Marijuana Petitions Submitted To City

PROPOSED ORDINANCE SUBMITTED TO CITY
Today, shortly before noon, proponents of the movement to place an initiative on the November ballot which, if approved by the voters, will permit "certain Medical Marijuana activities in the City of Costa Mesa".  You can read the text of the message that appeared on the petitions as well as the entire proposed ordinance HERE.

MORE THAN THE MINIMUM
Several proponents stood before the main entrance at City Hall and presented their pile of petitions.  It was required for them to gather roughly 5,800 signature of registered Costa Mesa voters - 10% of the number of the total registered voters.  According to the proponents, they gathered 6,780 valid signatures.  Shown here with Acting Deputy City Clerk Christine Cordon in the background.

DELIVERING THE MESSAGE
Robert Martinez - a name with whom some of you may be familiar as the fellow who broadcast his weekly marijuana radio program from then-mayor Gary Monahan's pub several months ago, then had the program removed from the airwaves - was the primary spokesman for the group.  He's shown here reading the text of the item on the petitions.

DELIVERING TO CITY CLERK
The pile of papers were turned in to Interim City Clerk Brenda Green for processing.  She's shown here exchanging details of the process with Martinez and others. 

TIMESTAMPED AND COUNTED
Once Green and her staff timestamped in each petition page those documents were taken to a private room where Green counted each signature in front of a representative of the proponents.  Once that was completed the documents will be delivered to Neal Kelley, Orange County Registrar of Voters, where his staff will certify each and every signature as valid.  If sufficient numbers of signatures are found to be valid this item will appear on the November 6th ballot.

6777 IS THE NUMBER
According to Green, the counting is complete and she is leaving to deliver the 6777 signatures to the Registrar as I type this.  His staff will certify each signature to the point where they reach the minimum for placement on the ballot - 5811.

CITY MUST PAY IF IT QUALIFIES
Green also tells me that the city will pay for this item to be on the ballot if it qualifies, but the numbers are unknown at this time.  The Registrar's office determines the cost based on several variables that cannot be quantified at this time.

VERY "INTERESTING" DOCUMENT
I think you'll find this initiative to be an interesting document.  Here are some of the highlights as presented in the petition language: (the emphasis below is mine)

• It authorizes the establishment of storefront, mobile and agricultural medical marijuana operations, not operated primarily for profit, in the City.
• No approval is given or required by or from the City to establish such operations.
• The City cannot ban such operations.
• The City cannot punish property owners for such operations.
• It specifically exempts such medical marijuana operations from being required by the City to obtain a business license, special site plan or variance.
• It prohibits the City from cooperating with county, state or federal law enforcement agencies in enforcing laws contrary to the Initiative.
• It basically "grandfathers-in" ten (10) medical marijuana establishments deemed to be in good standing and free to begin operating.  Go to the link above for the identities of these establishments
• Inspections of these establishments for normal fire and other safety inspections, appropriate parking per square footage and similar requirements for a private club may be performed so long as these are not different for any other business or private club in the City.
• Storefront locations are prohibited within 1,000 feet of a public or private school where K-12 grade classes are held.
• It requires medical marijuana establishments to have a closed circuit video camera system for security purposes; an active centrally-monitored burglary alarm system and proper lighting.
• If found in violation of any of those regulations the City may fine the establishment a maximum of $1,000 per week per infraction but may not order the closure of the establishment.
• The City would be limited to one inspection a year to insure compliance with these regulations.
• The City may not impose any further regulations or regulatory procedures on medical marijuana activities, unless they are approved by a majority of the City of Costa Mesa voters in a regularly scheduled or special election.

I WILL VOTE NO...
Each of those items I highlighted are very problematic for me.  It looks to me as though any of these kind of facilities will operate beyond any reasonable application of the law.  If this item is certified and placed on the ballot I will vote NO.

Setting The Record Straight, Almost

I JUMPED ON IT!
My previous post, which I exuberantly titled, "Marijuana Advocacy Program Forced Off Local Radio", quoted, verbatim, a "press release" apparently from officials at local radio station KOCI-FM 101.5 outlining the reasons for abruptly terminating one of their regularly-scheduled programs, "Cannabis Community".

FREEDOM OF SPEECH, NOT POT
I wrote that post not because I'm sympathetic to the operators of so-called medical marijuana dispensaries, but because the circumstances as described in the press release reeked of government - federal and local - interference in this matter. To me, this was a freedom of speech issue, pure and simple. Well, it turns out that it was neither pure nor simple.

CLOSING THE LOOP
I spent much of the day trying to contact the parties involved in this fiasco. I spoke with the manager of the station, Brent Kahlen, their General Counsel, Barry Jorgensen, Cannabis Community host Robert Martinez, community activist, former city council candidate and former medical marijuana dispensary owner Sue Lester and Costa Mesa Director of Communications, Bill Lobdell. I also exchanged many emails with the person, who will remain anonymous for the time being, who authored the press release. Eventually, this evening, I had finally made enough contacts, asked enough questions and received enough answers to feel comfortable about trying to close the loop. While viewpoints differ as to what, precisely, was said at the radio station studios Sunday morning, here are the "facts" as I now know them.

