Lake County Gazette

As the Mayor of Zion, a city facing dire economic challenges, I have had high hopes for an innovative economic development that could prevent bankruptcy and provide desperately needed jobs for our residents.  

Though I am a realist, I underestimated how insiders could use their connections to state government to violate state statutes and court orders in ways that now threaten the well-being of our citizens and the survival of our city.

Zion was the site of one of two remaining applicants in our zone for a license to cultivate cannabis for medical purposes. The Illinois firm Medponics was set to develop a state-of-the-art 24/7 computer-controlled Dutch hydroponic greenhouse here which does not use pesticides to cultivate medical cannabis. The estimated revenue from this enterprise would roughly match our current city budget deficit of $1.5 million. Separately substantial funding would be provided for drug addiction programs.

The Medponics site, consistent with the law, is located in an isolated area while the competing site in Aurora, which uses cultivation methods including pesticides, violates the safety setback rule requiring the site to be 2500 feet from a residential zone.  While the application for a license by Medponics was warmly welcomed by Zion, there was strong opposition by Aurora residents close to the medical cannabis site run by Curative Health, a large New York firm.

The Aurora site had originally been deemed DQ or “disqualified” in 2015 by the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) which awards licenses for medical cannabis, but the designation changed to “qualified” after Curative fraudulently swore on its application that they met the 2500 foot safety buffer.  Medponics immediately filed a lawsuit against the IDOA and Curative.  After lengthy arguments by both sides, respected Circuit Court Judge Michael Fuzs ruled in 2018 that the Aurora site violated the law and ordered that the license be granted to the remaining next best qualified applicant.  Shockingly, the IDOA secretly issued the license to Curative’s Aurora site despite the order of the court.  

Curative Health succeeded in part by bringing Illinois insiders in as stakeholders into the company led by a powerful Chicago Zoning attorney with friends in Springfield. After the license was awarded, these insiders reaped a financial bonanza when their shares were bought out by Curative’s largest stockholder New York-based Columbia Care. Estimates for the cost of the buyout range between $10 to $20 million, but the exact amount was not reported, as required in Columbia Care’s SEC filings.

In another surprise, in October 2018, a three judge 2nd District Appellate panel overruled Judge Fusz and confirmed the grant of a license to the Aurora site. The panel did not make their judgement public and noted it could not be cited or used in any subsequent court cases.  Judge Fusz had never been overruled in 19 other cases prior to his recent retirement.

Fortunately, there will be one more opportunity for Zion site to prevail.  In January the Illinois Supreme Court will commence their review of the appellate ruling. If Medponics wins the case, its President Keith Malone, a former senior Justice Department official will be the first African-American to preside over a medical cannabis facility. Our city has a lot at stake as we face a potential default and a state takeover. We have dedicated city employees, but our fire department is down 25 percent. We are down 10 police officers and building inspections are down 50 percent.  We are at a tipping point.

The City of Zion is hopeful justice will prevail in our Supreme Court and the Medponics cannabis cultivation facility will finally be allowed to operate here to the benefit of everyone in Illinois.

– Mayor Billy McKinney played seven years in the NBA— including with Michael Jordan on the Chicago Bulls— and later served as the first general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves before returning to his hometown of Zion. He’s a graduate of Zion-Benton H.S. (1973) and Northwestern University (1977).