Othello will ban retail pot within city

OTHELLO — The City Council voted Monday to draft an ordinance banning the production, processing and retail sale of marijuana in the City of Othello.

The council held a public hearing during its regular meeting Monday to gather feedback from the community about whether to allow licensed marijuana dispensaries and production operations within the city. Several members of the public voiced their opinions — none were in favor of allowing marijuana-related business in the city — before the council deliberated and reached a consensus.

The council’s deliberations were notably brief as its members were unanimous that a ban should be placed on marijuana production, processing and retail sale in Othello. The council passed a motion to direct city attorney Kelly Konkright to draft an ordinance that will make the ban official. That ordinance is expected to be presented to the council for a vote at its next regular meeting May 23.

I-502, the Washington state initiative legalizing the sale and use of recreational marijuana, passed with 56 percent approval by voters in 2012. It permits state residents who are 21 and older to use marijuana recreationally, with defined possession limits.

The law also has parameters for the location of licensed marijuana dispensaries, which include that they cannot be set up within 1,000 feet of any elementary or secondary school, playground, recreation center or facility, child care center, public park, public transit center, library, or game arcade that allows minors to enter. Recent legislation allows local governments to reduce, via ordinance, the 1,000-foot buffer to 100 feet, with the exception that the 1,000-foot buffer must be maintained for elementary and secondary schools and public playgrounds.

Travis Goddard, the city's community development director, said Othello has three retail licenses pending and a processor-producer that has applied for a license for up to 10,000 square feet of canopy.

Four members of the community opted to speak during the public comment portion of the hearing Monday. None spoke in favor of permitting the sale, production or processing of marijuana within city limits, while three spoke against it and Othello Police Chief Phil Schenck took a neutral stance.

Schenck acknowledged that it may come to a surprise that he, as a law enforcement official, would take a neutral stance, as opposed to speaking against the sale of marijuana in the city. But as police chief, he said it is his duty to enforce the city’s laws, whatever they may be.

Schenck brought a few topics to the council’s attention for consideration, including an observed spike in incidents with youth in Othello relating to marijuana.

“Looking over the last year and the year before that, we have seen, as law enforcement, a marked increase of young people using it,” Schenck said. “Now, I’m not going to say 70 percent of our resources are going toward marijuana enforcement — that is absolutely, for us, not the case. I can say that the enforcement with juveniles has significantly increased.”

Assistant Police Chief Dave Rehaume told the council he believed it was important to ban marijuana business from taking place in Othello.

“Social norms — that’s something that we really want to take a stance on, especially at the junior high, where seven in 10 seventh-graders may believe that 80 percent of the high schoolers smoke dope every day,” Rehaume said. “That’s a social norm and that’s what we have to break. I think the City Council has an opportunity right now to start out with social norms and saying, ‘we are not going to allow that store here to become a social norm.’”

Others who spoke said they believed the tax revenue that would be generated by marijuana retail in Othello would not be worth the problems it would cause in the city.

Goddard said in a presentation during the hearing that for the 2014-15 school year, the state projected marijuana sales would be about $500 million statewide, but sales only came out to about $266 million. However, Goddard said the industry showed extremely rapid growth: in the first three quarters of the 2015-16 fiscal year, marijuana sales are already at $568 million statewide, representing a 213 percent hike with still a quarter of the year to go. The state is projecting sales of about $757 million by the end of the fiscal year, Goddard said.

After the passing of I-502, taxes were initially imposed at each stage — the producer, the processor and the retailer each paid taxes. Starting in 2015, the state moved to a 37 percent flat tax on marijuana, which is all paid at the retail stage. So, Goddard said, jurisdictions like the City of Othello don’t necessarily get revenue from having producers and processors within their limits.

City attorney Konkright said Monday that the City Council is well within its authority to ban the production, processing and retail sale of marijuana in Othello, even though it is legal by state law. He said the city can impose the ban through its zoning power by disallowing residents or businesses from using property for marijuana-related business. The city cannot ban the possession or use of marijuana in city limits, Konkright said, but it can prevent dispensaries from sprouting up in Othello.

“It has been well established through attorney general’s opinions and decisions of state courts challenging city councils that have banned marijuana sales, that it is within your zoning authority to ban that land use,” Konkright told the council.

Council deliberations were brief Monday night, as it became immediately apparent that none on the council supported the allowance of marijuana business in Othello.

“I’d like to say I’m 100 percent against it,” councilman Larry McCourtie said at the outset of the council's discussion. “I’d like to ban it. How I feel about this marijuana deal is it’s a gateway drug to start something else.”

Councilwoman Genna Dorow echoed similar sentiments.

“I’m in favor of the ban,” she said. “I’ve got two kids in the junior high to high school range that are in that risk bracket and I don’t want to be the authority figure that says it’s OK.”

The council unanimously approved the motion directing city staff to draft an ordinance that will officially place a ban on the production, processing and retail sale of marijuana in Othello. Mayor Shawn Logan praised the council for taking a stance against marijuana-related business in the city.

“Certain elements of people who want to sell it (marijuana) came to our council and said we need to get with it, we need to get into the new decade, we need to loosen up,” Logan said. “They portrayed it as the conservative idea is just not with it. While we are a conservative community admittedly, I don’t think it has anything to do with that. I think it has to do with wisdom.

“I just feel that tonight this isn’t a vote for conservatism. I think it just reflects that it’s just a wise move for our council and our community that we get that opportunity to make that decision for our community.”

Ryan Minnerly can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.