City Council okays cannabis ordinance and paves the way for special council appointment

Billingsley won’t be at the Aug. 6 council meeting when the new council member is likely to be interviewed and then appointed. It’s unknown at this time whether Councilmember Holly Blair, currently in legal limbo and facing several felony counts stemming from her June 5 arrest, will be at the Aug. 6 meeting.

It is conceivable that only three council members will be on hand to vote for Billingsley’s replacement, which would force the need for a unanimous vote.

Council members, Tuesday night, also approved the final reading of an ordinance allowing commercial marijuana within the city limits. The Council took less than 10 minutes passing the new ordinance by a 4-0 vote.

The first-term council member, elected in 2018, has accepted a job with Leprino Foods at its Denver headquarters, and immediately following his final council meeting on July 16, the City will begin accepting applications for his District C seat. All applicants will have to be residents of the district.

“We’re going to miss Councilmember Billingsley,” said Lemoore City Manager Nathan Olson who indicated that process to replace him needs to start soon. Olson told council members that the city is gearing up to select a new council member at its Aug. 6 meeting.

Once Billingsley officially resigns his seat, the City will begin the process of replacing him, including posting on its web site an invitation asking anyone interested in applying for the District C seat to complete an application. The city has up until 60 days following Billingsley’s official departure from the council before deciding on a new council member, but city officials are gearing up for an Aug. 6 selection.

During a special study session, planned for Aug. 6, each applicant for the seat will have 10 minutes for an introduction and short presentation before council members go about selecting a new member.  “The debate has to happen publicly,” said Olson.

Whoever is appointed will be required to run in the next council election, considered a special election, but timed to coincide with the standard two-year election. “Whoever is appoint will have to run during the next regular election,” said Olson. “It will be considered a special election, and it will cost a little bit more because we’ll have to add a candidate to the voter registration, but it will be cheaper than doing an election by itself.”

The City Council Tuesday night also voted to open the city’s gates to marijuana cultivation and sales, spending but a few minutes reviewing the comprehensive ordinance. While many cities are relying on voter-approved sales taxes, Lemoore will go in a different direction. Rather than pass a special sales tax on marijuana, city leaders opted to adopt a series of business and regulatory licensing plans to raise revenue.

The public perception regarding the recreational use of marijuana has changed remarkably in the past few years, especially since the passage of Prop. 64 in 2016, which legalized marijuana in California. Since Lemoore’s leadership began discussing dispensaries and local cultivation, there has been little or no opposition. A recent informal survey by Olson revealed that 48 of 50 downtown businesses had little or no objection to downtown dispensaries where recreational marijuana might be sold.