[420 Girl]

The Clearlake City Council continued a public hearing Thursday concerning the extension of a temporary moratorium on the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries. It was continued to 8 a.m. Dec. 17.

According to City Administrator Dale Neiman a newly enacted state law requires the issuing of a status report 10 days prior to adopting an ordinance for extending the moratorium. The council accepted and approved that report on Dec. 8. Extension of the moratorium will prohibit the establishment of new medical marijuana dispensaries until Nov. 4, 2010. According to Neiman, the extension is needed until the new ordinance staff is currently working on is adopted.

A public hearing concerning the proposed ordinance will take place before the Clearlake Planning Commission on Tuesday. Three items of business precede the hearing to consider the draft ordinance. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

The public hearing to take place before the planning commission was continued from its Dec. 1 meeting during which few public comments were offered. Those speaking to the matter reiterated concerns that have been expressed by the public throughout the past two and half years, since the implementation of the first moratorium in April 2007. Primary concerns related to the draft ordinance pertain to proposed location restrictions, patient numbers and patient records.

Included in the status report and the staff report that accompanied the draft ordinance were a couple of newspaper clippings as well as survey results pertaining to jurisdictions that have banned medical marijuana dispensaries. Despite council's and commission's direction to proceed with establishing guidelines for regulating medical marijuana dispensaries, no articles relating to such were included. Neiman said that the articles were included in order to give the panels and idea of what is going on in other jurisdictions.

"Some of the language in this report is very negative," Attorney Ron Green, who along with Ed Robey, has been offering assistance in composing dispensary guidelines, said. "Since Dale has been handing out negative articles, we decided to hang you this."

The article offered by Green was from the LA Times and described "West Hollywood's medical marijuana success story. The small city enforces a strict ordinance and eliminates the drama that plagues L.A." The article by John Hoeffel, sites city councilman John Duran as saying: "We've kept them on a short leash. Today, we have minimal complaints, and they are acting responsibly." A copy of West Hollywood's medical marijuana ordinance was provided by Green as were ordinances from Santa Cruz and Malibu. He condemned the draft document during the Dec. 1 meeting and recommended that staff toss it and start again. "I've read most of the ordinances in the state and this is the worst by far," he said. "This ordinance should be tossed and you should start from scratch. This is not an easy job but we hope you take your time and do it right."

The commission is expected to begin offering its recommendations pertaining to the draft document on Tuesday. After the commission identifies its recommendations, the public hearing process will continue on the council level.

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