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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3/3/2010 - STAFF REPORTS MEMORANDUM Date: March 2, 2010 To: Craig Ewing From: Mark Adams; Director/Herbal Solutions Cc: Joe Gibbs RE: Four packets provided to city council in advance of the February 3, 2010 city council meeting I will be giving you a call about these issues shortly, but first wanted to send you this memo with relevant details in advance of our call. It has just been brought to my attention that there were some considerable problems with the way our Herbal Solutions applicant process was handled_ Yesterday I received the four packets for the four remaining applicants, which were all given to council in advance of the February 3,2010 council meeting(the date that the final decision of applicants were announced). Upon review, here is our account of potential problems and also how we may have been misrepresented: - On December 3,2010 there was an email questionnaire from yourself, Craig Ewing,that was sent out to the remaining applicants so that they may turn in supplemental information to answer the questions provided. Councilwoman Ginny Foat mentioned in the February 3, 2010 city council meeting that council was not provided this questionnaire along with the four packets they received on the remaining four applicants. We have reviewed the four packets given to colmcil on the four remaining applicants, and indeed the questionnaire was omitted. Unfortunately, it seems council did not have the privilege of reviewing the questions that were asked of applicants while they were reviewing the answers given by the applicants. The process of providing supplemental information to council to further their decision was then incomplete. - Upon looking at our packet for Herbal Solutions, which was given to council in advance of the February 3,2010 city council meeting, there are three major defects with the way the packet was provided(shown below in order of appearance): a) Page 2 of the Herbal Solutions packet was somehow submitted in error, it appears (for some reason)to be the last page of the bylaws for Desert Organic Solutions. However, this was a grave error that was definitely not made on our end as page two of our packet was (and should continue to be,but is not)the first page of our supplemental information. Our second page was supposed to correspond with the first page of our packet, which is the email cover letter that was originally sent to yourself, Craig Ewing, with our supplemental information. There is no possible way that this error was made on our end as we did not have access to the bylaws for Desert Organic Solutions, it also ended up getting submitted to city council this way in error, and our application was adversely affected by this mistake because it creates confusion as to the information contained within our supplemental information packet. b) Page 34 of the Herbal Solutions packet is blank, with the exception of stating in large letters "Information Submitted Late."This is right after the last page of our supplemental information,which was due at 12 noon on December 8,2009. We did not turn our supplemental information in late and we have confirmed receipt with yourself, Craig Ewing,that we sent the information to you in an email dated December 7, 2009 at 6:39pm_ The fact that the packet that was given to council states that our supplemental information was turned in late shows a negative representation of our supplemental information and potentially could have affected the council's decision on our application. c) The very last page of the Herbal Solutions packet was also(somehow) submitted in error, as it appears to be the first page of the original staff report given on August 7,2009 for Dessert Valley Patients Collective. However,this was another grave error that was also not made on our end as the last page of our packet should not have content regarding any applicant other than ours. This mistake also misrepresents our collective as it potentially could appear to anyone thumbing through each packet that ours was missing somehow. Councilwoman Ginny Foat mentioned specifically in the February 3, 2010 council meeting that she didn't appear to have any information on Herbal Solutions, and this might be why. This faulty last page, along with the faulty second page, could be a combination that may have mislead anyone picking up our packet to think it was not our Herbal Solutions information but instead belonged to someone else. Upon review of the other three packets given to city council regarding the other three applications, there was a crucial issue that should be addressed regarding Cannahelp. It is our understanding that it was deemed by council illegal to continue operations during the time period that hearings were being held for all applicants for the two permit slots for medical cannabis collectives in Palm Springs. However, on page 4 of Cannahelp's supplemental information(page 5 of their entire packet) it states at the beginning of the first paragraph"We currently have thirty different strains of medical grade cannabis that we grow on-site."It is hard to see how this statement was overlooked even though it was very clear in the supplemental information packet submitted by Cannahelp, and which was included with the packet that was eventually presented to the city in advance of the February 3,2010 city council meeting. It is our understanding that growing cannabis is still considered operating, and under the ordinance it states that no collective should be operating in the city without a permit. Our local counsel, Joe Gibbs, will also be calling you tomorrow morning regarding these issues. We also wanted to talk with you about the appeal process stated on page 8 (L.5) of the ordinance. We respectfully request that you recommend that the entire matter be continued another 30 days so that our claims may be investigated,and that all processing of the applications be suspended. It would be fundamentally unfair for the council to make decisions without having received all pertinent information. We request that you provide each council member with a copy of this memorandum. Would you please confirm your receipt of this email memorandum. Itt advance of this Wednesday's city council meeting we want to thank you:for your timely attention to this matter, and we also thank you for the time you have put into reviewing and processing our application.