by Geoff Fox
In 2024, town officials introduced an ordinance to approve a partnership agreement with what was then known as Harvest DCP of Maryland, now Trulieve. That agreement mistakenly sat unsigned for almost two years.
The agreement was unanimously approved for signing at the March 10, 2026 town meeting.
It was made effective on that date.
The purpose of the original ordinance was to approve the Second Amended and Restated Operating Agreement between the Town of Hancock and Harvest in their ownership partnership.
Town Attorney Ed Kuczynski said the original ordinance was approved and circulated, but he discovered while trying to seal a box of documents that the ordinance had not been formally passed.
Trulieve’s attorneys agreed with him and generated a clean copy of the document that should have been sent with signatures.
Because of this, he said town officials would have to pass the ordinance to ratify the agreement effective immediately and authorize Mayor Roland Lanehart, Jr. to sign the agreement.
“It’s nothing new, doesn’t add anything,” Kuczynski said.
The only change, he later added, was notices and purposes as listed by Harvest/Trulieve’s CFO to their Chief Legal Officer, which Kuczynski had no issue with.
The change was for who gets notices for tax consequence purposes.
Lanehart said the only thing the passage of the ordinance does is add the signature to a document town officials forgot to sign in 2024.
Councilman Richard Strong did ask the vote be pushed to the April 2026 meeting due to Councilman Josh McCusker not being in attendance, which would allow him to vote as well.
Kuczynski said McCusker would have voted on the original ordinance back in 2024.
He added if they didn’t vote at the March meeting, April would be fine, but he preferred it be done then.
Councilwoman Terry Breakall-Smith stated she wasn’t on council at the time the ordinance passed, however Councilman David Kerns reassured her it had already approved and just needed signed.
The ordinance was introduced as an emergency ordinance and approved 3-0 as McCusker was not in attendance.
