REDMOND, OR -- With two City Council meetings now under his belt, newly elected Redmond Mayor Ed Fitch believes there is a lot to accomplish in the coming months. One of his ideas already faces opposition from the Redmond School Board. 

Fitch wants the City Council to consider allowing marijuana dispensaries. He tells KBND News, "Having the attitude that marijuana is not going to be in Redmond if we don’t have dispensaries is not a really well thought-out conclusion. People can grow marijuana in their homes, people can drive to Bend and bring it back to Redmond, we have doctors prescribing marijuana and their patients in Redmond have to drive to Bend to get it. A lot of that just doesn’t make any sense." Fitch says, "I think we should at least discuss it. I think there’s a lot of good reasons why we should have at least a couple dispensaries - over the past four years, we’ve lost a million dollars in revenue by not having dispensaries."

But, School Board members have discussed how to formally oppose a proposal, once it's officially raised by City Council. At Wednesday night’s board meeting, the group talked about a draft letter. Superintendent Dr. Charan Cline told the board he met with Mayor Fitch earlier in the day and learned the marijuana discussion may not happen in City Council until March or April. The board voted to table plans to send a letter, in favor of further talks with the Mayor and council members. Cline told the board, "Not to create friction between our two organizations. But we may - and we probably will eventually come out with something very similar to this that says ‘we would like to limit access for students to getting illicit substances.’ I mean, that’s more or less our goal." 

Several board members expressed interest in testifying before Council if it gets to a public hearing.