A court order has led to the removal of a ballot proposal aimed at banning adult-use cannabis establishments in Benzonia Township. The proposal asked voters whether the township should pass an ordinance prohibiting adult-use cannabis businesses, referencing provisions in the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act to justify the ban.
Benzonia Township currently has four adult-use cannabis businesses, with Lume being the first to open in January 2020. The petition to place this ban on the ballot was initiated by Mary Haan, who stated in an interview with the Record Patriot that she was the sole petition circulator. This marks her sixth attempt to get a measure banning cannabis businesses on the ballot.
The decision to remove the proposal came after a September 3rd hearing in Benzie County's 19th Circuit Court. Judge David Thompson granted a Writ of Mandamus, ruling in favor of the plaintiff, Prosperity for Benzonia, stating the proposal should not have been placed on the ballot.
In an August 19th brief filed on behalf of Prosperity for Benzonia by attorney Kevin Blair of Honigman Business Law Firm, it was argued that the petitions submitted were flawed. According to the brief, the petition forms contained inconsistencies, such as alternating between the terms "ordinance" and "ordinances" and "Benzonia Township" and "Benzonia Townships." Furthermore, the petition only presented a general concept rather than a specific ordinance.
The brief highlighted these issues, noting, "The conceptual proposal language on the Haan petitions cannot possibly be deemed to constitute the requisite actual ordinance because it varies amongst petition sheets, and no iteration garnered enough signatures to appear on the ballot."
Blair expressed satisfaction with the court's ruling, telling the Record Patriot that the decision confirmed the proposal did not meet the legal requirements for inclusion on the ballot. "The ruling confirmed that this does not belong on the ballot and is ineligible to be printed on the ballot because it does not conform with Michigan election laws," Blair stated.
Court records reveal that a similar ballot proposal spearheaded by Haan was also removed in 2022 by a court order, with Prosperity for Benzonia serving as the plaintiff in that case as well. In 2021, Haan filed a lawsuit against Benzonia Township for not including a similar proposal on the 2020 ballot.
Haan expressed frustration over the September 3rd ruling, noting that she had not been informed of the hearing. She criticized the process, claiming the township's voters were being sidelined. "If a citizen hadn't walked into Benzonia Township and asked about the marijuana petition being on the ballot and alerted by the township clerk that it had been scrubbed, we never would have known anything," Haan said. "Our rights as a circulator certainly were pushed aside."
Haan also accused Prosperity for Benzonia of going to great lengths to prevent voters from having a say on the matter.
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