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Date: 10/5/2022
WEST SPRINGFIELD – Councilor Daniel O’Brien is frustrated. He doesn’t agree with the Town Council’s decision to effectively allow the sale and cultivation of recreational cannabis in town. He says he has hundreds of supporters on his side, and they’re still working to overturn the new law.
In July, the council voted 6-3 to support a recreational cannabis business zoning ordinance proposed by Mayor William Reichelt. Members of the minority, including O’Brien, said this issue should be decided by voters directly, not by a handful of representatives. O’Brien said he doesn’t agree with selling recreational cannabis and doesn’t think it fits West Springfield’s image, but what he cares most about is letting the people decide this issue for themselves at the ballot. He was part of an effort to place the question on the ballot this November, but the petition effort fell short of the 2,200 signatures it needed.
Undaunted by the lack of signatures, O’Brien continued to fight the cannabis ordinance. At the Sept. 20 Town Council meeting, he called upon his fellow legislators to follow his lead in voluntarily delegating their authority to the people. This time he filed a petition under Section 7-6 of West Springfield’s charter, which states that the council may, at its discretion, take action in regard to any petition signed by at least one voter, and addressed to the council, “as may be deemed necessary and advisable.”
At that meeting, town attorney Kate O’Brien-Scott advised the council not to take action on O’Brien’s newest petition.
“What is being requested here is not lawful. The petition can be submitted, but the Town Council cannot vote to suspend the zoning ordinance. That’s not permissible under state law,” she said.
Now Councilor O’Brien has his sights set on another ballot question, for the town election in November 2023. He wants to get it right this time, so he said he’s solicited the advice of O’Brien-Scott to help him with the phrasing of the proposed ordinance.
“We need to essentially reverse what we did,” said O’Brien, “so I’m requesting officially from [O’Brien-Scott] the wording that I need in order to, to submit it as a as a city councilor to begin that process.”
O’Brien said last week that he hadn’t yet heard back from O’Brien-Scott, whom he emailed a week ago. Reichelt declined to help with O’Brien’s request, and Council President Ed Sullivan said that he thinks if O’Brien “feels so strongly about it, he should write one himself. It’s not rocket science.”
Whoever crafts the words, O’Brien will still need the votes to pass them, but he isn’t worried about that. He said if he continues to meet opposition from his fellow councilors, he might have to start playing hardball. He said he knows of a couple constituents who are looking into the next step. That step, O’Brien said, is a quick scroll down the town charter to section 7-12: Recall Elections.
He said he told these constituents, who he refused to name, to let him “try and get these other things done first. So they’re waiting,” said O’Brien. “They’re waiting to see what they’re going to do.”