By Adam Swift
The council voted against a motion to send out a city-wide robocall if it decides to take up the issue of allowing recreational marijuana sales before the end of its current legislation session at its Monday night meeting.
Last week, the city council placed on file a motion that would have allowed recreational marijuana sales in the city, keeping the current prohibition in place.
During that meeting, Councillor-at-Large Michelle Kelley introduced a motion asking that the city send out a robocall if the issue comes back before the council prior to the end of the current legislative session at the end of 2025.
That motion was tabled so that the council could gather more information about the potential cost of a robocall.
“It has been confirmed that no cost will be involved,” said Kelley at Monday night’s meeting. “We are under a contract, and therefore there is no cost involved. I did get a list of how many robocalls were activated in calendar year 2024, and I believe it was 16 activations.”
Kelley said the contract allows for 18 robocalls per year.
“I wanted to let everyone have that information,” she said.
Councillor-at-Large Anthony Zambuto said he couldn’t support Kelley’s motion.
“I don’t like the precedent it sets,” he said. “I’m a stickler for following our rules and our procedures, and I feel this runs afoul of that.”
Council President Anthony Cogliandro said he had been apt to support the motion last week and was glad that there would be no cost for the robocalls. However, after hearing from the city’s 311 department, Cogliandro said he agreed with Zambuto that allowing the robocalls for council business could set a bad precedent.
“If we do that, I’m afraid that the robocalls we have now are going to be diminished and people are going to opt out, and then we might have to find a new way to get in touch with people,” said Cogliandro. “I think everybody up here can do their part to let their constituents know that we are having meetings or when there are big ticket items on (the agenda).”
Kelley cast the only vote in favor of the motion.
