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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom