Competition for new marijuana dispensary tops the agenda at Globe City Council Jan. 12

At the Jan. 12 meeting of the Globe City Council, there was much discussion about whether the City

wants to have a recreational and/or medical marijuana dispensary and, if so, how the city ordinances

should be drafted to accommodate such businesses.

In November, by a vote of 60 percent to 40 percent, Arizona voters passes Prop 207, the Smart and Safe

Arizona Act, which legalizes and regulates recreational marijuana in the state for adults 21 years and

older. The statewide measure, which becomes effective April 5, is different from the Arizona Medical

Marijuana Act, passed into law by voters in 2010.

Linda Oddonetto, Globe economic development director told the Council that interest has already been

high and that this has the potential for positive economic impact for the community, mainly because

there is a 16 percent excise tax (similar to alcohol and tobacco) that will be imposed on recreational

marijuana sold at state-licensed dispensaries. (That tax is used to help fund various state agencies and

community programs, etc.)

Since October, Oddonetto said they had received 63 calls from interested parties about the conditional

use permit (CUP) and what the city code is regarding medical dispensaries. “To date, we have issued

eight tentative zoning verification letters and we have more to issue, depending on the outcome of this

discussion tonight. In the last two weeks we have heard again from about 30 of those interested

parties.”

Dana Burkhardt, acting zoning administrator for the City of Globe and an outside community

development consultant, presented a PowerPoint that essentially gave the Council four options to

consider relative to dispensaries: regulate recreational use in the same fashion as the medical use –

through a CUP process; to not regulate it at all, instead letting state statutes dictate all regulation; only

allow as a dual use with a medical CUP; or prohibit recreational facilities altogether.

Most communities Burkhardt researched are allowing a dispensary only in a dual-use capacity with a

medical CUP. Though that’s not the case in Globe right now, he said he could see a situation in the

future where one or two dual-purpose dispensaries would be of benefit to the community. He added

that the state is “taking a very light touch,” to the regulations overall, thereby allowing municipalities to

put forth their own local legislation.

City manager Paul Jepson added that even if they develop an ordinance now, it could always be

modified if the need arose in the future or as they gleaned more from state regulations.

They also discussed the possibility of allowing a testing facility in the city. Councilman Fernando Shipley

said he has no trouble with anything related to a testing facility or a dispensary. “We have a lot of

people in the community that have medical cards and now it’s going to be legal for adults to consume it,

so it doesn’t make sense that we would chase it out and all of those tax dollars out of our community.

The world’s changing and we just need to grow up.”

Councilman Freddy Rios agreed that they should be less restrictive than more so, at least in the

beginning, adding that there will be non-marijuana supporters and marijuana supporters. “But with 16

percent tax, it’s a revenue generator, no doubt. So, I would say that we ask Dana to bring forth

something that’s lucrative to these businesses that Linda’s been working with and then, as it rolls out

and as the legislature starts nailing down regulations and things like that, we have the ability to modify.”

As of the council meeting date, Oddonetto said there were nine buildings in the Globe Miami area that

were in escrow and three that had contingent lease agreements. “What I’m hearing from the Realtors as

the prospective operators are asking for an extension on these agreements, because if they’re not

successful in achieving a license through the lottery process, then they would like to still hold onto that

property in the chance that they may be successful in obtaining a social equity license. All of the owners

that have (approached the state) have agreed to these terms.”

“Some of the feedback that we’ve heard from these potential operators that actually do operate

medical dispensaries in the state of Arizona, is that they project (in our area and county, based on our

population, demographics) and proximity to urban areas and other medical and potentially recreational

dispensaries, is they anticipate revenue around $3 million a year,” said Oddonetto. “So that’s about

$70,000 in tax revenue to the City of Globe.”

Some councilors had questions about how the police might be impacted by such businesses, or what

they could expect from the PD. Chief Dale Walters said the council could expect some changes as to how

they do things since marijuana use will be moving to a legal activity. He suggested taking a measured

approach. “The decisions we make now need to be thought-through so they don’t (negatively) impact us

later,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think it will be that big of an adjustment. He did express concerns

about how they establish hours of operation and location of dispensaries.

Jepson’s office will put together a draft ordinance to bring forward at a future meeting for consideration

and approval. The Council stated they would like to see the City keep the same kinds of CUP process for

recreational use facilities as the do for medical use. The City will also bring forward appropriate zoning

requirements, one of which would be maintaining a specific distance from schools, daycares, and

residential zoning districts. “We’re so dense and we have so many churches and so many locations,

especially downtown, and churches only operate a limited amount of the time (that it might be harder

to set forth a distance requirement there),” explained Jepson, adding that it would preclude the entire

downtown area if they tried to keep facilities 500 or so feet away from any church.

Jepson also stated that he believes the CUP process “makes for good neighbors” and helps to keep one

from driving the other one crazy.

There was one other item of particular interest on the Council agenda, having to do with a potential

violation by Councilwoman Charlene Giles allegedly violating the Arizona Open Meetings laws. The City

had hired an outside firm to investigate this allegation as it would be a conflict of interest for the city

attorney to do so. Tina Vannucci with Fitzgibbons Law Office said they investigated the potential Open

Meetings laws violation and a potential violation of the City’s Code of Ethics by Giles. She was also asked

to analyze potential employment claims related to those actions.

The specific allegation included an inappropriate disclosure of confidential information in executive

session related to a complaint made by a city employee regarding Councilwoman Giles. “Based on my

investigation, I believe legal sufficiency does exist regarding violation of the Code, so our next step

would be appointment of a hearing officer.”

She added, however, that over the preceding weekend, she and the Globe city attorney had received

constructive communication from Daisy Flores, an attorney representing Giles. “Because of this

communication, at this time I would recommend that you table this matter to give us a couple weeks to

work together to see if we can come to a resolution which may alleviate the need for a hearing officer

altogether.” The council agreed to table the issue and Vannucci will report back to council at their next

meeting, potentially in executive session.