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He may have lost a battle to sell medical marijuana in Mountain View, but Matt Lucero says he’s been inspired to run for City Council this fall as a champion for the “blue collar, lower-class residents of Mountain View.”

“If they thought I was a problem from the other side of the podium, wait until they see me sitting next to them,” Lucero said of the City Council.

While Lucero had yet to submit the necessary forms, he said Monday that he was “absolutely” going to run. In order to qualify as a council candidate, he plans to become a Mountain View resident by moving into an apartment on Castro Street “right down the street form City Hall so I can keep an eye on them,” he laughed. He plans to rent out his Campbell home to his daughter.

“It was not my idea,” Lucero said Monday, saying his Mountain View customers pushed him to do it. “Scores, if not hundreds ask me to do this,” he said.

Lucero said he plans to use the former location of his dispensary, Buddy’s Cannabis Patient Collective, as campaign headquarters. The operation moved from the Bayshore Parkway location on July 7 to Sunnyvale after a judge upheld Mountain View’s temporary ban on pot clubs. Sunnyvale has a similar ban.

Lucero said his desire to run “has nothing to do with Buddy’s Cannabis in Mountain View” and that he would abstain from related discussions and votes. “I don’t need to sit on the City Council to do the Buddy’s thing.”

The theme of his campaign, he said, is “throw the bums out.”

“I don’t like the way that City Council treats its people,” Lucero said, noting the way the council decided to shut down his dispensary even though not one resident opposed the operation in City Council meetings. “There is a strong dislike of the City Council by blue collar, lower class residents of Mountain View.”

A Web site and position statements are in the works, but Lucero said he is still “getting up to speed” on a lot of issues. Among the complaints he’s gotten from his customers include “misuse of money” for spending $100,000 on high speed rail drawings, as well as “oppression and apathy” on the part of the city and City Council.

Lucero, a millionaire and former corporate attorney for large tech companies, said he was not yet sure about whether to commit to the city’s voluntary spending cap of $19,000 for a council campaign. Spending over that amount is rare and has been frowned upon by prominent community members in the past. Lucero said he planned to spend up to $25,000 or “whatever it takes” to get elected.

No one had yet pulled the necessary papers to challenge incumbents Jac Siegel, Ronit Bryant and Margaret Abe-Koga as of Tuesday, according to acting city clerk Wanda Wong. Potential candidates can apply between July 12 and August 6.

Lucero also said Tuesday that he has agreed to drop the lawsuit against the city and City Attorney Jannie Quinn that were part of his strategy to keep Buddy’s open in Mountain View. Quinn said the city has spent $66,000 on outside attorneys to handle the court battle with Buddy’s.

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4 Comments

  1. He’s not the only one mad about the actions of the Council on this topic. I may not vote for Lucero, but voting someone OUT of office will need to be done, I guess, in order to better serve the community.
    Its apparent some on the council are letting personal biases get in the way of making decisions which directly affect sick people.
    Evolve or get out of the way, City Council, or we’ll gently move you out of the way.

  3. Mr. Lucero needs to relax. He won’t get voted on the council reacting like he is. Now that Sunnyvale has turned him away what is his next threat going to be. Personally I would love to operate a dispensary for MMJ in Mountain View but not until there’s green light from the council. It is a profitable business regardless of what ownes of these places want to say.

  5. There are a few of us that would like to see MCDC’s(medical cannabis dispensing collective) in operation in both Mountain View and Sunnyvale and many more patients that demand safe, secure and AFFORDABLE access. The process has started to have compassionate ordinance in Mountain View, Sunnyvale and San Jose. We all know that government does not move quickly but they are doing it. Sunnyvale has promised to have something by Dec 15 to vote on and I know San Jose is looking at August. Both of the municipalities have scheduled community outreach study sessions for next week. Mountain View is on “summer vacation” but I am sure staff is still working on the project (I hope)! What is wrong with Campbell ? Maybe Matt should stay home and run for council in his own city?
    I was born and raised in Mountain View and have lived most of my life here. I don’t know what Matt wants with Mountain View that he cant get in Campbell…
    Best Regards,
    Brian David
    Executive Director
    Shoreline Wellness Collective

  6. So he wants to run for city council just to get his way on this issue? Why would any one vote for him if this is what’s behind his candidacy and is one defining issue? Then again, in this town, he’ll probably be swept into office.

  8. A few things already bother me about this guy. A “millionaire and former corporate attorney” speaking up for the “blue-collar lower class residents of Mtn. View” already sounds pretty suspicious. Not that the people on our City Council are great, but his childish reaction to get even with those council folks he doesn’t agree with about his pot club makes him sound like a spoiled brat. Remember that he had previously said he would “spend whatever it takes” to legally challenge the closing of his club – now it sounds like he wants to pull a Meg Whitman and spend his way into local office. Oh well… people get the type of representatives they deserve.

