The West Wendover city council was again very divided at last Tuesday meeting of April 17th, and voted to reject an ordinance who would include recreational marijuana sales, 3 to 2. The two city councilman and woman for recreational Marijuana sales, after the medical marijuana would be well and running, were almost not there. Councilman Izzy Gutierrez complained that he was in Reno at some league of cities meetings and had to hurry back to Wendover after the recreational Marijuana was put on the agenda at the last minute, and Jasie Holm was away too, but attended the meeting via video call. Councilman Gutierrez said (in between the lines that it was suspicious to him) that it was back on the agenda while him and Councilwoman Holm were away.
The West Wendover Casinos, the Wendover major industry, is against recreational marijuana as it might deter gambling customers. Recreational marijuana, just like the majority of people who took the stand at the meeting voiced, might bring in more crime, more beggars and homeless people, more addicts to the area and might have a bad side effect on the gambling resorts. And even if this is all true and bad for the locals and the local youth, we cannot ignore the fact that the three councilmen voting NO to recreational marijuana, Jerry Anderson, John Hanson and Nick Flores are also working for the Casino industry, while councilman Gutierrez and councilwoman Holm don’t.
It was noted in the meeting, that even if West Wendover voters approved recreational marijuana in 2016, it was a 392 vote Yeses against 386 Noes, pretty close call. And that 1,300 registered voters abstained from voting.
Last year the city council voted for medical marijuana in West Wendover, with the possibility to include recreational marijuana in the town future.
The many who took the stand at this meeting were:
Pastor Chris Lund (against) as it would be bad for our youth, our morals and our souls;
Ryan Tangaro from the Elko County Juvenile Police Department (against) as it would increase crime, set a bad example for our youth, and facilitate the drug intake in general as often the first drug is marijuana, then people upgrade to harder drugs like Meth and Cocaine;
Deep roots (of course for it) saying that the window of opportunity for it might close;
John Spillman from Bomarc (against) saying in short that recreational marijuana might be very bad for our local economy and our principal industry, the Casinos, who helped this city grow and that we should support in return;
Cathy Durham Social studies teacher at West Wendover High School, though she opposes recreational marijuana, she believes that since the majority of the people in the past elections voted for it, the council should recognize it and vote in consequence;
Mike Magney from Pace Coalition who is a coalition of prevention against alcohol, tobacco, and drugs of all sorts for healthy communities was of course against, as it promotes drugs intake and laxism;
Jorge Espinoza (against) took the stand to emphasize how bad it would be to raise children and teenagers in this climate at home and at school, as it looks like he has a few children of his own;
Brenda Claiborne, local Realtor asked the council if they checked with the City of Mesquite a year later after they(the council) toured the Deep Roots facility last year, to see if the city of Mesquite is still happy to have it or not. She added that she talked to people in Ely, and that “Ely is excited about it”;
William Jonathan, a local resident read some statistics showing the bad effects of it (against);
Gunner Carter, a local youth and West Wendover student, was also against for many of the same reasons listed above;
One woman we didn’t know the name was for recreational marijuana but her sources for her argument was unclear.
Deep Roots Harvest, the now only marijuana licensee in Wendover, told the city council their resolve to provide medical marijuana. But they had concerns about the town not sure of recreational marijuana sales. Neil Tomlinson, Deep Roots Harvest’s attorney, told the council “That window may close and it may never open again.”
Mayor Daniel Corona called for a recess, and used part of the recess to talk to the city attorney, before going back. During the recess, Deep Roots Harvest declined to comment on their future plans.
When the council and the Mayor reconvened to resume the meeting, after 8:30 p.m. and most of the audience and all interested parties were gone, the mayor vetoed the council decision. This took the council and the few left in the audience by surprise. After all the drama of the last few months and the evening, nothing was resolved. The Mayor said : “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use this,” he told the audience, announcing his veto of the council’s vote. But he did this to leave the door open to possibly reintroduce recreational marijuana issue in the future. He also told the council he was sorry they felt he pushed hard, and he was going to back up and let them reflect on it further. “I wanted to leave that door open, if they want to bring it back(the issue of recreational marijuana).