Mayor breaks tie to ban med marijuana shops

Havre Mayor Tim Solomon cast a tie-breaking vote Monday to ban medical marijuana storefront dispensaries in the city.

The Havre City Council split 4-4 on the second reading of the ordinance.

The ordinance regulates land use in general terms by prohibiting land within the city from being permitted or conditionally permitted for any use that violates federal, state or local law.

Council President Andrew Brekke, along with council members Karen Swenson, Ed Matter and Denise Brewer, who attended the meeting by speaker phone, voted for the ordinance.

Members Matthew Boucher, Caleb Hutchins, Terry Lilletvedt and Jay Pyette voted against it.

Matter and Lilletvedt had missed the Dec. 4 council meeting with the vote on the first reading of the ordinance. Solomon broke a tie vote in favor of the ordinance at that meeting, with the other council members voting as they did Monday.

Brekke said after the meeting the ordinance will go into effect within 30 days. The Department of Public Works will then notify storefront owners they are in violation of the Ordinance, he said.

Two storefronts within the city would be affected, Montana Green ReaLeaf on second Street West and Bloom Montana on Fourth Avenue.

The owners of both storefronts were at the meeting, and both declined to comment on the outcome of the vote.

The vote was the culmination of four months of discussion, public input and meetings about whether the city should ban, regulate through zoning or impose a moratorium on storefronts.

Until Monday night Havre was the only Class One city in Montana to not ban medical marijuana storefronts or regulate them through zoning.

Belgrade, Billings, Great Falls, Helena and Kalispell all ban storefronts.

Bozeman, Missoula and Butte-Silverbow regulate them through zoning.

Before the vote, Lilletvedt criticized the federal and state government. She said it is "irresponsible and negligent" that the federal government has not removed marijuana from the list of a class one narcotics, and that the Montana state government should offer its cities more guidance.

She added that despite Montana voters approving ballot initiatives to legalize medical marijuana in 2004 and 2016, the state did not come up with guidelines to show how local governments could move forward with the issue.

Lilletvedt said the city is not prepared to deal with the ramifications of an ordinance she said is too broad and could have unintended consequences.

"There are things I think we need to think about that this ordinance raises that are outside this issue," she said.

Though the ordinance is aimed at preventing storefronts, Lilletvedt said, the broad language says that all properties within the city are in compliance with all federal laws.

"So are we going to inspect and make sure that every business in this city is in complete accordance with every environmental law, every ADA requirement?" she asked. "Does the city really have the manpower to do that? Do we have the expertise and the manpower to do that?"

The city, Lilletvedt said, could also open itself up to legal challenges if the ordinance as written is applied only to storefronts and not other businesses that could be in violation of laws.

Brekke said that while it is important to point out flaws in the ordinance, the language is modeled after ordinances in other cities such as Kalispell and Helena, which have had similar ordinances for years and not had legal challenges.

"A number of attorneys have looked at this and feel that this is the best compromise for cities to be in," Brekke said.

Pyette said he worries licensed cardholders who are allowed to grow a certain number of marijuana plants in their home under state law but not federal law would also be breaking the law according to the language of the ordinance.

"Those people will be breaking federal law, are we going to prosecute that? Because that is what this ordinance would be saying." Pyette said.

Matter said the ordinance is only about storefronts, not growing marijuana in the home or whether it should be legal.

"We had a number of people here talking about why they needed medical marijuana and that is fine, but we are not banning or approving the use of medical marijuana." he said.

Hutchins disagreed with Matter.

"With respect, you say this is just about dispensaries, but the dispensaries are not mentioned in this ordinance whatsoever. It's purely about federal law," he said.

Hutchins added that he feels philosophically the ordinance betrays the spirit many Montanans take pride in by willing to occasionally buck the federal government.

Amber Wells said during the public comment portion of the meeting after the vote that people in the community have told her they would like to vote on the issue themselves in a special election.

She asked Solomon how people could go about initiating a special election within the city. Solomon said there is a process to get an issue on the ballot, but does not know how to go about doing it.

The Hill County Clerk and Recorder's office, he said, would have that information.

In other business, the council voted unanimously to confirm Solomon's appointment of Bob Breum for a two-year term on the Havre City-County Airport Board and Keith Doll for a two-year term on the Havre/Hill County Historic Preservation Commission.

The next council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 2, at City Hall.