North Las Vegas revises pot licensing ordinance

North Las Vegas unveiled more tweaks to its medical marijuana business licensing ordinance Wednesday, signing off on changes meant to fast track applicants who qualify for a newly created “cross-jurisdictional” license.

Entrepreneurs already approved to grow, test or manufacture medical marijuana products outside North Las Vegas — and which provide services to pot establishments within city limits —would be defined as a “privileged” applicant under rule revisions introduced this week.

Qualified applicants will have to pay a flat $10,000 application fee, but will get to skip out on five-digit annual and gross revenue fees charged to applicants who haven’t managed to win over leaders in another jurisdiction.

City Community Development and Compliance Director Greg Blackburn said the move isn’t meant to punish industry newcomers, but to reward those who have already cleared the bar in Clark County, Las Vegas or Henderson.

“We didn’t want to disadvantage businesses here in our entity,” Blackburn said. “There will be very laborious quality and inventory control tracking, but it will be easier on (applicants) because all they will have to do is come in, pay a fee and show us they’re registered with the state.”

Blackburn hopes to see City Council members finalize the new cross-jurisdictional license language on Aug. 20.

City-bound medical marijuana dispensary owners — the only pot entrepreneurs not qualified for cross-jurisdictional considerations — managed a few rule tweaks of their own Wednesday, winning unanimous final approval planning code revisions that will allow vertically integrated pot dispensaries on select commercial zoning.

So-called “seed to sale” dispensaries, those set to include an in-house pot cultivation or production facility, will now be allowed on M-2 zoning areas throughout the city. Hybrid pot shop owners will also get to skip a planning commission hearing before making their case in front of the City Council.

North Las Vegas plans to start accepting pot business license and special use permit applications over a 10-day application window set to open Aug. 18. That application period closes at 3 p.m. on Sept. 3.

JUDICIAL COMPLAINTS

A long-simmering feud between North Las Vegas officials and Municipal Court Judge Catherine Ramsey boiled over into the City Council chambers Wednesday, with Mayor John Lee calling for a temporary shutdown of Ramsey’s courtroom.

Lee, speaking toward the end of an otherwise quiet Wednesday City Council meeting, cited a string of Ramsey-related complaints from attorneys and former court employees before asking whether the city was doing “everything possible” to preserve a less-than-hostile work environment for current court workers.

Ramsey, first elected in 2011, has faced five formal workplace complaints in her three years on the bench, including a pair of lawsuits working their way through the courts.

In June, Ramsey filed a suit of her own aimed at forcing the city to defend her against those legal actions, prompting the latest in a series of high-profile run-ins between officials and the first-term judge. City leaders responded to the suit within a week, adopting an ordinance meant to ensure that Municipal Court cameras were turned on at all times in Ramsey’s courtroom.

Lee, who helped pass that ordinance, made it clear that he would like to go a step further, asking City Attorney Sandra Douglass Morgan whether it was possible to temporarily shutter Ramsey’s department in the interest of protecting employees from “this liability.”

He went on to acknowledge a rumored Ramsey recall effort, lamenting the fact that there is only so much City Council members can do when it comes to overseeing a fellow elected official.

“My point is I think we need to remove our employees from that courtroom, based on what I’m hearing,” Lee said. “I just want to put that on the record.”

City Attorney Morgan said she didn’t feel comfortable offering legal advice on that possibility in a public forum, but reassured Lee that the city was doing all it could to oversee Ramsey’s courtroom conduct.

She also confirmed that the city had filed a complaint against the judge with the Nevada Commission on Judicial Ethics.

Ramsey, who has denied attorneys’ claims of a standing “vendetta” against city officials, did not return requests for comment.

Contact James DeHaven at jdehaven@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3839. Follow him on Twitter: @JamesDeHaven.