OCEANSIDE — The City Council recently upheld staff’s decision to deny a local license for a cannabis storefront to one of the 17 companies that applied.
The Artist Tree, also known as TAT Oceanside LLC, filed an appeal last month challenging staff’s decision, claiming the removal of the police chief’s scores from the ranking process was improper and detrimental to its application.
The application window for cannabis storefronts opened last fall after the City Council allowed four local licenses.
The city received 17 applications, all of which were deemed complete in the first phase. During the second phase, staff scored the applications, and the top nine advanced to the panel interview phase. Interviews were conducted in June, and the city clerk determined license recipients through a blind ranked-choice vote.
According to staff, Police Chief Taurino Valdovinos — one of the five panelists — learned that Jessica Roy, the wife of one of his employees, Joe Roy, is an owner of The Artist Tree.
Although the city attorney assured Valdovinos that there was no financial conflict of interest because he had no direct or indirect financial benefit from the business, city staff decided to remove the chief’s rankings from the scoring process altogether to avoid a public perception of bias.
In the end, March and Ash ranked first, securing its local license. There was a three-way tie for second place between Embarc, Green Venture Farms and Oceanside Retail OPCO, requiring staff to return at a future council meeting to determine which of the three will receive the remaining license.
The city’s two current operators, MedLeaf and Left Coast, also received their local licenses.
Anyone ranked below second place was denied a license. STIIIZY ranked fifth, The Artist Tree sixth, Buzz seventh, 5 Star Greens eighth and Viva Verde ninth.
The Artist Tree’s appeal claims that removing the chief’s rankings hurt its application. In response, staff asserted that even with the chief’s scores, the business still would not have had enough points to secure a license.
“Even with a first place ranking from the chief and zero points from the chief for all other applicants, the appellant would not have received a local license,” said Dane Thompson, a senior planner with the city, at the Aug. 5 council meeting.
The appeal also claims that the chief knew about Roy’s involvement in the business before the panel interviews.
Lauren Fontaine, who identified herself as one of the owners and chief compliance officer of The Artist Tree, said the business disclosed the relationship in its written application and that Joe Roy spoke with the chief months before the interviews about his wife.
“It’s very frustrating that the chief has stated that he did not know ahead of time because he absolutely did,” Fontaine said.
When asked by the City Council, Valdovinos repeated that he did not know about Roy’s involvement in The Artist Tree. He said he only had previous conversations about the Roys supporting a cannabis company, but nothing specifically about The Artist Tree.
“I had never heard of The Artist Tree… and frankly, I’m a little surprised that the OPOA Board would approve sponsoring them – to me, that’s the conflict of interest, that one of the board members would potentially financially gain from this selection,” Valdovinos said.
Roy is vice president of the Oceanside Police Officers Association.
Fontaine also accused the ranking system staff used to score the applications of being arbitrary, capricious and “inheritantly flawed,” but staff defended both the process and the decision to remove the chief’s rankings as fair.
City Manager Jonathan Borrego said the city commonly uses the same forced ranked-choice system, including when hiring new employees.
“It’s actually very effective in my opinion,” Borrego said.
The City Council unanimously sided with staff in a 4-0 vote. Councilmember Peter Weiss was absent from the meeting.