THOUGHT MARTINEZ COULDN'T AFFORD THE AIR TIME
Sometime last week Kahlen had a conversation with Martinez in which concern was made about Martinez' ability to come up with the fee the station charges to put the show on the air. This was because Martinez had shut down his medical marijuana dispensary following receipt of a cease and desist letter from the U.S Attorney's office. Kahlen was under the impression that Martinez wouldn't be able to come up with the cash, so removed the program from the roster.

DIFFERENT VIEWS OF EVENTS
Sunday morning Martinez showed up with Sue Lester, who was to be a guest on the show, and another unidentified guest, ready to broadcast. He brought with him a check and presented it to Barry Jorgensen, who at first accepted it. At that point another employee of the station expressed surprise that the show would go on, so a discussion took place during which Jorgensen at one point attempted to negotiate a lesser time slot. Views of the conversation differ, but Martinez, Lester and another KOCI employee heard the version portrayed in the press release - which implied FBI, chamber of commerce and city council involvement. Jorgensen denies ever mentioning those entities, but did admit that station management had concerns about the program because of all the controversy swirling around the dispensaries in Costa Mesa and other local cities. With their license up for renewal, they didn't want any controversy. Kahlen was called and, on a speaker phone for all to hear, told Jorgensen to cancel the program. That happened just minutes before the scheduled air time. Jorgensen returned Martinez' check to him and Martinez and his party left the station.

NO GOVERNMENT CONTACT
When I spoke with Jorgensen this evening I asked him twice, point blank, if there had been ANY contact by the FBI, chamber of commerce or representatives of Costa Mesa government on this subject. He flatly denied ANY such contact. Their decision was purely a business decision - to avoid placing their continued operation in jeopardy.

BUSINESS DECISION
During my conversation earlier to day with Brent Kahlen he also denied any governmental involvement, emphasizing confusion about whether Martinez would come up with the money and the business decision to take him off the air.

BOGUS PRESS RELEASE
As to the "press release" that launched this controversy, here's what happened...
Following the event described above at which a surprised Martinez had his show canceled, he was departing with Lester and others when that unnamed employee mentioned above, feeling sympathy for his plight, offered to construct a template of a press release for him to issue - assuming it would be issued under Martinez' name. He did so, and emailed it to Martinez.

TWO HUGE MISTAKES
Martinez looked it over and forwarded the email on to Sue Lester, who tidied it up by correcting a mistake and deleting superfluous information. She then extracted Martinez' email address, to protect it from the public. She then posted it exactly as it appeared in my blog entry, including the KOCI "From" line, which made it appear to have been issued by the radio station. (For some reason, when I copied and pasted the Facebook post the actual email "from" address was dropped, leaving only "KOCI"). The employee who wrote it is not authorized to issue press releases. He wrote the document as a "draft" to help a friend compose his own. He didn't expect it to be used verbatim. So, we have TWO BIG MISTAKES. The first was the original composition of the "draft" press release. The second was Sue Lester's deletion of the Martinez address line, which resulted in the confusion about who issued it.

SNOOKERED BY AN UNINTENDED MANIPULATION
Lester then posted the "press release" several places, including on my Facebook page. That's where I saw it and reacted by posting my blog entry. I trusted the identity of the author of the press release because I recognized the sending address. I didn't think it had been manipulated - but it had.

ANGRY LOBDELL DENIES ANY CITY INVOLVEMENT
This morning, while I was out, I received an angry message on my answer machine from Bill Lobdell. He, correctly so, was fuming about the implications of my blog entry. He vehemently denied, in the message and during our subsequent conversation, that ANY person from the City had made contact with KOCI to influence them regarding the radio program. Based on his protestations and my subsequent conversations today, I must only conclude that he is correct.

TWO VERSIONS OF SAME CONVERSATION
Although my investigation resulted in two different versions of the conversation at the station Sunday morning - it amounts to a "they said/they said" kind of situation - with all things considered, it doesn't seem likely that there has been any governmental attempt to influence KOCI - at least not overtly. I'm not accusing either side of lying. I think that, in the heat of the moment, each "heard" a different version of the event. Certainly, the management of the station has a very heightened sensitivity to their position in the community, their pending license renewal and the controversy around marijuana in general these days. They made the business decision they felt was best for their station.

WHY DID I BELIEVE IT?
For me, though, there's a bigger question at play here. As I waded through the morass of this situation today I kept asking myself why I was so ready to believe the conspiracy element of this event. Here's what I've come up with... First, because the laws governing marijuana use differ widely from the federal to the state, local jurisdictions are between that literal "rock and hard place". As a result, it is my understanding that the only way federal authorities will act in a local jurisdiction is if they are invited in by local authorities. It is also my understanding that this has happened in the case of Costa Mesa recently, where most - if not all - so-called medical marijuana dispensaries have been forced out of business by the feds.

AND...
Because of that attitude, and because our current City Council has demonstrated a willingness to play fast and loose with the rules on many other issues, it was - unfortunately - easy for me to contemplate municipal interference in this issue. I've been told there was none, so I will accept that unless facts later prove otherwise. However, I've grown to distrust this council because they've demonstrated, time after time, their untrustworthiness. Sorry, but that's the way it is...

THAT'S MY VIEW, BUT...
You can read Sean Greene's account of the story from the Orange County Register HERE and Joe Serna's report from the Daily Pilot HERE. I'm not the only citizen/journalist to pursue this issue. I've given you my summary and conclusion, but others may arrive at a different outcome. I guess we'll see...