Circular motion is a Claremont specialty, as we've seen with any number of Claremont issues that have come forth from the braintrust that runs so much of the town: the roundabout at Indian Hill Blvd. and Bonita Ave. (put in, then taken out after accident and complaints piled up); their support for hugely unpopular ex-City Manager Glenn Southard; their insistence on shoehorning in the Padua Sports Park into a residential neighborhood serviced by one two-lane road; the failed 2006 Parks and Pastures assessment district; their similar insistence on pushing the Base Line Rd. affordable housing project; and now, their medical marijuana law.
For those of you who are interested, the Claremont City Council will consider its medical marijuana dispensary ordinance tonight at the council's regular meeting, which begins at 6:30pm in the City Council Chambers at 225 W. 2nd St.
Will Bigham has an article in the Daily Bulletin confirming what was reported Saturday in the Claremont Courier about an apparent council majority against the proposed ordinance. Councilmembers Linda Elderkin and Sam Pedroza, who had initially voted with Mayor Ellen Taylor to support going forward with an ordinance, are now indicating they are against the law, though for different reasons.
Elderkin says she is bothered by a January California Supreme Court ruling that employees can be fired for testing positive for marijuana even if the employee has a prescription. The Bigham article quoted Elderkin:
"What this effectively does, this decision, is says the state cannot decide to get behind its own law," Elderkin said.
She said the "legal ambiguity" of the state's medical- marijuana program "makes it awfully difficult" for a small city such as Claremont to tackle the issue with confidence.
"I really believe the state has an obligation to really support the law, and that means support the cities, support the dispensaries - I think they have a legal obligation to do so, and it's clear the legal system is not doing so," Elderkin said.
Pedroza, on the other hand, told Bigham that he was having second thoughts about the issue after hearing from people opposed to the dispensaries:
Sam Pedroza was supportive of the idea last year, but he said Monday that he now has misgivings about the idea, partially because of the vocal opposition that has materialized in recent months from the Chamber of Commerce and other city institutions.
Before voting in July, there was very little community input, Pedroza said, "and a ton of input afterwards."
"To say that I've been educated is an understatement," Pedroza added. "I need to be responsive as a member of a representative government."
Councilmembers Corey Calaycay and Peter Yao originally voted against going forward with the ordinance last year, so presumably, that would make a 4-1 vote against the dispensary law. Queen Ellen remains supportive of the law. According to the Bulletin article, she said:
"I think it's the right thing to do," she said. "And if any city can do it, Claremont can do it."
Translation: "I ain't gonna change, no way, no how." She's a rock[head] that Ellen, our decider.
More reasonable minds are asking, as they always do when we end up back where we started on these things, why did we waste all this time and energy? If public opinion was needed, why not get it beforehand and spare everyone this stupid exercise?
The Task Force, hand-picked by Ellen Taylor and Sam Pedroza, was stocked with plenty of people loyal to Taylor's "vision" of how the affordable housing project should go: Police Commissioner and League of Women Voters President Barbara Musselman, Human Services Commissioner and general misanthrope Andy Winnick, former Planning Commission Chair and League of Women Voters member Sharon Hightower, and several other usual suspects.
If you want to see an exercise in manipulation, turn out tomorrow to watch the Task Force at work. We suspect the Base Line Rd. project isn't dead yet, at least in the small minds of Taylor, Musselman & Winnick. The city's Police Commission, with Musselman on board, has quietly removed the Base Line Rd. site from consideration as a possible location for a new Claremont police station. The Police Commission gave no explanation for the removal, but one suspects Musselman had other plans for the site and that she worked behind the scenes with the Police Department to nix the Base Line site from the department's plans.
As always when Taylor and the Claremont Area League of Women Voters are concerned, it's not the words but what lies below the surface that holds meaning. Watch what they do at tomorrow's Affordable Housing Task Force meeting comes into play a few years down the road. (We'll link back to this post when Musselman's play becomes evident.)
Affordable Housing Task Force
May 14, 5:00 PM
City Hall, First Floor Conference Room
207 Harvard (enter @ north side of building)
For information, call (909) 399-5460
Posts
