City Manager Dan Keen said that he has suspended the city's plan to begin issuing business certificates to those dispensaries that have paid a $500 city business fee. The fee was authorized under a ballot measure voters overwhelmingly approved in the November election. The measure's passage has also led to the city approving a 10 percent tax on medical marijuana sales.
City Finance Director Deborah Lauchner said in a recent interview that several dispensaries have paid the fee, although she could not confirm how many. Calls to Lauchner this week were not returned.
Keen's business fee decision follows a maelstrom of questions and confusion about the legality of the city's estimated 20 or more dispensaries. Police began an enforcement effort on Feb. 21, and have raided several dispensaries just before the city began taxing them.
On Tuesday morning, Keen released a five-page memo to the Vallejo City Council. In it, he addressed concerns about the mixed message the city was sending in taxing dispensaries, while at the same time raiding them. Keen's memo acknowledged confusion and suggested that the council may wish to seek legal advice about not enforcing the tax collection "until the situation regarding the regulation of medical marijuana establishments becomes clearer."
The memo, given to council members on Friday, highlights several references in past city staff reports to plans for "vigorous prosecution of illegal medical marijuana operations."
Councilman Robert McConnell, among those who last week called for answers relating to the police crackdown's timing, said Tuesday that he had only glanced at Keen's memo so far.
"I think there's an awful lot more questions ... that need to be addressed," McConnell said. "I think we all have concerns, because it's an evolving saga. I think we have enough problems to worry about on our own in the police department area without getting into MMDs (medical marijuana dispensaries) and whether they comply with federal law.
"The area is about as clear as mud right now."
McConnell said he was unsure if he would continue to call for a public meeting about the issue, because it may require closed-door confidential talks with the city attorney.
Councilwoman Erin Hannigan said she was not surprised by Keen's memo. She added, however, that she understood the public's confusion over the timing of the raids. She also expressed concern over some allegations that police used unnecessary force during the raids against dispensary employees and clients.
Hannigan added that despite any confusion, dispensaries should not consider that a city business license tax makes medical marijuana sales legal in Vallejo.
"It wasn't a mystery to me," Hannigan said of the police raids. "We very clearly had a briefing by staff a couple of months ago as to what our plan was going to be."
Hannigan also shared frustration that the council's direction to its staff to draft regulatory measures to locally legalize dispensary operations had been put on hold because of ongoing legal action elsewhere. She said other cities have continued to move forward in regulating dispensaries while Vallejo has not.
Source: Vallejo Times-Herald
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