Pubdate: Sun, 09 Dec 2012 Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA) Copyright: 2012 The Ukiah Daily Journal Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581 COUNTY SHOULDN'T HIRE ANOTHER LAWYER We are at a loss to understand why the Mendocino County supervisors feel it is necessary to spend thousands of tax dollars to hire an outside attorney (or attorneys) to work out the county's response to a federal subpoena for the county's medical marijuana zip tie and permit records. To begin with, we were under the impression that the county pays its brand new County Counsel Tom Parker a healthy six-figure salary because he has a law degree and knows something about handling the county's legal affairs. Furthermore, Parker heads an office of more and also highly paid attorneys. Parker was not here when the county enacted its medical marijuana programs, nor was he among those subpoenaed for information, so we hope not to hear any excuses about conflicts of interest or the possibility of having to testify to anything. The county did not need to go behind closed doors (and should not have) to discuss a) whether to hire outside attorneys to handle this matter or b) what the feds might or might not be up to in issuing the subpoena, or c) whether or not to hand the information over. This county is the witness, not the defendant, in a court action. No need for all this secrecy. No one knows why the U.S. Attorney's office has convened a federal grand jury and why that grand jury wants to know how much money this county has collected in fees for "permitting" marijuana cultivation, who has paid those fees, where the money is, and how the fee system was implemented. The Daily Journal has contacted the U.S. Attorney's Office, the regional FBI office, the DEA, and the federal court in San Francisco and no one is talking about what's behind all this. Supervisor Dan Hamburg says he thinks the feds want to claim the money we've collected from pot growers, several hundred thousand dollars. The reason he might think that, is because the feds want to have the bank account numbers wherever money has been deposited. There is another possible explanation, which is that the feds think there is something fishy in the balance sheets - in which case the county has a good reason to hand the financial info over immediately and find out if that's true. Or, the feds may have reason to believe that there is a larger nationwide or international criminal element hiding among the county's permittees, in which case, again, the county should cooperate. But since the county's only decision thus far is simply, give the info, give some of the info, or don't give the info, why do we need an outside attorney to help us? Why aren't we at least first requesting help from the California Attorney General's office before coughing up local tax dollars. After all, medical marijuana is legal under state law. And, this and every other California county is an arm of the state. The county, we assume, has nothing to hide about its good faith efforts to put into place a program that tried to manage, to the best of its ability, a marijuana cultivation explosion in the name of medicinal herb. We understand that handing over the names of growers with county zip ties, or cooperative cultivation permits might discourage future cooperation with voluntary regulation efforts. But all the people who signed up knew this was a possibility. And, if the county feels it must protect its local growers, why not just provide the financial info and see if the feds really, really want the rest? Federal courts have, we believe, protected the names of state-permitted medical marijuana growers under laws protecting the personal privacy of patients. At any rate, since the county made its decision in secret, it has not provided the public with a good reason to hire an outside attorney. If there is one, we'd like to hear it. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom