The issue of when a vote on a local option prohibiting commercial marijuana operations outside city limits is now in the hands of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly.
A citizen petition to ask voters whether marijuana operations should be banned in those areas has received sufficient signatures to be certified, according to Borough Clerk Johni Blankenship.
“This initiative petition, I certified it as sufficient on Aug. 22 in order for it to make it on the Oct. 4, 2016 regular election, it had to have been certified with all signatures by July 25. It did not make that deadline,” said Blankenship.
The petition, originally submitted on July 26, was just shy of the 898 verified signatures needed. More signatures were gathered and verified.
At the Tuesday meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, Clerk Blankenship submitted a memo to the body explaining that petitioners had gathered enough supplementary signatures and that the Assembly now has two options.
“In this case, a lack of action is an action. So if they do nothing and do not introduce any legislation there would not be a special election and this would automatically roll to the Oct. 2017 regular municipal ballot,” said Blankenship.
The second option is to hold a special election. That would have to be done by ordinance she says, which allows for public hearing at the assembly.
Blankenship adds that a special election would cost around $60,000, whether it is conducted by mail or by voting stations.
