SAUGUS — Valerio Romano, the attorney representing Uma Flowers, one of seven companies seeking to open a recreational marijuana dispensary in town, in a letter sent to the Board of Selectmen responded to several criticisms levied against the company by the board’s chairman, Anthony Cogliano.
Uma Flowers was the unanimous top choice of the Marijuana Establishment Review Committee established by Town Manager Scott Crabtree to review the responses each company submitted to a request for information issued by the town in January. In the report, the company is lauded for its proposed location, a vacant lot at 24 Broadway; its retail experience, with a recreational dispensary open and operating in Pepperell and another set to open in Lunenberg; and its strong independent financial footing.
But, Cogliano, who has been repeatedly critical of the report and sparred with Crabtree over the document during a meeting of the selectmen on Sept. 25, disagreed with many of the conclusions made in the report about Uma’s operations. After conducting a site visit to the company’s Pepperell location and the currently unopened Lunenberg store, Cogliano said he saw no evidence of why they would have received such high marks.
“I didn’t see anything there that would lead me to believe that they were the number one,” he said. “First, I thought they had the worst location, the worst store, the smallest store. We’re trying to find locations that will make money for Saugus and eliminate problems in Saugus and I don’t think the report addressed that.”
Those comments run counter to a legal opinion rendered by Town Counsel John Vasapoli, who cautioned board members against looking beyond a company’s location while reviewing the applications for S-2 permits.
Romano’s letter sought to clarify perceived misconceptions about the company’s proposal, and cited numerous remarks made by Cogliano during the aforementioned meeting with Crabtree and during the board’s cannabis hearings on Sept. 13.
In it, Romano, who helped draft the ballot question that ended cannabis prohibition in Massachusetts, wrote that upon reviewing those meetings, the company realized “that perhaps it had not clearly explained its proposal” and that “this further correspondence may be helpful in re-describing its proposal.” The letter provided the board with a copy of the materials the company submitted to the MERC in February, in the event that members were not given the chance to review them.
Perhaps the most significant portion of the letter, though, is Romano’s assertion that “it is a reasonable inference that despite the MERC’s independent assessment, the chair believes that Bostica’s S2 permit application should be awarded and Uma’s should be denied.”
Despite state regulations allowing Saugus to have as many as three dispensaries, Uma and Bostica, with a proposed location at 44 Broadway, could not both open their doors in town due to their proximity. The town’s zoning bylaws expressly prohibit placing two recreational marijuana retail establishments within 1,000 feet of each other.
Cogliano has repeatedly praised Bostica throughout the hearings, despite the fact that the company placed sixth in the MERC report. And, Cogliano has disclosed that he has a pre-existing relationship with Bostica CEO Ray Falite, including paying Falite for HVAC work done on his behalf in the past. Cogliano has said that relationship holds no sway in his decision on the permit applications.
“One applicant invested $40 million in a grow facility in Lynn, we have another applicant that invested $750,000 in a horrible location in Pepperell. We picked the one in Pepperell because she has retail experience. You’ve got to be kidding me, that’s the criteria for doing that?” Cogliano said, chuckling. “They have one store open when this guy spent $40 million, has a better location in Saugus, is a person that’s known in the Saugus community that probably will do more business than anyone else because of who he is.”
“As a business person, those things throw up red flags,” Cogliano said.
But, Romano noted that the board is making a decision on a retail location in Saugus, and that operating a grow facility, as Bostica does in Lynn, is not akin to operating a retail store.
“The security requirements of operating a cultivation facility that is not open to the public and does not conduct retail sales, and a retail facility that is open to the public and does conduct retail sales, are simply not the same,” Romano wrote.
Romano took a shot at Cogliano’s remark that he could operate a store like Uma’s in Pepperell with his “eyes closed,” writing “Uma will bring a fully compliant dispensary in an ideal location to the Town of Saugus, which Uma will not run with their eyes closed.”
Cogliano said he would address the letter during the board’s next meeting on Oct. 10, when at least one proposal is likely to be voted on.
And, Cogliano said he still has numerous questions for Crabtree, who has thus far declined to explain why the committee made the recommendations it did, citing legal requirements around the RFI process.
“I’m not sure how I can proceed on some of the locations that were recommended by the MERC,” Cogliano said in a statement Saturday evening.