A small marijuana retail chain in Northern California has filed suit against the town of Healdsburg and its city council, claiming that a November award of two retail permits to its competitors was “riddled with procedural and substantive errors” and that the process itself was tainted by political donations.
Sonoma County-based Mercy Wellness, which runs two other dispensaries in Santa Rosa and Cotati, alleged in its Feb. 8 lawsuit that Council Member Ariel Kelley and perhaps three other members “had financial and other personal conflicts of interest that prevented them from acting with ‘disinterested skill, zeal, and diligence and primarily for the benefit of the public’” when they voted last fall to give retail permits to applicant retailers JANE and Solful.
That was despite the fact that Mercy Wellness scored the highest of all eight applicants during the review process, the lawsuit asserts. In addition, it contends that JANE didn’t include a mandatory zoning letter with its application documents and only disclosed 65% of its ownership. Solful’s application, the suit argues, is flawed because the company maintains that its site has parking when in fact it does not.
Reda all about the case here
