Federal Way Council moves forward on recreational marijuana business ban, mayor considers veto

Published 1:48 pm Wednesday, April 8, 2015

The Federal Way City Council voted 5-2 to move forward on banning recreational marijuana-related businesses in city zones at a council meeting on Tuesday night.

“We’ve been talking about this for a year and a half now on this dais,” said Councilman Bob Celski, a longtime opponent of recreational marijuana-related businesses. “It’s a really divisive issue, we all know that.”

Deputy Mayor Jeanne Burbidge, Council members Lydia Assefa-Dawson, Kelly Maloney, Martin Moore and Celski voted for Ordinance 672, which will need a second reading and majority vote before the ban takes effect on May 6, the next day the current moratorium expires.

Celski cited a motto from a city in California that he grew up in: “Times change, values don’t” as his reasoning behind his vote for the ban.

But Councilwomen Susan Honda and Dini Duclos voted against it.

“I do think that our people voted to legalize marijuana 53 percent and I think you can extrapolate that to the fact that the people who voted it want it here,” Duclos said at the meeting before the council voted. “I want to listen to the people that live here and vote here.”

The second reading is scheduled for the April 21 council meeting and will need a majority vote for the ban to officially be enacted. If the ban passes, it will go into effect on May 6.

However, Mayor Jim Ferrell said if that happens, he’s “seriously considering” a veto.

“In the history of the elected mayor, so far, there has been no veto at the city of Federal Way,” Ferrell said in an interview, noting he will have 10 days after the second vote to take action.

Ferrell said he was surprised by the council’s majority vote on moving the ban forward and believes that strong statement was fueled by personal and philosophical reasons. And while he respects those ideals, he said also can’t ignore the 53 percent vote on I-502 in Federal way.

“I take very seriously the will of the public expressed through a public vote,” he said. “… Public policy is the expression of public will. While I’m not a supporter of marijuana use, not a big fan of it, I have a greater obligation to make sure the will of the people is expressed.”

If the mayor does veto the ban, Ferrell said he would communicate that to the council, send the ordinance back with no signature and then at the next council meeting on May 5 the ordinance would be back on the table for the council to have a chance to override the veto. This would require a majority-plus-one vote. If council doesn’t override the veto, the moratorium will expire that same day and the only laws for marijuana-related businesses will be those imposed by the Washington State Liquor Control Board. These rules include the statute that marijuana-related businesses must maintain a 1,000-foot buffer between schools, playgrounds, recreation centers, child care centers, public parks, transit centers, libraries or arcades.

If the council overrides the veto, the ordinance would be up for another vote. If it’s passed, it will not take effect until May 10, or five days from its passage and five days after the current moratorium expires.

The interest in the ban comes after the council imposed two moratoriums – one for a year and one for six months – on businesses that would sell, produce and process recreational marijuana, which was legalized in November 2012 under Initiative 502.

City officials stated the purpose of the moratoriums was to allow more time to look at legislation that would impact recreational marijuana businesses, however, the current one is due to expire on May 5 and action had to be taken.

Moore, a former supporter of recreational marijuana businesses in Federal Way, changed his position in March, stating that he wanted a positive image for Federal Way.

“As elected officials, it’s our job to listen to people and over the last week and a half I took the time to call voters and ask them the question, ‘Do you want to see marijuana stores in Federal Way?’” Moore said at the Tuesday meeting. “And while I talked to a small number of folks, 22 people were against having a pot store in Federal Way. One was undecided and one was for having pot stores in Federal Way.”

Moore said he thinks the reality today is people would generally be against marijuana-related businesses in Federal Way.

Before the council voted on the ban, Federal Way resident Richard Champion spoke during the public comment period on this issue.

“If you will look at the 2012 general election on I-502, yes by Federal Way voters got 17,301 votes,” Champion told council members. “Now, if you look back at any of your elections – all but two of you – that is twice as many votes that any of you got. For the other two, it’s 80 plus percent more than how many votes you got. So, for the vast majority of you, recreational marijuana is twice as popular as you are.”

Champion said he’s never consumed marijuana for the same reasons he’s never drank a beer or smoked a cigarette, however, he stated humans have been altering their states of mind since the Egyptian era.

Ultimately, he faulted the council for not listening to their voters if they passed I-502.

“To not listen to your voters, your constituents, who you’re supposed to be representing shows a disdain, a contempt to your own populace,” Champion said. “One of the people who spoke at the last meeting said they wanted to create a positive image for Federal Way. Well, I don’t think a positive image for Federal Way is to have complete indifference to what their constituents want.”

Maloney countered that I-502 “didn’t have anything to do with where these businesses would be located.”

“I-502 was expressly for legalizing and decriminalizing possession and usage,” she said. “It had nothing to do with locating the shops, the businesses.”

However, Champion said he doesn’t believe the voters of Federal Way are “stupid.”

“When they voted for I-502 they knew that this wouldn’t mean there would be recreational marijuana in Spokane, Yakima and Bellingham but not in Federal Way,” he said. “They knew it meant here and they want it here because they want to move forward.”

Federal Way resident and parent Mark Grotefend encouraged council to adopt the ban during that same public comment period.

“Since I’ve raised four children here in Federal Way, today’s society, it’s very tough in trying to protect your children, providing them with a safe place and safe environment to be,” Grotefend said. “As they go out in their school and out and around in their communities, the place would you wish they would be able to play and feel safe is always at home. I think that having businesses in Federal Way that provide marijuana related products does not help and does not promote that safer, secure feeling the family and the children need.”

To provide feedback on this issue, email council@cityoffederalway.com or speak during the public comment period at the council’s next meeting at 7 p.m., April 21 at City Hall.