Springfield auditor will examine cannabis business selection process; consultant says focus was on fairness – MassLive.com

SPRINGFIELD — The city’s internal auditor said this week he will examine the process for selecting cannabis companies, as requested by City Councilor Justin Hurst.

Hurst said he hopes the audit “will shed light on any improprieties that may have taken place.”

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and consultant Julie E. Steiner said the process was fair to all applicants.

Internal auditor Yong No, meeting with councilors Tuesday, said he will review whether the process complied with city ordinances, cannabis regulations and procurement laws. In addition, he will determine if “impartial and equal treatment” was given to all applicants. The audit will include interviewing members of the review committee and others involved in the process, he said.

Earlier this year the city launched its second round of applications for marijuana businesses. Twenty-four applications were reviewed and ranked by a city committee, and in May Sarno chose nine companies with which to negotiate host community agreements, one of the requirements for any marijuana-related business looking to open in Massachusetts.

Steiner, a professor at Western New England University School of Law, told councilors Tuesday that the review commission followed “a very careful and very deliberate process.”

She said she welcomes the audit, and is confident the committee and other city officials strove to be fair in their evaluation of the proposals. She said she assures councilors that “no one was playing games to my knowledge.”

“Due process and fairness is what I’m all about,” Steiner said. “Never ever would I be involved, or put my reputation in any way aligned with folks who were not acting in the best interest of the public.”

City solicitor Edward Pikula said he believed it is “quite unusual” for such an audit request to be made while the city is still in the middle of the process.

Hurst, in formally requesting the audit this week after a prior verbal request, said it may help in finding any improprieties but could also serve to “save the city from future litigation and provide recommendations for how the selection process can be improved in future rounds.”

Earlier in June, Hurst said he was asking the state attorney general and Cannabis Control Commission to investigate the city’s selection of Page Cultivate, which plans a cannabis cultivation business at 299 Page Blvd. The property is the former Smith & Wesson Shooting Sports Center, a portion of which is already used by the Springfield Police Department as a shooting range and training facility.

Hurst and attorney Brian G. Shea, representing another applicant, Diem Springfield LLC, said they do not believe Page Cultivate met buffer restrictions for cannabis cultivation but was still ranked high by the review committee and selected by Sarno for negotiations. Shea and his clients listened in on Tuesday’s meeting.

Diem’s proposal for retail marijuana sales on the first floor of the former Macy’s store at the Eastfield Mall was selected for negotiation of a host community agreement, but its application for cultivation on the second floor was not selected.

Hurst said Tuesday he was not going to discuss specific applications, just the selection process.

In a recent press release, he said the selection process raised “some serious red flags,” and “we owe it to all the other applicants who were not selected to get this right.”

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