  9. Well, I will definitely NOT be voting for him. Mr. Lucero is definitely not someone who should be running for city council in any city.. but when you have so much money to burn like he does, then why not?
    I hope that he opens his eyes one day and sees that there is a right way to do things. Going against city rules and regulations is not only foolish, but he is giving patients who are suffering a bad name. In due time, these cities across the world will regulate pot the PROPER way, and patients will be able to access their medicine. But, when you’re going against the law and thinking that YOUR way is the RIGHT way, you are going to cause MORE problems for patients in need of their “medicinal pot”.
    Mr. Lucero – you are a LAWYER who is breaking the law.. stop making everyone’s lives more difficult and listen to what everyone else has to say. The world does not revolve around you.

  10. cities shouldn’t be regulating medical pot, state or federal govts. should, and it should be sold in pharmacies not in gin joints like Buddy’s

  11. You’d rather have a joined-at-the-hip bunch of ex-mayors and such who waste your money on sketches of exotic Disneyland rides that will never be built and visions of Googletopias on the banks of the Shoreline estuary?

  12. Mr. Lucero,

    I suggest you try speaking up for everyone of Mountain View, not jus the “blue collar workers.” The City Council has been ignoring everyone.

    I will vote for anyone running against the status quo. It really is that bad.

  13. Where were all the “They should have a prescription and sell it in pharmacies” crowd when the pro mmj groups were trying to have PRESCRIBED so that it could be sold in PHARMACIES. The “gubment” and anti cannabis groups would have none of it, soooo along came prop 215
    I guess they should have supported it back in the day if they wanted it done that way. It’d probably be nice for many to have insurance pay for it.

  14. I’m inclined to support Lucero on this issue alone. Although I don’t support breaking the law per se – local laws regarding medicinal pot need to be reviewed and revised. Big picture: Does the MV City Council really want to make medicinal pot unavailable to local residents who need it? If yes, I say vote ’em out!

  16. I’d love to see an openly pro-Marijuana Council member.

    Here’s my recent experience:

    My husband and I caught CHAC breaking the law through their MVWSD in-school program. When my husband requested copies of his son’s records, CHAC withheld a year’s worth and claimed they never saw the kid during that time. After we told them a former intern disputed their story, they suddenly “found” more, but three months are still missing. This was in addition to ignoring the child’s teachers, dropping the child from their service without informing his parents, and clearly doctoring the date of the child’s last session.

    We filed a formal complaint with CHAC and asked for 1. the remaining records, 2. a clinical supervisor’s license number so we could file complaints with the state, 3. a meeting, (that email was also copied to Stephanie Totter), and 4. an apology. CHAC refused to comply with the law, ignored the license and meeting requests, and their idea of an apology was “I’m sorry you felt frustrated.”

    I supplied Maurice Ghysels and the Trustees with copies of my documentation last July and they ignored it. I sent email to Ellen Wheeler in August, she forwarded to Maurice, and they both claimed their relationships to CHAC’s leadership “were too delicate” for them to do anything. I wrote a letter in December that was again ignored, then I posted a video to youtube asking the District to act and Stevenson parents for support. I also forwarded that video to our Mayor.

    Stevenson’s parents shunned me after I generously supported that community for nearly twelve years. I asked them to join me at a Board meeting, but they ignored me while conducting a school-wide event next door. Their children ran by me in t-shirts I designed and/or supplied at a discount through my job at a screen printer.

    After giving me the silent treatment, a month later a PACT rep came to me demanding friends and family pricing, laughably for classroom signs listing the program’s values.

    The Mayor yawned. After screaming at the Board about this Superintendent succession business, the Teachers Union told me mine was a personal problem. I never heard back from the MV Libertarians. The Santa Clara County DA wouldn’t get involved.

    My husband and I filed complaints with California’s Board of Behavioral Sciences against CHAC and are waiting for the outcome. Having shown my documentation to a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in another state, I have some idea of what results we can expect.

    How interesting that a state regulatory agency felt CHAC’s behavior was worth investigating (for four months and counting!) while our School Leadership refused.

    When I released that video, I didn’t just ask Stevenson, Mayor Bryant, the Union, or the Libertarians for help. Another community rose to the occasion. They busted their tails trying to get my video on local corporate mailing lists and passed my name to reporters.

    These are the kind of people who go to Burning Man: they gather in the Nevada desert each year, drive around half-naked in cupcake cars, and then watch a giant stick figure burn to the ground. Many of them don’t have children at all, let along in Mountain View. Those people were much more invested in fairness, justice, and accountability for the children of Mountain View than the parents at MVWSD’S flagship Rah Rah Community school.

    The whole thing plays like a Yes on Proposition 19 commercial. Perhaps the MVWSD would have greater compassion for the children they purport to serve if they got baked once in a while.

  18. Wait a minute. Totter, Ghysels, Wheeler, Bryant and PACT all thrown into one? There’s the problem. Good luck. You’ll need it.

  19. JD: I don’t know if that person is a Burner. I do know that the Burner customers at my place of work are appreciative and loyal. They are so politically active that I thought my battle would be right up their alley.

  20. le dude: Ghysels walked out without addressing the issue, so there’s nothing to be done. All I can do is talk about the way we were treated and hope someone out there cares. I was grateful someone helped me, but it wasn’t enough without buy in from our local community.

    I started a blog on my adventures in this school district. Very early its stages, but here it is: http://baconpirates.wordpress.com/

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