Missouri, Cliff Village

[palmspringsbum]

April 7, 2009
Cliff Village mayor holds no hard feelings over loss

By Greg Grisolano
The Joplin Globe
ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com

Joe Blundell said he has no hard feelings about his apparent ouster as mayor of Cliff Village.

“You’ve heard the expression you can’t win for losing,” said Blundell, 30, a three-term mayor of the village south of Joplin. “This is finally a case where one can.”

Write-in candidates Mark Sweet and Mike Darr defeated Blundell and his father, village Trustee George Blundell, according to unofficial results Tuesday night.

The rub: a medical-marijuana ordinance that the mayor had championed in what he said was a symbolic gesture.

Blundell and his father each got 4 votes. Sweet and Darr each received 14 votes, with all precincts reporting Tuesday night.

Blundell drew criticism from some residents of the village for the way in which the ordinance apparently was approved and for the subsequent national media attention.

The village board apparently voted to approve the marijuana ordinance — which would decriminalize the possession of physician-prescribed medical marijuana and which mirrors proposed legislation in the state General Assembly — by a 3-2 tally on Feb. 1. The three supporters included Joe Blundell and his father.

Sweet, one of the organizers of a petition that asked Joe Blundell to resign in February, said his campaign was focused on restoring open government to the village board.

“It’s just a matter of voting Joe and his father off the board and out of the mayor’s position,” Sweet said. “When you do illegal things, you can expect to be voted out.”

Darr did not return a message left at his home Tuesday. George Blundell could not be reached for comment.

Joe Blundell had said he would not vote for himself if the residents fielded a write-in candidate. But, he said he did vote for himself this time because “there was no other name on the ballot.”

“I clicked the only ballot that was there,” he said. “I’ve been trying to get somebody to take this job for the last two years.”

Sweet said the main concern with the ordinance was that the manner in which it was introduced may have violated state laws concerning open government.

[palmspringsbum]

Write-in candidate smokes the competition

KOAM TV 7 | April 8, 2009 04:36 PM PDT

NEWTON COUNTY, MO. - Controversy over a marijuana ordinance helps another write-in candidate smoke the competition.

Cliff Village Mayor Joseph Blundell recently passed an ordinance to legalize the use of medical marijuana.

Blundell was uncontested in Tuesday's election, but write-in candidate Mark Sweet received 14 votes.

Blundell had just four votes.

<span class="postbold">Mayor declines to resign</span>

In February the mayor of a tiny Joplin suburb said he would stay put, despite calls for his resignation.

A group of Cliff Village residents alleged that a local ordinance legalizing medical marijuana was adopted without a legal mandate.

They believe Mayor Joe Blundell misrepresented the critical vote of one board member.

Mayor Blundell said he had been presented with a petition bearing 18 signatures, calling for his immediate resignation.

Blundell said the ordinance passed on February 1 by a 3-2 vote is strictly symbolic, designed to show grass-roots support for Missouri to legalize medical marijuana as 13 other states have.

Petition-signers contend that Blundell did not have the backing of village officials for the ordinance, and that he was using the community to advance a personal agenda.

<span class=postbold>Train accident leads to mayor's use of medical marijuana</span>

Joe Blundell told us earlier in the month that it all started when he was run over by a train nine years ago.

"It ground me up pretty good and I got, as a result of that, several screws, three inch titanium screws, drilled into my spinal column," Joseph Blundell said. "It doesn't feel like kittens purring, I mean it hurts like crazy. And the only things the doctors would give me after this accident was morphine, codein, and demorall. All opium-based narcodics."

It wasn't until a friend recommended replacing those drugs with marijuana that Blundell said he was relieved of his pain. He said he has since quit, but now it's turned into a fight for a new right - starting at the city level.

<span classs=postbold>Sheriff says he will still enforce the law</span>

Mayor Blundell met with Cliff Village council members last October to discuss legalizing the medical use of marijuana. Soon after, the motion was up for vote.

"The council, the way we vote on ordinances here, the council actually voted, and it was a close vote, it ended up being 3 to 2, so it just barely passed, but them's the breaks when it comes to democracy," Blundell said.

The ordinance allows someone with a doctor's approval to have a few ounces of marijuana and grow a few plants.

But Cliff Village is still under the patrol of Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland. He said marijuana is illegal in Newton County and the state, and promises to enforce the law everywhere.

"My advice would be to anybody living in Cliff Village, especially those who voted for this that think you can - I think we'll show you that you can't, because you'll go to jail and you will be prosecuted," said Sheriff Copeland.

Mayor Blundell said he expects backlash from his community's new marijuana ordinance.


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