If you were at Monday’s Sequim City Council meeting and public hearing (Aug. 11), this is the conclusion you walked away with.

Extorting the Washington State Legislature for tax revenue was the only reason put forth by Mayor Candace Pratt and the council as they voted 4 to 1 to reinstate the Sequim marijuana moratorium that in all its bravado only prevents one duly selected individual from opening a state regulated marijuana retail store in the city approved, appropriately zoned office complex on Washington Street in the City of Sequim.

Of course, in order to get that far in the meeting you would have had to listen to a room full of citizens be told they were “bogus” and made fun of by council member Ted Miller, City Manager Steve Burkett state that there was no downside to continuing the moratorium, and the refusal of the council to hear the comments of a 27-year veteran of the City of Tracy on a technicality.

What will it take for the citizens of Sequim to realize that whatever the individual or collective agenda of the city council it is not in the best interest of the electorate financially or otherwise?

Since every speaker at the podium urged the ending of the moratorium and not one spoke in favor, all that is left is for the mayor and the council members to come to grips with the fact that the high cost of defending litigation and the continued alienation of the electorate is not worth preventing one individual from exercising the rights given him by the voters of Sequim, Clallam County and the state of Washington.

Thomas Ash

Sequim

(Ash owns Tropic Grow LLC, Clallam County’s first marijuana producer Tier 2 business.)