Medical marijuana entrepreneur Tony Keene asked a judge today if a hearing on his lawsuit against the city of Ann Arbor could be delayed one week.

Keene, representing himself before Judge Melinda Morris in Washtenaw Count Circuit Court, said he wants to seek out proper legal representation and bring back a revised complaint against the city. Morris agreed to reschedule the hearing.

Medical marijuana entrepreneur Tony Keene is suing the city of Ann Arbor over its handling of a proposed licensing ordinance for marijuana businesses.

Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com

"Tony, I didn't understand a word you said in there," City Attorney Stephen Postema told Keene afterward in the hallway outside the court room.

Keene said his revised complaint will accuse the city of negligence and seek to overturn a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation facilities.

"It's just ordinary negligence," Keene told Postema, offering his opinion that the city has dragged its feet for more than 120 days on a proposed licensing ordinance for medical marijuana businesses that still hasn't gone past a first reading of the Ann Arbor City Council.

During today's hearing, which lasted only a matter of minutes, Postema suggested to Judge Morris that Keene's complaint lacked merit.

"I'm here really to have the case dismissed today," Postema said, referencing the fact his office filed a six-page response to Keene's complaint on Feb. 25, requesting the case be dropped.

• Click here to download a copy.

Morris agreed to reschedule Keene's hearing, but no date was set. Postema said he's still not sure what Keene will be arguing when he comes back.

"We will look at whatever Mr. Keene has filed," Postema said. "This initial filing was pretty much a waste of time."

Medical marijuana dispensary owner Chuck Ream attended today's hearing. He said it might seem like "strange bedfellows," but he was supporting Postema.

"Tony is very upset that he might not get a license and he's not prepared to go through the proper procedures to apply for a license," Ream said. "So he's going to try any desperate end run around the proper procedures."

Keene filed his original complaint against the city last month. A state-registered medical marijuana caregiver and patient, Keene is the owner of a medical marijuana cooperative called Hydro Med on South Industrial Highway in Ann Arbor.

He argued in his complaint the City Council's consideration of a licensing ordinance — now months in the works — should cease until the terms "dispensary" and "cultivation facility" are properly defined. He says they should be as clearly defined as terms like "caregiver" and "patient" are spelled out under state law.

Stephen Postema

As it's currently worded, the city's licensing ordinance defines a "dispensary" in one sentence: "Dispensary means a medical marijuana dispensary."

"Cultivation facility" is defined as "a structure or each space in a structure that is separately owned or leased by a person other than the owner of the structure, in which marijuana plants are being cultivated other than as a medical marijuana home occupation."

Keene says those definitions leave him scratching his head.

Postema maintains it's not appropriate for Keene to challenge an ordinance while it's in the process of being drafted. He said the wording still is being worked out, and it's not the role of the court to interfere with discretionary actions of a legislative body.

The city has had a moratorium on new medical marijuana businesses since last August. Once the moratorium is lifted, it's expected that only a small handful of licenses will be made available to cultivation facilities and dispensaries that aren't already established.

City officials aren't sure whether Keene's business was up and running before the moratorium hit. According to domain registry data, Keene started his website a2HydroMed.com in January. But he said his co-op existed "long before" the moratorium.

In any case, Keene said that's not a concern to him — he doesn't think he needs a city license to operate a co-op that follows state law.

Keene doesn't describe his business as a dispensary. It's not even open to the public. It's a small co-op with five primary caregivers, each with up to five patients.

But it's arguably a cultivation facility, with patients and caregivers working together to grow dozens of marijuana plants under one roof.

Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.