Aurora lawmakers give first OK to additional pot-shop license benchmarks

AURORA | In an effort to pare down applicants for limited recreational marijuana shop licenses, Aurora lawmakers tentatively approved additional criteria as part of an already-elaborate recreational marijuana store-license system expected to start screening potential owners in July.

“We have an opportunity to craft what this industry looks like in our city, and we have the opportunity to select the best possible operators in Aurora,” said Councilman Bob Roth, adding that without the additional criteria, the city could be looking at too many applicants for too few coveted spots. The city is planning for 24 retail shops the city scattered equally among Aurora’s six council wards.

Besides having to comply with numerous state requirements as a condition for applying for an Aurora marijuana retail license, city lawmakers are backing a plan that would award points for a variety of benchmarks, in theory, awarding licenses to the applicants accumulating the most points, an assessment of those applicants who meet the most city requirements. Points would be awarded for anything from business practices to employee benefits.

During a special study session Monday night, city council gave initial approval to new points categories Roth proposed as a solution. One category would award up to 5 points to applicants who provide a detailed outline of their financial operating structure with a staffing plan, their proposed pay and benefits package, employee training programs and manuals, and a list of best practices for the industry. Another benchmark would give up to 2 points to businesses that are members of trade associations.

Roth said he initially planned to bring up the new points criteria as an amendment to a points system for retail marijuana licenses that is set to be heard on the council floor April 28. The points he proposed would be in addition to the 23 points council approved at a March 17 study session. Those points give preference to applicants who install a filtration system and an enhanced security system, have more than two years of industry experience, and a spotless criminal and business background.

“I thought we had a good plan at the last session,” said Councilman Bob LeGare, refering to the fact that city council nixed applicants receiving additional points for spending money and being members of industry trade associations at that meeting.

“We’re requiring a minimum of $400,000 in liquid assets [for applicants],” he added.  If approved, the financial requirement would be the first of its kind for marijuana licenses in the state.  “I look at it from the private sector side. I have a great deal of confidence in ability of owners of that $400,000 to establish a plan to be successful,” he said.

Roth said not adding his proposed points to the application process would result in too many people scoring the same amount for a license, and the city having to decide the winner by a lottery.  “I think we’re going to have a much more difficult  time with a 100 people in the lottery system when all those people score the same,” he said.

“Just draw a number, leave it alone,” said Councilwoman Molly Markert.  “If you get five  in the city I’d be shocked…We can have a process when we have a problem.”

City Manager Skip Noe said Roth’s bonus points are tricky because they are subjective, unlike the points council decided on in March, which he described as objective and quantifiable. Roth said that as a director of a construction company, he responds to request for proposals that asked questions about his staff and the types of projects he works on. “There are  a lot of things in a standard RFP process that are subjective rather than objective. I don’t think there is anything negative about that,” he said.

Many of the rules and regulations proposed so far have come from industry leaders in Denver, who say it costs more than $1 million to run a successful dispensary. The city has also not set a limit on the number of licenses that can be issued to a single owner, which has some Aurora residents and small business owners worried the rules will give an unfair advantage to pot juggernauts over local applicants. Critics of the proposal say those industry officials guiding Aurora are setting it up for them to expand their Denver businesses here, cutting out start-ups.

Council members Molly Markert, Bob LeGare, Bob Broom, and Sally Mounier voted against all of the new points categories. Council member Barb Cleland and Mayor Steve Hogan were absent from the meeting.

All of the city’s licensing requirements must win initial approval at a city council session April 28 and final approval at the end of May. The earliest shops can open in Aurora is October thanks to city and state restrictions already in place.