Along the same lines, confirmation bias is a useful concept to be acquainted with.

Obama also had his turn at the podium, where he mocked the GOP and — for those who still have doubts about his citizenship — released his “birth video”.

Edit: Watch this 8-minute trailer first; it’s shorter and highlights the kids.

Among other points, Jacob noted:

• Many people were really hungry for information (especially those whose homes were at risk), and updates from conventional channels (TV, radio, print) were too infrequent.
• Facebook and Twitter were the main tools for quick, frequent updates.
• Jacob’s email list — otherwise used to regularly update his constituents — was an important supplement for the short messages sent via Twitter. While not everyone in the city was subscribed, those who were got more detailed information than was available from either social or conventional media.
• Some people began using social media as a result of the fire, because it was the best resource for timely updates.

It’s an interesting case study in how proactive elected officials (Jacob and Councilor Bill Fisher) used available tools to complement established protocols for distributing information during a crisis.

Dear Governor, General Assembly, Mayor and City Council:

Tomorrow, January 18, 2011, the Salida City Council will consider on its agenda item #9, proposed:
Resolution 2010-10 submitting to a vote of the registered electors of the City at the Special Municipal Election of April 19, 2011, a question of whether the operation and licensing of Medical Marijuana Centers, Optional Premises Cultivation Operations, and Medical Marijuana-Infused Products Manufacturers shall be prohibited in the City of Salida, Colorado.

I am an attorney specializing in Medical Marijuana, and have been retained by one of Salida’s leading Medical Marijuana Centers, Tenderfoot Health Collective, LLC, in an effort to preserve this functioning, productive, tax-paying, job-creating business that benefits numerous Medical Marijuana patients, and the Salida, Colorado community as a whole.  I write to encourage the City to consider passing a reasonable ordinance that regulates these types of businesses rather than bans them altogether.  I will volunteer my time, free of charge to the City, to assist the City and the City Attorney in drafting such regulations.
By way of experience, to my knowledge I am the only attorney in Colorado to prevail in Medical Marijuana-related litigation involving federal, state, and local entities.  I have tried more jury trials related to Medical Marijuana than all other attorneys in Colorado combined, and such criminal prosecutions end with “not guilty” verdicts and my client departing the courthouse with all Medical Marijuana seized.

I was lead counsel for the Plaintiffs in Frasher v. City of Centennial, Arapahoe District Court Case No. 09CV1456, which is the only Court in Colorado that has confronted the issue of whether the possession, use, distribution, and sale of Medical Marijuana is a constitutional right, and whether it can be banned outright by a local government.  In that case, the Honorable Christopher Cross, District Court Judge, engaged in a comprehensive legal analysis and held that Medical Marijuana is indeed a constitutional right protected by the Colorado Constitution, Article XVIII § 14 and cannot be banned outright consistent with the Colorado Constitution.  (The transcript of this ruling is available on my website, www.RobCorry.com.)  The parties to the Centennial case agreed that this ruling is the final ruling in the case, and neither party appealed within the time required, so the ruling stands.

I provide you this brief summary of my qualifications to demonstrate that my clients are very serious about a lawsuit against Salida, and serious about prevailing.  My clients are already suffering directly from this proposal, which causes them immediate harm, and makes doing business extremely difficult since the very existence of the business is now thrown into doubt.

However, my clients would certainly rather resolve the issue than sue.  They are serious about avoiding costly court battles, if we can find some common ground.  The owners of Tenderfoot Health Collective are upstanding local citizens with numerous ties to the community they have called home for many years.  They want to continue as a positive and productive aspect of the community for many years to come.

For over one year, they have worked hard, and invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, to build this business as an ethical, upstanding, community-focused business that has helped many suffering patients, and has returned thousands in sales tax revenue to Salida.  They have done so for nearly all of 2010, openly and without any serious complaint or opposition from the community, even though Medical Marijuana remains controversial.  Medical Marijuana’s reputation as unsafe for a community is undeserved, and it is inaccurate to state that medical marijuana generates statistically unusual amounts of criminal activity.  A 2009 report by the Denver Police Department, which is certainly not a Medical Marijuana advocate, confirms that medical marijuana-related businesses have a 16.8% crime rate, roughly equal to pharmacies, less than the 19.7% rate of liquor stores, and far less than the 33.7% rate of banks.  “Analysis: Denver Pot Shops’ Robbery Rate Lower Than Banks,’” Denver Post, January 27, 2010.

A special election would be expensive and would divide the Salida community between sick and suffering Medical Marijuana patients (only approximately 2% of the Colorado population), their friends and families, and their supporters, against well-meaning opponents of medical marijuana.  Although my clients would continue to conduct themselves in an upstanding manner, the campaign surrounding the special election could be divisive and negative for the community.  Some people rely on this medicine for their lives, would feel threatened that they are in danger of losing a legitimate source of their medicine and forced to obtain it from underground sources or not at all, and should not be subject to the “tyranny of the majority” to follow their doctor’s orders.

