MANSFIELD — The build-up was perfect Tuesday night for the vote on a proposed six-month moratorium on any potential recreational marijuana dispensaries in Mansfield.
— There was a lengthy safety committee meeting, during which a representative from The Cannabist Co. said such a facility could add $4.3 million in revenue to city coffers over the next 10 years.
— There was public participation, with speakers both for and against the moratorium.
— There were questions from local lawmakers, an endorsement regarding the potential revenue from Finance Director Kelly Blankenship and concerns raised by police Chief Jason Bammann.
The stage was set — for a vote that never came.
Citing the absence of At-large Councilwoman Stephanie Zader and council President Phil Scott, both on vacation, local lawmakers voted to delay the vote until its next meeting on June 18.
Zader is the only member of council who has spoken during public session in favor of the economic benefits of a dispensary in Mansfield.
5th Ward Councilman Aurelio Diaz suggested delaying a the vote on the topic, which was introduced by Mayor Jodie Perry on April 16.
“I know everyone is waiting on us to vote on this,” said Diaz, who said he had recently visited an out-of-state recreational cannabis dispensary to see its operations. “I really feel that with two council people gone, I personally would like to see it delayed, unfortunately.
“I feel like they have a lot of perspectives and people they’ve been talking to (during the) past few months. I think that we should honor the fact that they’re not here and consider their votes in the future,” Diaz said.
Scott would only vote in the event of a tie among the other eight council members, which is not out of the realm of possibility on a council that seems divided on the issue.
2nd Ward Councilwoman Cheryl Meier, chair of the safety committee, said she agreed and made the motion to delay the vote.
Council then voted 6-1 in favor of the delay. The only dissenting vote came from At-large Councilman David Falquette, who was filling in for Scott as president pro-temp during the meeting.
All of this activity comes after 57 percent of Ohio voters approved State Issue 2 in November.
The issue was a citizen petition that allows home-grown cannabis, but also gave local governments the right to decide for themselves whether to permit recreational marijuana dispensaries in their communities.
In this instance, most, but not all, council members have kept their own views about a local cannabis store close to the vest since the legislation was introduced in caucus on April 16.
It seems clear having watched council discuss the proposed moratorium that a recreational dispensary has a greater chance of approval with these lawmakers than a medical cannabis dispensary that a previous Mansfield City Council rejected 6-1 in November 2017.
Certainly, officials with The Cannabist Co. are hopeful lawmakers allow them the opportunity to apply for a state license to open a Mansfield facility.
(Below is a PDF of a presentation from The Cannabist Co. to Mansfield City Council on Tuesday evening.)
Mallory McCarthy, vice president of operations management for Cannabist, and Amanda Ostrowitz, an attorney and managing partner for Slap Consulting, both attended the meeting Tuesday.
The Cannbist Co. has operations in 15 U.S. jurisdictions with 123 facilities, including 92 dispensaries and 31 cultivation and manufacturing operations, including those under development.
It currently has five medical cannabis dispensaries in Ohio.
Ostrowitz said Keri Stan, the Ohio and Illinois district manager for The Cannabist Co. (formerly Columbia Care), underestimated potential revenue for the city when she told Richland Source the company estimates annual sales in a community the size of Mansfield would be between $5 and $7 million.
She said Stan manages medical dispensaries and didn’t consider all of the retail opportunities a recreational cannabis store may offer.
“So we did a much more robust analysis considering the general area and we believe a store here will do somewhere between $700,000 and $1 million per month in revenue,” Ostrowitz said.
Based on those sales estimates, with the city receiving 36 percent of the 10 percent excise tax imposed by the state on cannabis dispensaries, the city would receive between $300,000 and $432,000 annually in new tax revenues.
“Over the course of a decade, that’s $4.3 million,” Ostrowitz said.
Like Stan, Ostrowitz said the company’s medical cannabis dispensaries are safe and secure and do not create crime problems in the cities in which they operate.
Ostrowitz said during the meeting that a six-month moratorium would be a “prohibition” on a dispensary in Mansfield.
After council’s decision to delay the vote, Ostrowitz said the delay would tighten the window on its efforts here, but was not a show-stopper if lawmakers reject the moratorium at their next meeting.
Blankenship urged council to consider the economic benefits of a dispensary.
“I would like to remind council that if we lose this opportunity, we lose that revenue related to the excise tax, plus net profit income tax on the business and withholding income taxes from the employees,” she said.
“We are looking right now at a revenue position that gets us in a lower position than we had last year. We enjoyed a $3 million increase year over year for the last three years.
“It is gone. We’re not going to see that happen this year. So from an economic standpoint, this is very important to our community,” the finance director said.
Bammann said he was not in attendance to lobby for or against the moratorium, though he cited studies done in Colorado that showed an increase in property crimes after marijuana was legalized in that state in 2013.
“This is new territory for all of us. All of us in law enforcement, the community safety is what is of the utmost importance to us.
“As law enforcement officers, our jobs are to uphold the laws … that’s in our oath … here in the state of Ohio.
“So regardless of how some people feel about marijuana, it doesn’t apply to us. We will uphold the law. The voters voted this in,” Bammann said.
“This is where I would ask council that if you do choose to put these dispensaries into our community to please take the time to make sure there are laws and codes in place, that you take the time to consider locations (of the dispensary).
“Traditionally, we’re seeing that the communities will bring them in, but they’ll hide them in back alleys, they’ll hide them off the beaten path, places that set up facilities for crime, almost kind of invite it,” the police chief said.
“I think what we’re looking at doing in downtown Mansfield, I don’t think putting a dispensary there would be a good idea,” he said.
