When I was Morristown’s council president in 2021, I initiated the town's approval of two cannabis dispensaries.
I retired from the council in December 2023 and, in late 2024, became a part-owner in a prospective cannabis dispensary that was seeking town approval.
While our store was disqualified for being too close to a small school behind St. Margaret’s Church on Speedwell Avenue, I was disappointed in the level of transparency of the town’s Cannabis Advisory Board (CAB), and with the council for selecting Uma Flowers (again) to receive one of the licenses.
I have nothing against Uma Flowers and wish them the best of luck. My concern is the town’s total lack of transparency, which ultimately affects the public’s trust in government.
I reviewed all the cannabis dispensary applications after the selection was made, and in my review, Uma Flowers did not have the best application. The best application, in my opinion, was by a group called Veterans of South Jersey.
Their application met all the same qualities as Uma Flowers, but they should have received more points for having New Jersey cannabis experience, which was added to this request
for proposals.
Veterans of South Jersey also had a better community benefits element, providing close to $50,000 annually to local veterans organizations. Uma Flowers made no financial commitment to Morristown’s community development.
The question to ask is, what factors were considered by the CAB in selecting Uma Flowers over Veterans of South Jersey?
Two potential biases could have been considered. First, in the spring of
2024, the attorney for Uma Flowers, Frank Vitolo, gave a $1,500 donation to the campaign committee of the mayor and his team of at-large council members.
The other potential bias was that Uma Flowers had a pending lawsuit against the town, likely for millions of dollars, because the council pulled its cannabis license after Uma Flowers had spent millions on the construction of its store, including environmental permits and cleaning up contaminated soil.
Providing Uma with the license could have saved the town millions and saved the administration the embarrassment of yet another costly lawsuit against the town.
All of this could have been explained had the CAB and the town council provided a written evaluation to the public and to the license applicants, showing how the applicants compared to one another. I have been told that no such document exists.
Each of the eight applicants had to pay a $2,500 application fee to apply for a chance at winning the coveted dispensary license. What expenses was that money supposed to cover?
With no written explanation by the town about anything, why should the applicants and members of the public believe that the selection of Uma Flowers had anything to do with its qualifications, and not the $1,500 campaign contribution and the lawsuit against the town?
I have always supported Tim Dougherty as mayor. But I wish his administration and the town council would try to be a little more transparent, so the residents of Morristown can trust their elected officials.
Stefan Armington represented Morristown’s Third Ward for 12 years on the town council.
Opinions expressed in commentaries are the authors’, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.