And if the proposal were to pass, it certainly would not eliminate medical marijuana from Salida.  It would only drive it underground, to unregulated and untaxed, residential and neighborhood gardens in proximity to children.  Such home-based gardens and distribution operations cannot be legally banned or even regulated under the Colorado Constitution, Colorado Revised Statutes, and the Centennial case.  It makes much more sense for Medical Marijuana to be distributed in the open, in non-residential, zoned retail centers open to government inspection, regulation, and taxation.

Passing reasonable regulations at the City level is far less expensive and legally defensible than an outright ban.  My clients hope the City will reconsider.

If we are unable to resolve our differences, please construe this letter as my clients’ required Notice of Intent to Sue pursuant to C.R.S. § 24-10-109, with claimants as follows: Numerous Medical Marijuana patients in and around Salida, CO; and Tenderfoot Health Collective, LLC, 840 Oak Street, Salida, Colorado.

The factual basis for the legal claim is that in early 2010 Tenderfoot Health Collective obtained all necessary approvals from the City of Salida to legally provide Medical Marijuana to patients, and did so safely and legally for months without a single incident.  On January 18, 2011, the City Council will consider a proposed ordinance banning Medical Marijuana Centers, Optional Premises Cultivation Operations, and Medical Marijuana Infused Products Manufacturers within Salida, which if placed on the ballot will chill legitimate business activity before the election, including but not limited to securing and maintaining operating capital, loans, leases, employees, marketing, advertising, and so forth, and if the voters decide to prohibit such businesses, could deprive Medical Marijuana patients their medicine and deprive Tenderfoot Health Collective and its owners, employees, and managers its business and property rights unless there were a “grandfathering.”

The City cites Colorado House Bill 10-1284 as state statutory authority to ban Medical Marijuana-related businesses in the City.  The City previously accepted sales tax revenue from Tenderfoot Health Collective, and the business and its owners made decisions in reliance on the past approval of the City.

The nature and extent of the injury is that suffering Medical Marijuana patients will be unable or unreasonably burdened in obtaining their physician-recommended medicine, they will be forced to obtain medicine (if at all) in unsafe, unregulated, and faraway locations, their pain and suffering will increase as a result; there will be a growth in unregulated and untaxed home-based growing and caregiving operations in and around Salida’s residential neighborhoods in close proximity to families and children; and Tenderfoot Health Collective and its owners were denied its vested property rights previously granted to operate a business, which it reasonably relied upon and accordingly invested time and capital to establish its location in the City of Salida.  To the extent H.B. 10-1284 purports to authorize banning constitutionally-protected right to Medical Marijuana codified at the Colorado Constitution, Article XVIII § 14, and an uncompensated taking of private property for public use, that statute is unconstitutional on its face and as applied in this case.

The amount of monetary damages is difficult to estimate at this time, but the long-term value of this business in terms of corporate balance sheets and anticipated growth is at least $3,000,000.00.  It is difficult to place a price tag on the pain and suffering the innocent patients will experience in being denied a safe source of medicine.  Such denial will constitute irreparable harm.

Please contact me with questions.  My clients and I hope we can resolve this situation without holding an expensive and divisive special election, and without going to Court.  Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

Sincerely,

Robert J. Corry, Jr.

Now you can create a discussion, offer a ride, sell your old gear, get feedback or spark a debate in the online forums. Simply create an account, or if you already have a Facebook, Google or Open ID account, you can use that instead.

Posts to the forums will be subject to our general comment guidelines, which boil down to “be nice”. Also, while a real name isn’t required to create an account, if you’re being at all critical of someone in the community please sign your name to your post. We appreciate a good debate, but anonymous comments tend to be less civil than they could be.

You can get to the forums directly at: http://salidacitizen.com/discuss/

We’ll probably be kicking the tires for the next few weeks, so expect to see a few changes.

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2011,
The folks at the Salida Citizen

The 2011 preliminary budget shows that the City expects $6,077,900 in general fund revenue — down from 2010 — and $5,959,800 in expenditures. [1]

Given $100 moving through the City’s general fund, then, here is a snapshot of where it comes from, and how it is spent.

All the usual caveats apply, and you should take a look at the preliminary budget yourself. Note especially that these numbers are from the general fund only. When you include the enterprise funds (water, sewer, steam plant, etc), 2011 revenue and expenditures are just north of $17M. Enterprise funds are run as businesses and supported by fees, not taxes.

A few other notes:

• Intergovernmental includes things like cigarette, motor vehicle and severance taxes
• What we called fees, the City terms “Charges for services”, including recreation fees, park rental fees, vital statistics records, etc.
• Miscellaneous revenue includes interest, rents and leases and planning and zoning fees

[1] Edit: We’ve updated our numbers to include the proposed 2011 subsidy of the SteamPlant, which increases expenditures to $6,059,150. You can check our worksheet to see how we came up with the numbers.