of people, because I knew
that most people wouldn't want to come and talk in this type of
venue," Nation said. "One hundred percent of the people I talked to
said they would prefer to see us ban it and not even take it to a
(public) vote."

During earlier council meetings, City Attorney Jeffrey Wells had
outlined the three options the council had on the issue, one of which
was a ban on medical marijuana operations. This could be done by a
vote of the council or by placing a question on the November ballot
for voters to decide.

The other options were to develop local regulations governing the
operation of businesses related to medical marijuana, or take no
action and allow any local operations to fall under state regulations
only.

The city has a moratorium in place now that will expire in
September.

Wells said it was the city staff recommendation for the council to
either direct staff to create local regulations or prepare an
ordinance banning medicinal marijuana through either a public or a
city council vote.

"I don't believe it's staff's recommendation that you allow the
moratorium to lapse and let the state regulations regulate it, because
essentially it would be wide open as to where a lot of the
establishments could be placed within our community," Wells said.

Councilman James Powers said he was disappointed that there was not
more public input during Tuesday's public hearing, but acknowledged
that many people are probably not comfortable appearing at a meeting
like that and speaking either for or against such an issue.

"However, all of my input from the citizens has been just to ban it
and not have to worry about a vote of the people," Powers said.

Powers then made a motion to direct the city staff to present an
ordinance banning the sale of medical marijuana in the city by a vote
of the council, which was seconded by Nation and approved unanimously.
Councilwoman Debra Forstedt was not present for Tuesday's meeting.

Other business

Before Tuesday's regular meeting, the council met in a closed-door
executive session to conduct a performance evaluation of Wells.

Councilwoman Lyn Deal reported on the session and made a motion to
approve the evaluation and the performance rating of 4.4 on a scale of
1 to 5.

Fort Morgan Police Chief Keith Kuretich accepted an award recognizing
the FMPD for achieving professional standards re-accreditation from
Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police representative and Broomfield
Police Chief Tom Deland.

Deland said the recognition is one of the top awards issued by the
CACP, and the Fort Morgan department not only passed but spurred the
police captain who visited during the process to say he was "extremely
impressed" with the professionalism and standards of the FMPD.

The city police department is one of only about 30 departments out of
nearly 250 in the state to receive the accreditation, and only the
fourth to achieve it this year, Deland said

The council also heard a presentation from representatives of the 2010
Census on the initial participation rate in Morgan County, which was
68 percent. Patricia Rodriguez thanked the city for its efforts in
creating a "Complete Count" committee and working to educate the
public about the importance of participating in the census.

Representatives of the Colorado Municipal League reviewed the
potential impacts on local communities if Amendments 60 and 61 and
Proposition 101 were passed, painting a dismal picture of the effect
on municipal revenues and corresponding services, as well as the
financial impact on public schools.

The council approved a bid for construction of a new taxiway at the
city airport, although several council members asked for clarification
on why engineering services for the project were so much higher than
most construction projects.

Community Services Director David Callahan and Municipal Engineer Brad
Curtis explained that because the project is 95 percent federally
funded by the Federal Aviation Administration, the standards are
different and a significant part of those services involved having an
engineer on site to monitor the work throughout the project. But
Callahan said he would investigate further and inform the council of
his findings.

The acceptance of the bid was approved on a 5-1 vote, with Councilman
Scott Bryan voting no and adding that the city must also be a good
steward of federal funds.

The council will not have a meeting next Tuesday, Aug. 11, but will
hold a special meeting on Aug. 24 and a joint meeting with the city
planning commission on Aug. 31.