Politics & Government

IB Marijuana Initiative Signatures Verified; Ordinance May Be on November Ballot

County officials have verified that signatures gathered by supporters of an ordinance that would regulate and allow marijuana dispensaries in IB meet a threshold that can send the matter to voters in the fall.

The County of San Diego Registrar of Voters has verified that a sufficient amount of signatures have been collected to put medical marijuana dispensary regulation on the ballot in Imperial Beach in the fall.

In a letter sent to the City of Imperial Beach Thursday, Deborah Seiler with the registrar's office said more than 1,500 signatures were submitted, and at least 1,012 are valid.

That is equal to 10 percent of registered voters in IB, the amount necessary to force the city to act on the Safe Access Ordinance of Imperial Beach.

Find out what's happening in Imperial Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The matter will be on the July 18 City Council meeting agenda, said City Manager Gary Brown.

Then City Council must decide whether to put the ordinance to a vote, approve it outright or request a staff report to review the ramifications of passing the initiative.

The Safe Access Ordinance of Imperial Beach will eliminate two ordinances passed by the city about a year ago which banned dispensaries.

Because a special election was not specifically requested by petitioners, the city asked the county to stop counting after a 10 percent threshold was met.

Find out what's happening in Imperial Beachwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Had a special election been requested as part of the initiative, 15 percent of registered voters, or 1,515 signatures, would have been needed.

Supporters of the initiative claim they were about to gather near 2,700 signatures but limited the amount that were submitted to City Clerk Jacqueline Hald earlier this month to signatures they believed would be considered valid.

Of signatures that were reviewed, 23 were declared invalid.

The signature gathering campaign started March 22. Collected signatures were presented to the city clerk's office June 8 and given to the county registrar for verification June 12.

being considered in other parts of the county may be on the ballot in other cities in November.


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