Third cannabis permit applicant files appeal with City of South Lake Tahoe

Submitted by paula on Mon, 06/17/2019 - 7:38pm
Paula Peterson

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A third company has filed an appeal with the City of South Lake Tahoe, questioning the scoring they received from the committee selected to rate the applications.

Have a Heart South Lake Tahoe joins MedMen and South Tahoe Cannabis in filing appeals. A fourth, The New Green Deal, did not get the completed document with the $363 appeal fee into the City in time though he said he has hired an attorney.

South Lake Tahoe Attorney Adam Spicer is executive chairman of HAH 4 LLC which, if selected, would do business as Have a Heart South Lake Tahoe. They scored 87.9 points on their application, putting them in the fourth position of retail applicants for the three business permits up for grabs.

Have a Heart’s appeal is based on its assertion that the “selection process was unfair in that the City failed to follow the stated selection process which gave an unfair competitive advantage to the selected applicant(s)," the appeal states.

In his appeal, Spicer states one of the reviewers scored his application well below that of the other four scorers. In one category HAH 4 LLC received an average of 9 points out of 10 from four reviewers, a 0 from the fifth. With his company being less than three points behind the third highest applicant he questioned their scoring.

This was a common complaint with the other two appeals received by the City on Friday.

Spicer states the reviewing committee omitted key sections of their application. For example, Spicer says, they gave HAH 4 LLC zero points out of a possible three for the local ownership category. Spicer is a local attorney. There were also low points scored in experience. HAH 4 LLC has been in business since 2010 and operates six cannabis retail businesses in Washington, seven in California, one in Oregon and one in Iowa.

Also, like the other appeals, Spicer says the top two scores went to Tahoe Green and Embarc Tahoe whose owners were part of the City's cannabis subcommittee selected to help City Council plan the new cannabis ordinance.