N2 CC
5/10/2022
Recommendation #7
No Need for a consultant at this time however if the council was inclined to do so they should direct staff to reach out to additional consultants to get a proper bid, as oppose only considering HdL.
Other consultants to consider:
1) Tierra West Advisors : tierrawestadvisors.com
2) SCI Consulting Group: sci-cg.com
HdL has had a problematic reputation with their involvement in Cannabis. 1) Fairfield: Fairfield council puts brakes on retail cannabis permit process "They [City Council] also voted to fire HdL Companies and demand a refund of all money thus far paid to the company for its services related to the cannabis permit process.
2) Chula Vista: Chula Vista faces a third cannabis dispensary lawsuit "The consultants, HdL, allegedly deducted points because of the format of the application and refused to consider supplementary information that Chula Vista had asked Cannabis Village to submit
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Fairfield council puts brakes on retail cannabis
permit process
By Glen Faison
Action comes as staff, electeds cite concerns with vetting of applicants FAIRFIELD — City Council members halted its review of retail cannabis permits Tuesday based on concerns raised about how the company hired to review and score applications ultimately ranked those applications.
The City Council was expected to continue a public hearing and then grant preliminary approval for two cannabis retail permits.
The public hearing on the retail permits was carried over from the March 2 meeting.
There were five finalists for the two retail permits. The five finalists have already made 15-minute presentations to the council.
The retail permit applications - 14 in all - were ranked both by city staff and also by the consultant, HdL Companies of Brea, which, among other things, offers cannabis consulting services to cities.
No representative of the company spoke during the staff presentation and subsequent council discussion.
Council members and city staff shifted the focus of the continued public hearing after an announcement about the concerns with the consultant's review and scoring process.
The council ultimately voted to continue the public hearing to special meetings to start at 6 p.m. April 28 and April 29, and to the regular council meeting at 6 p.m. May 4.
Council members opted to interview all 14 applicants, with 15 minutes set aside for each presentation.
They also voted to fire HdL Companies and demand a refund of all money thus far paid to the company for its services related to the cannabis permit process.
This aspect of the council's action was redundant: City Attorney Greg Stepanicich and City Manager Stefan Chatwin each confirmed that the company had already agreed it was the correct move to cancel the contract and issue a full refund.
Chatwin indicated the action may be an intent by the council to send a message. None of the council members challenged that assessment.
The individual council members expressed dismay at learning over the past two days that numerous applicants for the two city retail permits had not been scored properly by HdI. Companies. Some expressed concerns that the staff's scoring of the applicants may also be tainted in terms of community perception and potentially among some applicants due to an HdI. Companies representative serving as a moderator asking set questions to all applicants during staff interviews.
"This is very upsetting," Councilwoman Catherine Moy said early in the discussion. She later indicated her belief that Hdl had "poisoned" the process. "I'm outraged," she said. "This is stunning. It truly is," Councilman Chuck Timm said. He said he wants to learn - and expects to learn - more in coming days and weeks about how the Hdl scoring errors occurred so he can explain the situation to members of the community.
"I am also mortified," Councilwoman Pam Bertani said of the HdL situation. She described it at one point as a "gigantic mishap."
Bertani ultimately was the lone dissenter among the seven council members - but not because she wants to continue with HdL. Her "no" vote was based on her stated belief that the future interviews of all 14 applicants for the two retail permits should not occur at special meetings, but on regular council meetings starting May 4.
She said conducting the interviews during special meetings may not allow for full public participation in the process.
Bertani also advocated for a deliberative process as the city and the council move forward. "This is now in our laps," she said. "This is a job interview, and a lucrative one." "We're the judge and the jury. We need to get this right," she said. "I feel for us. I feel for the applicant. I serve the community," she said later.
Vice Mavor Vaccard
All five applicants for the retail permits scored above 91% on the city's evaluation scale that was scrapped Tuesday night. The scores were based on a review of the applicants by the company hired to help the city with the permitting process, and by city staff.
The city in a staff report has estimated that if the council were to issue two retail and one manufacturing commercial cannabis business permits, the tax revenue generated would be between $265,000 to $385,000 annually. The estimate in the staff report assumes an average of $3 million in gross receipts for two retailers and $1 million for a manufacturer.
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Printed in the March 17, 2021 edition on page A1 | Published on March 17, 2021 | Last Modified on March 16, 2021 at 8:24 pm
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Glen Faison joined the Daily Republic as managing editor in September 2009. He previously worked as a reporter and editor for daily and weekly newspapers in the San Joaquin Valley for 20-plus years. His experience includes time as editor of the Golden Eagle, a military paper serving the Lemoore Naval Air Station. He graduated from Fresno State University with a bachelor's degree in journalism and bleeds Bulldogs red. He is an avid fan of the NFL's Washington team. He's a member of the Fairfield-Suisun Twilight Rotary Club and served for seven years as a board member for the Solano County Library Foundation. He married his wife, Jill, in 2005, and has three children: Courtni, Tyler and Hayli.
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UKRAINE CRISIS FOR SUBSCRIBERS COVID-19 LATINO LIFE CROSSWORD SUDOKU f CHULA VISTA
Chula Vista faces a third cannabis
dispensary lawsuit
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(The Associated Press)
Companies claim the city didn't
follow its own rules and unfairly
rejected their applications.
BY GUSTAVO SOLIS
NOV. 30. 2020 11:04 AM PT
In what appears to be a growing trend, a third
marijuana dispensary is suing Chula Vista.
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All three lawsuits have been filed by companies
whose applications for a cannabis business
MOST READ LOCAL STORIES ›
license were rejected. The lawsuit essentially
says that Chula Vista's licensing process was
"arbitrary and capricious," that the city failed to
follow its own rules and unfairly rejected the
applications.
