Dem operative to lobby for medical marijuana dispensaries

A top Democratic operative and the campaign manager of a November ballot effort has registered as a lobbyist. The move comes two months after she participated in meetings with Boston City Hall officials and a company seeking to open a medical marijuana dispensary.

Clare Kelly, a former aide to Gov. Deval Patrick who is managing the campaign aimed at expanding the bottle deposit law and working part-time for Beacon Strategies Group, registered as a lobbyist on Oct. 8.

Mike Bergan, principal with the Beacon Strategies Group, called the two August meetings between city officials, Kelly and medical marijuana company executives "short" and "introductory," and said they did not constitute as lobbying as defined under the state's statute.

"In addition, Clare, who began consulting part-time to BSG three months ago, also did not meet the threshold of needing to register as a lobbyist, a threshold which requires more than 25 hours of legislative lobbying during any reporting period and receiving more than $2,500 during that same reporting period," he said in a statement.

Bergan said she registered as a lobbyist "in anticipation of taking a full time role with Beacon Strategies Group after the November elections."

MassMedicum Corp., a Beacon Strategies Group client, is seeking to locate dispensaries in Boston and Taunton.

In 2012, Bay State voters approved a ballot question allowing up to 35 nonprofit dispensaries across the state, with a limit of five per county. The licensing process has hit numerous stumbling blocks, frustrating the law's supporters who are still waiting for the first dispensary to open.

According to a log of contacts with officials that was submitted as part of the company's bid for a license, Kelly participated in two meetings that included two people she's worked with in the past. Kelly is a senior public affairs consultant at Beacon Strategies Group and the former executive director of the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

The first meeting, on Aug. 4, included two MassMedicum officials, Kelly and the city of Boston's Health and Human Services chief, Felix Arroyo. Kelly, who served as Arroyo's campaign manager when the former city councilor at-large ran for mayor in 2013, set up the meeting.

According to Arroyo, the meeting, which included a presentation, lasted about 20 minutes. Kelly didn't speak during the meeting, and he told the company's executives to talk to neighborhood groups, he said.

The second meeting, on Aug. 25, included one MassMedicum official, Kelly and Councilor Tito Jackson, who is also a former Patrick administration aide. Jackson said the meeting was an informational one, and they did not ask for his support for a dispensary.

"Councilor Jackson expressed his belief that the City required a truly 'medical' focus in this type of industry, and indicated that he favored dispensing in a 'pharmacy' setting," the company's log of the contact said.

The log added: "The parties further discussed MassMedicum's security plans and plans for use of excess revenues to benefit the local community."

MassMedicum Corp. was among four applicants that scored high in the first round of medical marijuana licensing earlier this year but were not selected. The state Department of Public Health invited them to reapply for a license in seven counties that do not have an approved dispensary, including Suffolk County and Bristol County.

Two other companies are eyeing Boston: Patriot Care Corp., which has listed Delaney Policy Group as helping them with medical marijuana efforts, and JCS Holdings Inc., which has retained O'Neill and Associates for the open county application process, and is doing business as The Haven Center.

The applications are currently under review, and an announcement could come in early November.

One client of Beacon Strategies Group already has a provisional license: In Good Health, Inc., which received approval this summer to open a dispensary in Brockton.

MassMedicum's meetings were part of efforts to obtain a letters of "support or non-opposition" from Boston City Hall officials.

The founder of Beacon Strategies Group, Michael Morris, also participated in meetings between MassMedicum executives and elected Boston officials. Morris, a registered lobbyist, is a former director of government affairs for Gov. Patrick.

Morris was part of MassMedicum's meeting with City Councilors At-Large Stephen Murphy and Michael Flaherty on July 30, an Aug. 21 meeting with City Councilor Matt O'Malley and a meeting the same day with City Councilor At-Large Michelle Wu.

Other meetings were just between MassMedicum officials and city officials.

Coastal Compassion, Inc., which is listed as a Beacon Strategies Group client as well as a Delaney Policy Group client on the state's lobbying records site, is applying for a dispensary in Fairhaven, located in Bristol County, an open county.

The deadline for the open county applications was Aug. 29.

In the August application submitted to the Department of Public Health, MassMedicum said it had met with city officials, including 10 of the 13 city councilors, and understood that Boston Mayor Marty Walsh hadn't taken a public position on the siting of a medical marijuana dispensary.

The company "concludes that neither the Mayor nor the Boston Public Health Commission will issue any letters of support or non-opposition for a specific [dispensary]," MassMedicum said in the filing.

The Boston City Council, as a body, did not discuss the siting of a medical marijuana dispensary before the August application deadline.

MassMedicum said in its application that the meetings with city councilors were "productive and extensive." "MassMedicum explained the reasons why it will ultimately be successful in obtaining all necessary approvals from the City of Boston," the company said.

The company added, "MassMedicum's presentation of its team's experience in extracting pure materials from plants allowed the Boston city leaders to fully comprehend the medical quality of the products to be dispensed."

Suffolk became an open county after two companies -- Good Chemistry of Massachusetts and Green Heart Holistic Health and Pharmaceuticals -- were informed by DPH in June that they would not be moving forward. The move came after the companies courted controversy by claiming they had the support of Boston city councilors, which the councilors disputed.

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