Hayward Daily Review

HAYWARD Nov 22- The City Council might reconsider a decision it made Tuesday that forces the closure of the Hayward Hempery's medical marijuana dispensary.

At the request of Mayor Roberta Cooper, who is concerned about "fairness issues," the council is scheduled Tuesday night to decide whether to revisit a surprise decision it made a week before.

Earlier that night, Cooper warned the crowd of medical marijuana proponents to keep testimony brief because the council's ability to make rational decisions drops significantly after 11 p.m.

At 11:13 p.m. the council voted unanimously to allow two other dispensaries to continue to operate in downtown Hayward, but not The Hempery.

The council was scheduled to consider grandfathering in The Hempery and the Local Patients Cooperative -- both on Foothill Boulevard near B Street -- as part of a compromise agreement that evolved from a city task force on medical marijuana. The dispensaries, including a third that opened recently in the same vicinity on Foothill, have been operating in violation of Hayward's zoning law.

Instead, based on the facilities' reputations, the council sanctioned Local Patients Cooperative and the new Hayward Patients' Resource Center (HPRC), a revival of the former B Street Helping Hands Patients' Center.

Cooper, who was later contacted by Hempery owner Cheryl Adams, said the council's late decision may have been made unfairly and in haste. She's not sure the city did its part in notifying Adams of the meeting.

She also said many dispensary proponents had mistakenly concluded, based on an earlier work session, that the council was going to grandfather in all three existing dispensaries.

"We didn't have a deal," she said, chalking up their interpretation to "naivete."

Cooper and other council members also said they were dismayed to learn, after the fact, that The Hempery was robbed earlier this month, but Adams didn't report it to police at the urging of HPRC owner Jane Weirick. [Jane denies this, see note below - D.G.]

"Any robbery of any significance should be reported to police," Cooper said.

Councilman Joe Hilson said he felt that, by hiding the robbery, people weren't being "straight" with the council.

Tuesday's discussion is expected to be quick and purely procedural. If the council wants to reconsider the item, it will be put on a later meeting agenda.

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Jane Weirick Responds:

I NEVER told Cheryl not to report a $30,000 burglary. I never tried to hide the fact that she had been burglarized, and I called the police myself two nights later when someone tried to break into her facility again. I DID tell Cheryl, as I have advised all the facilities, that her number of police calls would be one of the things the City would take into account when they considered which facilities to grandfather, which they DID address at the last Council meeting. It wasn't any big secret, simply a fact.

When Cheryl was burglarized, she told me she'd suffered a very insignificant loss and it was most likely the group of people who had been living in her building whom she had evicted the day before. She never said anything about losing $30,000 to me or anyone else until she spoke to the press. I have also advised her that I didn't think it was appropriate for her to keep loaded firearms on the premises, that she was most likely going to have to open her records for audit, that there were rumors, true or not, of methamphetamine use and sales within her facility and that she hadn't put on a good face for either the medical marijuana movement or the City and should clean up her act or face the possibility of being shut down. But I NEVER told her that she shouldn't report a significant burglary. I would have reported it myself except that it was not my responsibility to do so. And I told the police when I called them on her behalf that I was aware that there had been a burglary attempt, which was the reason I called the police myself when I observed people on her roof.

I also NEVER "stormed out of the council meeting with my supporters"; I started crying and left the room so I would not disturb the proceedings and was as surprised as anyone to turn around and find a crowd of people behind me. Even the Council didn't think of it that way until the press reported it as so.

The reporter in this case, Michelle Meyers, seems to delight in pitting the participants against each other with her frequent misrepresentations and misquoting. She seems to be itching to turn it all into a soap opera. Needless to say, the issue of dispensaries in Hayward is by no means settled.

Jane Weirick