Each lawsuit asks a judge to order Chula Vista
to refrain from issuing any licenses to
marijuana dispensaries until the city re-
evaluates their applications -- a process that
threatens to halt a licensing process that has
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Chula Vista Cannabis Village, which filed its
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city this month. Caligrown and Urbn Leaf were
the first and second companies to sue.
3 No room for Ponto Park in Carlsbad's
capital projects
Ken Sobel, a lawyer and Cannabis Village's May 8, 2022
owner, sued on behalf of the company. In the
complaint, he says Chula Vista failed to follow 4 Little libraries across San Diego neighborhoods provide books, cheer
its own rules to determine who gets a business during pandemic Dec. 6, 2020
license, and a consulting company used by
Chula Vista to score applicants also didn't
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"The city contravened its own ordinance and
regulations when it inexplicably refused to
consider all of the information contained in
CVCV's license applications," Sobel wrote.
In 2018, the City Council passed a rigorous
two-phase application process intended to
ensure that only the best applicants were
awarded licenses, and anyone with a criminal
history could not be involved in a legal
cannabis business.
Phase one involved meeting a set of minimum FROM OUR COMMUNITY PAPERS qualifying criteria, background checks and a
merit-based scoring system. Chula Vista has a
cap of eight dispensary licenses, and it received
84 storefront retail applications.
Only the top point-getters from phase one
would move on to phase two.
Community Calendar: La Jolla meetings
To date only one company, Grasshopper and more, May 12-19 Delivery, has gone through the entire licensing
PHOTO GALLERIES
process and started to legally operate in Chula CCA Boots & Bling Gala Vista. That company got a delivery business 40 minutes ago license, which is different than the storefront
PHOTO GALLERIES
retail licenses dispensaries apply for.
Solana Santa Fe PTO Silver and Gold Donor
Appreciation Party
Cannabis Village says the merit-based system 46 minutes ago was too vague and arbitrary. For example,
PHOTO GALLERIES
despite the fact that all of the company's RSF Education Foundation holds annual Art principals have years of experience in the Auction fundraiser 51 minutes ago
cannabis industry, its application only scored
125 out of 150 in its Experience category and PHOTO GALLERIES were not told the reason behind the 25-point Fiss tennis Club hosts Hacienda Resort Tennis reduction, according to its lawsuit.
58 minutes ago
Additionally, the company was deducted 28.5 PHOTO GALLERIES points from the Operating Plan portion of its Cinco de Mayo fun at RSF Golf Club 1 hour ago
application and not told why. Sobel was
particularly confused by this because former NEWS
San Diego and Chula Vista police chief David Photo gallery: Jewish Family Service gala fills La Jolla with 'Heart & Soul"
Bejarano wrote the company's' security
1 hour ago
protocols himself, the lawsuit states.
NEWS
During an appeal hearing, Sobel says that a R. Roger Rowe seventh grader goes on Honor Flight with WWII veteran
consulting company hired by Chula Vista to 2 hours ago
review and score the applications didn't follow
the city's grading criteria. The consultants, LIFESTYLE HdL, allegedly deducted points because of the Adopt a Family gathers for annual spring boutique
format of the application and refused to 2 hours ago
consider supplementary information that Chula
SPORTS
Vista had asked Cannabis Village to submit.
Terey Pines boys lacrosse helping others off
HAL's representative at the appeal hearing, 2 hours ago Matthew Eaton, said he did not personally
evaluate Cannabis Village's application.
"In fact, he testified that his company diluted
the experience component in the contravention
of the rules, and completely failed to consider
the Supplemental Information submitted by
CVCV at the request of the city in preparation
for the interview," the lawsuit states. "Such
testimony by Mr. Eaton reveals his ignorance of
the facts, and the arbitrary handling of the
evaluation process by HdL's assigned clerk."
Caligrown made similar allegations in its
lawsuit against Chula Vista, specifically that the
consultants judged its application on form
rather than substance and that Eaton did not
personally score the application.
Ultimately, Chula Vista denied Cannabis
Village's appeal. Because the company has no
other avenues, it decided to sue.
Eaton declined to comment on this story, as he
has done with previous stories about other
lawsuits.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reached out to
the Chula Vista's mayor and City Council, all of
whom ran for public office on a platform that
they would make the city more attractive to
new businesses.
Councilman Mike Diaz declined to comment.
Mayor Mary Casillas Salas and Councilman
John McCann did not respond to requests for
comment.
Through his spokesman, Councilman Steve
Padilla was unable to comment Wednesday
because he needs, "to get an updated briefing
from his staff on this."
In May, Padilla was frustrated by how long it
was taking the city to process cannabis business
license applications and threatened to ask
"tough questions" unless something changed.
"I'm going to begin, if necessary - I hope
everyone is listening - to start asking a lot of
tough questions in a more public way very soon
if things don't start moving along more
quickly," he told the City Council in May. "I'm
aware of what's going on behind the scenes. It's
just not something that's tolerable."
To date, Padilla has not followed up on the
statement to ask tough questions in a more
public way.
Councilwoman Jill Galvez, who was not on the
City Council when the marijuana ordinances
were passed, criticized the lieensing process.
She knocked the City Council's decision to
change the selection process from a lottery
system, which is designed to limit the risk of
litigation from rejected applicants, to a merit-
based system, which gives the city more control
over whom to award licenses to.
"A can of worms was opened when the language
of the ordinance was changed from lottery to
merit-based," she said.
City Attorney Glenn Googins did not respond to
a request to comment on this specific lawsuit or
the larger issue in general.
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Gustavo Solis