tina kotek mike mclane 9.30.13.JPG

House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, and House Minority Leader Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte, confer before a meeting of the joint special session committee Sept. 30, 2013. Kotek decided to adjourn a House floor session Friday as uncertainty over a floor vote on medical marijuana grew.

(Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian)

A showdown over one of the last controversial bills floating through the 2014 Oregon Legislature led to an early and abrupt adjournment Friday afternoon.

Democrats hoped to delay the vote on Senate Bill 1531, which would allow cities and counties to ban and regulate medical marijuana dispensaries, until Monday. Republicans thought they had the votes to pass the bill on the floor Friday.

Republicans called a caucus meeting to tally votes at the start of a 2:30 p.m. House floor session, but when the caucus wore on, House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, adjourned the session.

“We were informed the Republicans were leaving to hold a caucus meeting, and it was unclear when they would return,” said Jared Mason-Gere, Kotek’s spokesman. “With that uncertainty, after a very long week of work, the speaker decided it would be best to adjourn and reconvene on Monday.”

Shawn Cleave, chief of staff for House Republicans, said he thought there were enough bipartisan votes to pass the bill Friday, and that some Republicans who supported the bill wouldn’t be available next week.

“We went to caucus to see where the votes were,” he said. “The next thing we know, she was gaveling out.”

Quick caucus meetings at the beginning of floor sessions haven’t been problematic in the past, he said.

But Mason-Gere said Republicans had more than two hours before the floor session during which they could have held a caucus meeting.

Counties want the ability to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. But state lawyers say regulations of medical marijuana sales must be decided by the state.

The original version of SB 1531 would have given local governments the ability to ban dispensaries, but it was amended in the Senate to only allow local governments to regulate dispensaries -- not ban them outright.

That version of the bill passed the Senate unanimously, but a House committee amended the bill to allow outright bans.

Democrats were split on the House version of the bill. And if it had passed, it likely would have wound up in a conference committee.

Lawmakers hope to wrap up the session by the middle of next week.

-- Christian Gaston and Yuxing Zheng