Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke says she will consider vetoing a measure passed Tuesday night by the City Council to ban medical marijuana patient cooperatives.
The council voted 4-2 to approve a land use zoning code amendment to ban the four-member co-ops to grow marijuana that the state began to allow on July 1. The city already bans recreational marijuana businesses.
Right after the vote, Cooke announced she will consider a veto of the ordinance. She has 10 days to decide.
“I have been a supporter of making accessible medical marijuana from my beginnings of understanding its healing capabilities,” Cooke said to the council. “From a personal point of view, I am very supportive of allowing this new terminology with the rules and regulations and increased oversight going on at the state level in order to provide these patient cooperatives.
“I am going to take that under consideration since I have a few days to consider this before I decide what to do.”
The state set up the cooperatives to allow medical marijuana patients to grow up to 60 plants. They would not be allowed to sell the marijuana. Patients also can choose to grow a limited number of plants at their homes.
Cooke has used her veto power only once during her 11 years in office. She vetoed at a April 2015 council meeting an ordinance to amend the business and occupation (B&O) tax code so that all money collected after administrative costs goes to street repairs rather than using extra revenue to pay down debt in the city’s capital improvement fund, which helps pay for transportation, parks, facilities and other projects.
Cooke wanted to keep paying down debt. The council at its next meeting overturned her veto with a 5-2 vote.
If the mayor vetoes the medical marijuana patient co-op ban, the council would again need five votes to overturn it. Based on previous votes, the council doesn’t have five votes to overturn the veto.
Council President Bill Boyce, Les Thomas, Jim Berrios and Dana Ralph voted for the ban. Dennis Higgins and Brenda Fincher were against a ban. Tina Budell missed the meeting because of illness but told Boyce prior to the meeting she was against the ban.
The measure approved Tuesday also eliminates the six-month moratorium the council passed June 21 to ban the patient co-ops. A veto would keep the moratorium in effect, which would mean the council must hold a public hearing about the issue by its second meeting in August or repeal the ban before that meeting, said Derek Matheson, city chief administrative officer.
“We are at a stalemate if this continues so we go into the process, and I certainly welcome this – a public hearing – because we are going to have to continue on with the moratorium,” Berrios said about the potential veto.
Cooke wouldn’t be the first high-ranking public official to override a council about marijuana bans. Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy last month vetoed the County Council’s latest ban against marijuana businesses. The council didn’t have the votes to overturn her veto.
Voters statewide, and a majority in Kent, approved Initiative 502 in 2012 to legalize the possession and sale of recreational marijuana in Washington and create a system of state licensing and regulation. Cities and counties, however, are allowed to ban marijuana businesses through zoning laws.
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