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View Winners → City of Pasadena Issues Statement on Pot Permitting Process
News Jan 22, 2020
Image used for illustration only. - Courtesy photo
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Image used for illustration only. – Courtesy photo
By Terry Miller
In September, an investigation was conducted in response to complaints made by a member of the public regarding City staff’s role in the commercial cannabis permit application process. While City staff was not involved in ranking or evaluating applicants, the complaint alleged that staff favored one or more of the six successful applicants after the completion of the ranking process.
The complaints were investigated by an outside law firm retained by the Pasadena city attorney’s office to independently investigate the allegations. The law firm interviewed the complainant and members of City staff and reviewed thousands of documents. The law firm found no evidence to support any of the allegations. Because the investigation itself is a confidential personnel matter, it will not be released to the public.
As the complainant continued to make allegations, there was a second independent review of these matters by a different outside law firm which, again, affirmed that there was no evidence of improper influence or evidence of malfeasance.
According to Lisa Derderian, spokesperson for the City of Pasadena:
“The City takes all complaints very seriously and, where appropriate, reviews them with multiple layers of oversight. The City has spent in excess of $100,000 investigating and reviewing complaints, made by one individual who has indicated that he was engaged as a consultant for one of the cannabis retailers. Additionally, the City has incurred hundreds of thousands in responding to requests by this consultant related to this matter.”
The city has said it will continue to move forward with the cannabis process as directed by the voters.
Despite contentious counterclaims and accusations of wrong-doing, the city of Pasadena maintains “confidence in the ethical standards and professionalism of City staff throughout the cannabis permitting process,” according to an emailed statement from City Council received by this newspaper on Jan. 21.
