Marijuana Dispensary Ban Approved

The Claremont City Council last Tuesday ended up approving a municipal ordinance banning medical marijuana dispensaries.

The vote was 4-1, with two councilmembers, Linda Elderkin and Sam Pedroza, changing their support for the dispensaries. The lone "NO" vote was Mayor Ellen Taylor. Taylor apparently guessed how the vote would turn out, and she didn't want to have too much discussion on the matter. For no reason, Taylor limited the public to three minutes per person, and didn't hesitate to interrupt the speakers to tell them "30 seconds." (Wielding the gavel in Claremont excuses you from such normal human courtesy as not interrupting people who are speaking, as former Mayor Paul Held could tell you.)

It struck us as very odd that Taylor would not want the public speakers, who for the most part supported Taylor's position, to help argue her case. It's not as if there were 100 people waiting to speak. There were only four or five speakers on the subject, and the shorter time limit is normally imposed when there are dozens speaking. Very odd indeed.

We can only surmise that Taylor did not want to have to endure the embarrassment of being on the losing end of a 4-1 vote, so she sped things up. Still, she ought to have let people have their have as much time as they needed to make their points. Instead, she took us back to the days of the artificially short time, which gives the city the great advantage of not only being able to make a presentation of unlimited length, but also allows even more opened ended time for the city to rebut any concerns raised by the speakers.

We said when she became Mayor that Taylor would reimpose a time limit, and sure enough she did. Expect more (and worse) in the future.