South Lake Tahoe Man Files Injunction After His Proposed Cannabis Business Ranked Dead Last

While potential cannabis businesses in South Lake Tahoe continue to wait to move forward during the application process, one sore loser is delaying the process further.

John Runnels, owner of Runnels Automotive, filed a temporary injunction against the City of South Lake Tahoe, the City Council and the Development Services Director Kevin Fabino in Superior Court in Sacramento last week, halting the movement of any cannabis-related businesses in the Tahoe town until a court date on December 20.

The reason for the injunction wasn’t listed, but it may be due to the fact that Runnels’ proposed cannabis business The New Green Deal, which he planned to run out of his automotive business, ranked dead last in the application process. The city was to award three retail sale licenses among 18 applications for cannabis businesses, so each application was scored 1 – 100. The three winning applications were Embarc Tahoe (97.7 score), Cannablue (91.8 score) and Tahoe Green (90.7). Runnels’ application was ranked by far the lowest with a score of 37.9.

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#californiacannabis – "The top three scoring recreational applicants were #EmbarcTahoe (97.7), #Cannablue (91.8) and #TahoeGreen (90.7). A total of 100 points were possible… The two #microbusiness applications were submitted by #RedefiningOrganics (89.9) and #PerfectUnion (84.5)… Currently @tahoewellness Cooperative is the only legally operating cannabis business in #SouthLakeTahoe. The city will begin negotiating the terms of a #developmentagreement with the top three #retailcannabis applicants and the two microbusiness applicants. According to the city, licenses could be issued this fall." #eldoradocounty #eldoradocountycannabis #southlaketahoe #commercialcannabis #placervilleca #movingforward #daleschaferlaw #daleschafer

A post shared by Dale Schafer (@daleschaferlaw) on Jun 11, 2019 at 9:04am PDT

While Runnels has bashed the integrity of the scoring process, an outside attorney denied his appeal because he had an incomplete application and failed to pay the $323 appeal fee. A review of the Runnels Automotive’s Yelp page, where Runnels planned to have the dispensary, showed 17 reviews. All of them were 1-star ratings.

Make no mistake about it, the race for retail cannabis supremacy in Northern California cities is far from an easy process and will certainly include some wacky characters. And it will certainly get more interesting as the industry develops. Buckle up.