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Is Tracy Opening the Door to a Stockton Cannabis Takeover?
The Tracy cannabis conundrum, spearheaded by Tracy Assistant Director of Development Services Bill Dean, continues to be a bureaucratic nightmare for current and potential permit holders. Even despite a proposed amendment to the municipal code lowering the city’s threshold for background checks to the State’s permissible levels (see the May 2nd agenda item 3.D. here), levels to which majority of current permit holders meet, there is no guarantee they will be given the greenlight to officially open their doors.
We focus on this issue because it is the most public display of the City’s continuing efforts to thwart local business.
Part of the hold-up is in City Attorney Bijal Patel’s office, who continues to sit on the required CBAs. We covered this issue in previous posts. Nothing in city’s current process requires Patel to turn around CBAs. This remains a major problem for local business permit holders particularly given Patel’s antagonistic do-nothing attitude toward the local business community. This is staggering because many of the permit holders are long time business community members. But there’s an even bigger concern among local cannabis business seekers related to Bijal Patel and Bill Dean.
The City Attorney's office remains a major hurdle for local business owners.
What we’re hearing from the cannabis community is that Patel and Dean want to have the current permit holders fail, so that Stockton based retail cannabis businesses can step in, take over the permits, and pay the City of Tracy more money.
While this concern is pure speculation (there is nothing in any document that we came across referencing Stockton cannabis firms), several informants are each pointing their fingers at Stockton attorney Zach Drivon, who specializes in representing the retail and wholesale cannabis industry in exchange for a piece of the action. The word on the street is that Drivon is making the rounds in Tracy to solicit opportunities for his clients. Information about Drivon’s firm can be found here.
It only takes a few Google searches to know that if a cannabis permit issue is happening throughout San Joaquin County, Zach Drivon is not far away.
Stockton Attorney Zach Driven source: https://www.drivonconsulting.com/team
Drivon attended the city’s hearings on commercial cannabis back in 2019 that even found him quoted in the Tracy Press. “If you look at our agricultural infrastructure and our transportation infrastructure, this region and businesses that are established in this region have the opportunity to play a major role in the cannabis industry in California and nationwide.” Read the article here. As we’re told, Drivon is a cutthroat businessman for his clients. He’s far more educated on the industry than the inept Bill Dean, and Patel is likely enticed by controlling the permitting herself and bringing in more cash for the city.
It's important that Tracy residents are reminded that Council Members Davis and Bedolla tried to pass a moratorium that, if passed, would have killed many of the current permit holders’ chances of opening their doors.
Council Member Davis is no friend to local cannabis business owners.
Although the city is doing the right thing in amending the municipal code to meet the State’s own background standards, current Tracy permit holders, most all of whom are part of Tracy’s business community in one form or another, still face an uphill battle in opening their doors for business. Time will tell how it all turns out but, in the meantime, it is worthwhile to keep your ears and eyes open for Zach Drivon wondering the corridors at Tracy City Hall for Stockton business interests.