By Walter Elliott
ORANGE – The City of Orange Township, at least for now, has joined South Orange, Glen Ridge and Nutley as “Local Talk” towns that will not host Cannabis-Based Businesses into 2026.
The same five Orange City Council members who passed the CBB-banning Ordinance 14-2021 Aug. 4 overrode Mayor Dwayne D. Warren’s Aug. 14 veto in an “Emergency Meeting” held on Orange City Hall’s front lawn after 7:30 p.m. Aug. 20. They stood outside of the locked 29 North Day St. building after Mayor Dwayne D. Warren had withheld his administrators and employees from attending or participating in the council’s intended 7 p.m. “Special Meeting.”
The council’s “buzzer-beater,” which places Orange among other municipalities who are saying “No” to CBBs for five years, came within five hours of the State of New Jersey’s 12:01 a.m. Aug. 21 deadline for all 565 Garden State towns to say if they will allow, restrict or prohibit said businesses.
Several “Local Talk” towns’ elders passed legislation permitting limited cannabis cultivation, manufacture, wholesaling, distributing, retailing and delivery establishments – going by the categories outlined in state legislation – in the last two weeks.
The state legislation, signed by Gov. Phil Murphy Feb. 22, allows municipalities to temporarily ban CBBs for five years. The temporary prohibition allows those banning towns to see how state regulation and neighboring burgs and hamlets fare before opening – or keep closed – their doors.
It is to the understanding of “Local Talk” that those municipalities that have not passed a CBB ordinance one way or another will have opened themselves to all N.J. Cannabis Regulatory Commission-permitted classes for the next five years. Those said municipalities still retain the power to accept or reject CBB permit applications.
The five South Orange Board of Village Trustees present Aug. 9 approved Ordinance 2021-17, which temporarily “prohibits any class of cannabis business within its geographical boundaries.”
Trustee Bob Zuckerman cited recommendations by the South Orange Cannabis Task Force and N.J. League of Municipalities for the opting-out.
“We reserve our right to allow commercial CBBs based on a full understanding of the state regulations and to preserve our ability to craft zoning and other regulations that best serve our community,” said Zuckerman, who heads the village task force. “We look forward to hosting a community-wide conversation on this topic in early fall.”
Zuckerman, the SOCTF and League were referring to the still-developing rules from N.J. Cannabis Regulatory Commission. The commission issued 160 pages of regulations Aug. 19.
NJCRC Chairwoman Diana Houenou, who had worked with the Newark Police Division and the ACLU-NJ on marijuana evidence, told WNYC Radio host (and Maplewood resident) Nancy Solomon Aug. 23 that more detailed more regulations will be coming now that the municipalities have taken sides.
“Some municipalities have opened their arms to CBBs and some have placed regulations,” said Houenou on Monday’s “Brian Lehrer Show.” “Some towns are conservative and CBBs aren’t keeping with their constituents; some are waiting to see what the regulations are and how they work.”
Orange elders’ 17-day back-and-forth until the last worknight had an unintended consequence. Ord. 14-2021’s passage, veto and override showed a split on this matter between a majority of the City Council on one side and the two dissenting councilwomen and Mayor Warren’s Administration on the other side.
Coley, bill sponsor and North Ward Councilwoman Tency Eason, West Ward Councilman Harold Johnson and At-Large Councilmen Clifford Ross and Wheldon “Monty” Montague III, before 29 North Day St.’s locked front door and an Instagram feed, all voted to override Warren’s veto.
City Clerk Joyce Lanier electronically posted the 7:30 p.m. Friday emergency meeting as soon as “the majority of the Council” learned that the Mayor would not allow his administrators to attend or participate in the Council’s 7 p.m. Aug. 20 “Special Meeting” to “discuss” 14-2021.
Warren cited “legal reasons” for keeping the city attorney, the business administrator and other department heads away from the 7 p.m. special meeting. Lanier and her staff were present at 7:30 for her office serves at the council’s pleasure.
Warren’s withdrawal of his administrators explains why those who tried to long on Zoom with numbers posted with the Aug. 18 “Special Meeting” announcement were unable to connect before and after 7 p.m. This also explains why neither meeting was carried live by the Orange TV35 public access television channel.
Councilwoman Adrienne Wooten and South Ward Colleague Jamie Summers-Johnson were absent from Friday’s intended and emergency meetings. It is not clear to “Local Talk” whether they had received both meetings’ notifications.
