Puff doorway, Oct. 6, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
MENOMINEE, MICH. (WTAQ-WLUK) – A marijuana dispensary suing the City of Menominee for not allowing it to open asked for an investigation, claiming one of its competitors is improperly paying the city’s legal bills. But the city’s attorney disagrees with the characterization by Puff.
Puff claims the city of Menominee approved its license in December 2024, with an expected opening of July 2025. But the business has yet to receive its occupancy permit. The city says the store hasn’t met all of the Department of Transportation requirements. It filed suit, seeking a court order to allow it open, and asking for at least $20 million in damages.
In a letter to the city dated Thursday, Puff attorney Jennifer Green asks Mayor Casey Hoffman to take action.
Green wrote:
If the City is accepting money from Puff’s competitors, then I implore you, as the Mayor of this City, to investigate this issue and rid City Council (and the City Manager, who is himself a named defendant in Puff’s lawsuit—the defense of which is apparently being funded by Puff’s competitor) of any impartiality that has resulted. The private Cannabis Companies should not be permitted to pay the City’s legal bills and to hold sway over the City’s decision to settle with Puff by virtue of the Indemnification Clause.
But Matthew Cross, the city’s attorney disagrees with Green.
The author of that letter is misinformed or, at minimum, is blatantly misconstruing the situation to insinuate something improper is occurring. The obligation to pay the city’s legal expenses—which is shared by Lume, Higher Love, Highwire Farms, Rocky North, and Nu Group—stems from the 2023 settlement agreement between the City of Menominee and those companies, who had previously sued the City of Menominee. Notably, those cases were all dismissed by the trial court and the settlement occurred as appeals were pending. That settlement agreement was discussed and approved in an open meeting by the City Council. Those parties have paid the city’s legal expenses associated with lawsuits filed by Rize and The Fire Station. Those claims remain pending on appeal,” Cross wrote. “To be crystal clear, neither Lume nor any other cannabis company that is a party to that 2023 settlement agreement plays any role in my firm’s handling of the Puff lawsuit, or the City Council’s decision as to any proposed settlement agreement offered by Puff to resolve that case. They are paying the city’s legal bills, which the City Council consented to by approving the 2023 settlement agreement, nothing more.
Green also says there is a pending settlement which the city council may vote on at an upcoming meeting.
Cross says the city will be “seeking dismissal of their claims in their entirety.”
The legal wrangling comes in the wake of a referendum approved by Menominee voters to limit the number of cannabis dispensaries in the city to nine.
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