Appeal planned for Pound Ridge open meetings lawsuit

POUND RIDGE, N.Y. - John Nathan may have lost a battle, but he’s not giving up the war.

Last year, the Pound Ridge resident sued, alleging that local officials had violated the state’s Open Meetings Law (OML) by not discussing the pros and cons of recreational cannabis dispensaries and/or consumption sites in public.

The town and SMMB, which is doing business as Purple Plains, a cannabis dispensary in Scotts Corners, moved to dismiss the lawsuit.

This past June, that motion was granted by Judge David F. Everett of the Westchester County Supreme Court in White Plains.

He found that not only had the town provided sufficient notice about the opt-out law, the statute of limitations for filing the suit had long expired.

Nathan would have had to acted within four months of the state’s Dec. 31, 2021, opt-out deadline, Everett ruled.

Everett  concluded that the facts as presented by Nathan – such as an email sent by Hansan to neighboring mayors and supervisors -- failed to support his claim that the OML had been violated, “particularly since the Town Supervisor was the only member of the Town Board who participated in the email communications, and the other emails and documents establish only that the Town Board was aware of the Town's right to opt-out of the MRTA.”

(The MRTA is the state’s 2021 Marijuana Regulation & Taxation Act.)

The email was not shared with residents.

Nathan cited facts that speculated that “a decision to opt out was made by a quorum,” the decision said.

However, the allegations of a “secret decision” are, the judge ruled, “insufficient to show a cognizable claim of a violation of the OML.”

The full text of Everett’s decision is posted on the town’s website, www.townofpoundridge.com.

Reacting to the court decision on July 15, Supervisor Kevin Hansan shared that the suit had been “resolved” in the town’s favor.

While that was a “positive outcome” for the town, it still had – as of May -- to spend close to $50,000 in legal fees defending itself, he noted.

Thanking Town Attorney William P. Harrington “for his dedicated work in defending the town and protecting our taxpayers,” Hansan added: “We hope this marks the end of the matter.”

Nathan, who is an attorney, spoke at the meeting to “set the record straight” and to assure the town that he planned to pursue an appeal “vigorously.”

He submitted papers with the Appellate Division, 2nd Department, in Brooklyn. The filing deadline was Aug. 1.

Background

The state MRTA legalized recreational cannabis use by adults but gave cities, towns, and villages the chance to block dispensaries and lounges nine months to formally opt out.

By not doing so by the Dec. 31, 2021 deadline, they were automatically in.

The bottom line to Nathan?

Policy decisions have to be made in public, the attorney said.

The OML requires boards to conduct business at open meetings, publicize them, and create written records of any discussions.

While that doesn’t mean government officials can’t confab with each other as individuals outside of meetings, those communications can’t result in collective decisions.

Everett also wrote in his decision that the Town Board had announced at its April 6, 2021, public meeting that the state’s cannabis law had passed and that it had included an opt-out provision.

That “put plaintiff and every resident on notice,” he said.

Everett further found that residents could have learned from Town Board minutes posted on its website that the opt-out deadline was Dec. 31, 2021.

“There is no requirement that the Town had to continuously advise the residents,” his decision said.

Nathan, who obviously doesn’t agree that that was sufficient, has alleged that town officials turned to consultants and lawyers for advice on whether to opt out, talked out of public earshot, and didn’t prepare written records of those conversations.

Pound Ridge didn’t hold public hearings before the opt-out deadline, unlike eight surrounding towns, including Somers, he said.

However, in 2023, it held a public hearing regarding a proposed six-month moratorium on building permits in the hamlet’s downtown area and the following year, it held meetings and a public hearing on a proposed local law regulating cannabis-related retail activity.

Among the issues addressed were where such businesses could be located, what they could sell, what hours they could keep, and what licenses and permits they required.

The law was adopted in October, 2024.

The Town Board had told the state Office of Cannabis Management in 2023 that it supported the passage of home rule legislation that would have allowed towns that hadn’t opted out in the beginning to hold public referendums on the allowing of such dispensaries.

The legislation never moved forward in Albany.

Doing His Homework

Nathan claimed that the public wasn’t aware of the situation until word got out about the town’s first cannabis license application in October 2023.

(Despite the flap that created during the fall elections, Hansan secured a fourth term as supervisor.)

Nathan claimed he searched for evidence of open discussions on the topic by poring over videos of every Town Board meeting from April until December of 2021.

All that labor produced was a “one-minute” announcement about the opt-out law, Nathan asserted.

To bolster his case, he read meeting minutes, town newsletters, and newspaper articles, and also got his hands on “hundreds of pages of emails and internal documents.”

According to Nathan, one of those emails showed that Pound Ridge officials were considering the issue.

He said it was sent by Hansan to officials in the surrounding area two months before the 2021 deadline and read: “We didn’t opt out. We are comfortable with the possibility of a dispensary. On-site consumption isn’t even considered a possible viable business for Pound Ridge since we have zero public transportation, no pedestrian foot traffic, and minimal UBERs.”

Hansan Responds

When Nathan’s suit was first filed, Hansan called the claim that the town had violated the OML law “100 percent false.”

Furthermore, he dismissed the suit as “frivolous,” and said that it had been aimed at “intimidating” the Town Board.

It was “a waste of taxpayer money to even respond,” Hansan said.

Nathan wrote in recent email that one of his biggest fears is that the court’s decision will set a legal precedent.

“This important case has ramifications not only for the residents of Pound Ridge, but for residents across New York state.  Unless the Court’s ruling is reversed, residents in towns across New York State will forever be subject to the ‘Pound Ridge Rule.’ They will find out years after the fact -- as I did in this case -- that their town boards took action without their knowledge and without their input,” he wrote.

Nathan has repeatedly emphasized that he’s not against cannabis itself and that his first and only concern is the “rule of law.”

“As a lawyer, I cannot allow that to go unchallenged,” he said.

Hansan was equally as emphatic.

“I’m extremely disappointed that he would appeal considering the judge’s ruling was very clear and direct,” he said, adding that Pound Ridge taxpayers “have already spent nearly $50,000 on this suit and shouldn’t be required to spend any more.”