What Summers-Johnson made clear to “Local Talk” Aug. 23 that she and Wooten are continuing a petition drive to have the Council consider “legislation with sensible regulations.”
The councilwomen had also posted an Aug. 11 open letter to Orange residents restating their procedural complaints against Coley and that the five votes to pass Ord. 14-2021 “also banned tax revenue to help Orange residents.”
Summers-Johnson and Wooten were referring to state cannabis regulation allowing municipalities to levy a maximum one-to-two percent tax, depending on the CBB category. How much tax revenue Orange and other towns would realize, however, is dependent on the number of licenses the state and towns approve and market forces.
The dissenting councilwomen posted their open letter and started their petition drive after the initial Aug. 4 ban passage and before Mayor Warren’s Aug. 14 veto.
Seven Oaks Society member James Ward posted on Facebook 9 p.m. Aug. 24 that a Warren Administration representative may have warned of a roadblock to the said petition.
“We received notice from the City of Orange Township contracted law attorney, Joseph A. Garcia, Esq.,” said Ward, “that any referendum seeking to amend a zoning ordinance cannot be challenged by referendum – and charged the Clerk’s office not to accept petitions pertaining to 14-2021.”
Garcia, of Secaucus, may well have a specialized professional services contract with the Warren Administration. He does not have a phone number or email address on the city’s directories.
“Ordinance 14-2021 is potentially void as certain votes were improperly cast, and council members may have held illegal deliberations between the first (March 16) and second (April 20 or Aug. 4) readings of this legislation,” declared Warren in his veto. “The ordinance is potentially void.”
The Council had passed the introduction of 14-2021 March 16 and held a second reading and public hearing April 20. Orange elders then voted to table the bill until Aug. 4. a final reading and public comment were held before they voted for the ban bill, 5-2.
The mayor may have been referring to the two councilwomen’s complaint on their Aug. 11 joint letter and at the Aug. 4 meeting that they were left out of council discussions on the ordinance by Coley.
“The Mayor, at a May 5 Open House (on CBBs) said he would send a revised ordinance; the City Clerk didn’t receive it until June 15,” said Coley Aug. 4. “A majority of the Council sent the Mayor a list of questions; to this day, we’ve had no replay. Absent of the input from the Administration, the majority of the council has come to the end of the road and will vote for the ordinance.”
“By a ‘majority of the Council,’ did you include us?” responded Wooten. “We weren’t included. Just like with the Municipal Budget, this (ordinance) is our document. Our job is to legislate – not the Administration’s.”
Wooten and Summers-Johnson held two CBB open houses in the Spring, including the May 5 session where Warren appeared.
Vast majorities of public speakers April 20 and Aug. 4 spoke in favor of establishing CBBs here and against the banning ordinance.
A majority of participating “Local Talk” area and statewide voters, with percentages in the 60s and 70s, passed the public question referendum permitting the regulated supply, distribution and use of recreational marijuana. Its passage prompted the State Legislature to create the NJCRC and the six CBB classes.
Herewith a summary of CBB status among Local Talk towns.
Newark: Limited Permission: Passed Ord. 6PSF-an(s) Aug. 17; passed 21-1198, waiving 20-day ordinance effectiveness wait period, Aug. 19 special meeting
Irvington: Permits. Passed ordinance Aug. 10.
East Orange: Permits. Passed Ord. 43-2021 and waived 20-day enaction waiting period in special meeting Aug. 20.
Orange: Banned. Passed Ord. 14-2021 Aug. 20 by overriding mayor’s veto.
West Orange: Limited Permission: Passed Ord., 188-21, creating a “Cannabis Entity Advisory Working Group July 13.
South Orange: Banned. Passed Ord. 2021-17 Aug. 9.
Maplewood: Permits. Passed 3041-21, Amending Zoning and Development Regulations, July 20th.
Bloomfield: Permits “Limited Class 5 CBBs.” Passed amendment to Township Code Chapter 315-Land Development Aug. 16
Montclair: Permits. Passes Ords. 0-21-17, -18, 19 — Regulation/Amending Zoning Chapter 347/Use of Taxes in Cannabis Transactions Aug. 10.
Glen Ridge: Banned. Passed Ord. 1746 April 12.
Belleville: Permits Passed amendment of Township Code 23-Zoning Aug. 17
Nutley: Banned. Passed Ord. 3473 June 8.
