Convicted rapist and felon selected to run Grover Beach pot dispensaries

October 18, 2017

The Grover Beach City Council voted Monday to award four marijuana dispensary licenses to a group of people who include felons, a man on the sex offender registry list and people affiliated with the League of California Cities. [Cal Coast Times]

In September, Grover Beach staff whittled down the list of 12 candidates for two medical marijuana dispensary slots to seven, four in tier 1 and three in tier 2. Experience with marijuana dispensaries was heavily weighted at 25 points. Applicants who scored below 80 points were not eligible.

Tier 1: 90 to 100 points
Milkman
The Monarch
Natural Healing Center
GDI Grover Beach Retail

Tier 2: 80 to 89 points
Trident Management Solutions
805 Beach Breaks
House of Holistics

In September, the council selected two applicants after reviewing the candidates’ background checks. During the vote, Councilwoman Miriam Shah voiced concerns about some of the applicants’ criminal histories.

Read the rest of the article here.


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From the Grover Beach Police Dept via NextDoor App.

“We wanted to provide some clarification in response to some comments about commercial medical cannabis background reviews. First, Mr. Esters is not an applicant for a cannabis permit and has not submitted an application for a background review. Detective Jerry Cornell in the Police Department is assigned to the commercial cannabis regulatory program for the City along with a Code Compliance Officer. Public discussion or sharing of individual backgrounds is not permitted by law so we cannot comment on anyone’s background.”


and the difference between them and the pols – they’ve been caught.


Will Bonny and Clyde be the Bankers?


Oh come on. What could possibly go wrong?


This person could not get a liquor license. There must be better candidates. It doesn’t take much intelligence to know he will cause many problems for law enforcement.


There sure are better candidates. Several locals with clean backgrounds and good track records in the business applied. They were drummed out.


In fact, one local candidate was given a talking to by Shoals from the dias. Shoals claimed the candidate (the candidate did NOT say this) said the city had a duty to choose local candidates. Shoals gave the candidate quite a dressing down in his most stern demeanor.


For the last 10 years—at least it seems I’ve been seeing advertisements for that long—-local people have been running delivery services here in SLO county. They live here, work here, pay taxes here, etc. Many of them have not had ANY contact with police of criminal activity during the entire time they’ve been in business.


Why are these local businesses not considered for getting a dispensary? Why award the license to out-of-town ex-cons and people with a clear conflict of interest?


I think we all know the answer to that.


Why shouldn’t they chosen get their licenses, they gave money to Mayor Shoals and company and expect a good return on their investment, and clearly they got it. It’s clear the voters of Grover Beach like this type of pay and play government, but hey they got their new roads.


The roads didn’t come in on Shoals’ watch. Peterson was the mayor who brought those in. No pay to play there.


The bond wasn’t brought up and passed during Mayor Shoals watch?


No, he did not. Shoals promised with every campaign to fix the streets. The bond was proposed and passed when Peterson was mayor.


I guess this makes him a viable candidate for president of the united states.


Shocking.

I can’t imagine why something so predictable is even news.