Pubdate: Mon, 02 Aug 2010 Source: Fort Morgan Times, The (CO) Copyright: 2010 The Fort Morgan Times Contact: http://www.fortmorgantimes.com/Stories/0,1413,164%257E8355%257E,00.html Website: http://www.fortmorgantimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2115 Author: John Brennan 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D