MENOMINEE, Mi. (WBAY) -The city manager of Menominee, Michigan, spoke with Action 2 News about a lawsuit demanding the city pay millions of dollars in damages.

As we previously reported, a dispensary has been ready to operate in the city since July, but hasn’t opened due to licensing issues.

PUFF Cannabis originally filed the lawsuit in September. It was amended in October to add a claim for a constitutional violation.

For each day the business is not open, the amount to be paid in damages will continue to rise.

“We wanted you to do the right thing and follow the law. The law says that you gave us the license a year ago; you need to hand it over. And they refuse to do so,’ says Jennifer Green, the attorney for PUFF Cannabis Company.

A marijuana dispensary located right next to Menominee City Hall has had its “Coming Soon” signs up since July. However, it’s still closed.

The co-owner says the city is not giving them the green light.

“The fact that we had our business fully built out and then when we tried to open it, we were denied our license, it was a complete shock to us. We’re just very confused as to how in this day in age you can do this,” says Nick Hannawa, the co-owner, VP, and chief legal counsel for PUFF Cannabis Company.

In an email from December 2024, the city says PUFF Cannabis can “be approved for a license and can proceed.”

At that time, there was no cap on the number of dispensaries that could open in the city.

When construction finished in July, PUFF needed their certificate of occupancy and license from the city manager, but he refused to give it to them.

“A permanent injunction is in place. And the city is required again to maintain the status quo, which prevents us from taking any further action with respect to marijuana licenses and applicants,” says Brett Botbyl, the Menominee, MI, city manager.

In August, the rules were changed to cap the number of dispensaries in the city to nine.

There are currently eight.

But both PUFF and the city manager say Highwire Farms, just down the road, has a settlement agreement with the city to get that ninth license.

PUFF believes they should be the ninth store because it received the approval before the cap was created, and is ready to open, while highwire is not.

There are two options for the city to potentially avoid paying millions of dollars.

They can either engage in a settlement or pass the lawsuit prevention amendment.

“The lawsuit prevention amendment says any store before the August vote, capping the number of dispensaries in Menominee to nine, any store who bought property, who put together the paperwork for a license, who in any way relied on their vested property rights to come into the City of Menominee can open on up,” says Menominee Mayor Casey Hoffman.

“Obviously, you know we want what’s best for the city. We want to ensure that we are a safe and secure community. And we certainly do not want all the lawsuits,” says Botbyl.

The mayor says he instructed the city’s legal counsel to work with PUFF and draft a settlement.

He says he’s ready to convene an emergency city council meeting when the settlement is written.

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