Fullerton City Attorney Lies by Omission, Weed Lawsuits Likely Inbound
It’s high time the Fullerton City Council fired City Manager Ken Domer and the City’s resident law firm Jones & Mayer. They have opened the city up to too much litigation (including a public records lawsuit I have against the City) and frankly are incapable of doing their jobs in an honest and professional way.
Allow me to explain by way of legal weed in Fullerton.
For disclosure I don’t care for zoning laws and believe weed should be legal. This is an issue of incompetence and legal liability brought on by grossly negligent advice as opposed to an issue of weed in general.
The problem at hand is Jan Flory’s vote on 17 November 2020 which authorized legal weed to be sold in shops in residential neighborhoods. For the sake of argument we’re going to assume that Jan Flory was playing the role of useful idiot and not co-conspirator in her role despite her alleged investments in the legal weed industry. Here’s her saying there needed to be a barrier which she herself then voted against:
If you watch the meeting you’ll see Jennifer Fitzgerald, around the 4 hour and 11 minute mark mention that if people knew they were going to have legal weed in their neighborhoods they would have pushed back against it. Perennial Marble Mouth City Attorney “The Other Dick Jones™” then opines that he spoke to City Manager Ken Domer about this very issue and they agreed that a new “clean” ordinance should be brought forward to clean up the lack zoning notifications.
Let’s go to the video:
What Jones and Domer neglected to mention was that there was no time to “clean up” the ordinance without running afoul of legal challenges from the property owners who’s property was newly zoned for legal weed.
They ALSO neglected to mention that because of how quickly the new ordinance was taking effect it would require an “urgency ordinance” to change things which requires a 4/5 Super-Majority vote on council.
Want a buffer between your kids and weed sales as Jan Flory claims to want? No can do before the law goes into effect.
Want to require noticing so people know when a business is opening in their ‘hood? Nope.
Not without a supermajority.
Here’s the language on that from Agenda Item #15 for the upcoming council meeting:
“An urgency ordinance, which requires a 4/5th affirmative vote, would stay the effective date of Ordinance No. 3289 to April 16, 2020, an ordinance adopted on November 17, 2020 on a 3 – 2 vote of City Council.”
That’s probably information that Jan Flory could have used back before she cast her vote in the hopes a future council could fix her cockup. It’s too bad she only had 14 years on council to learn how to do her job. I guess it takes 15 years+ to learn to ask pointed follow-up questions.
Staff, of course, could have offered up this information openly and honestly but… alas, no. That would require staff to do their jobs and be honest brokers of information.
This was a trash ordinance from start to finish that never should have seen the light of day but not it’s going to be a fight just to fix the glaring problems in it.
As it stands now, unless Jesus Silva or Ahmad Zahra change their minds regarding selling weed on your block, this thing can’t be changed before it goes into effect. Amazing how the timeline recommended by Staff precluded the council from changing things in the same simple majority that got it passed. It’s *almost* like they do this crap on purpose.
At the end of the day this is either a case of gross negligence or corruption by design and at this point neither would shock me, nor should it shock any other resident here in Fullerton. Either way it should result in the firing of the people who are at fault – namely City Manager Ken Domer and City Attorney firm Jones & Mayer. But let us be honest here and admit that that’s not how things are done in Fullerton. When was the last time corruption, incompetence or both resulted in anybody losing their jobs or being held personally liable? Hell, the City is suing US because THEY broke the law.
This new council has the chance to make some serious and important changes here in Fullerton, let’s see if they’re up to the hard work of finally taking out the trash at City Hall.
Same problem as the Short Term Rentals ordinance. Now that STRs have been approved, property owners have legal standing to sue the city if they are made illegal.
I’m not too sure about that. Did the City set up a permit process? Anaheim went through the same thing a few years ago.
I think they’re talking about two sep[arate things – noticing the public about a use addition to the zone, and later, more specifically, noticing the public about the City granting specific permits.
As usual the communication was all fucked up and nobody clarified who was talking about what.
I think the City will be okay if no permits are issued under the dumbass ordinance they passed if no one suffers specific damage; and I don’t understand why a 4/5 vote is needed to “clean-up” this mess.
In any case I agree 100%: Domer and Jones need to go, and the sonoer the better.
Mayor Whitaker, this issue alone is cause to fire the city manager and city attorney.
Jesus and Ahmad, all eyes are on you.
I am not against legal weed. I am strongly against no residential buffer zone. It’s mind boggling that they set up an 800 foot buffer zone for schools, parks and youth centers but none for residences. Buffer zone for residences should be MORE than 800 feet. All this stuff should be kept in industrial areas only, just like Santa Ana and most cities where weed is legal. As it is, many of the locations where dispensaries might be located have residences that directly back up or are next door to the locations. The incompetence of the council on this issue is mind boggling.
It’s not mind-boggling at all. Someone has looked very closely at zoning maps of Fullerton and that someone has Jesus H. Silva in his pocket.
The actions of Silva and Zahra to set up their insider Pot Dealers are understandable because they both need money, money, money. Staff pushed through the ordinance for 3 reasons too- pensions, pensions, pensions.
There should be three votes to postpone the application process from January – to a date sometime in the future to allow enough time for a new “clean up ordinance” to be implemented.
Just like the city attorney Dick Jones explained to Jan Flory, right?