Manteca Flavors is suing the City of Manteca over its decision not to essentially award them one of three permits to sell storefront cannabis in the Family City.

The suit filed in San Joaquin County Superior Court is being discussed in a closed session Tuesday by the Manteca City Council.

The filing of a lawsuit wasn’t unexpected given that has been the norm in other California jurisdictions when one or more of the applicants aren’t selected.

During the public hearing in December to determine the final three, several applicants spoke up questioning the objectivity and thoroughness of the outside firm used to rate the seven concerns that paid $10,000 to submit the initial application.

The fee covered the costs of the city vetting applicants.

There were also complaints that the city wasn’t going with applicants that offered them the most money although such a determination wasn’t exactly clear due to different formulas various concerns proposed.

Manteca Flavors, which is connected to a Riverbank storefront marijuana operation and stores elsewhere, made it to the next-to-final cut.

They were not a part of the final four candidates presented to the council for consideration for the three permits being offered.

The three of the final four candidates that were picked to negotiate community benefit agreements with the city that is part of a set of hoops left for them to be allowed to open a Manteca location are:

*Embarc Manteca at 1148 South Main Street in the small strip center behind Dairy Queen.

*Off the Charts Manteca in the space now occupied by Main Auto Repair at 2325 West Yosemite Avenue near the municipal wastewater treatment plant.

*Nectar Market in the former Golden Bear Physical Therapy space at 1519 Yosemite Avenue near Valley Oak Dental.

The CBA will determine exactly what type of revenue deal the city will secure as well as what each concern will provide in terms of annual community benefits.

If all goes well and they secure conditional use permits from the planning commission plus the council likes the CBA, Embarc as well as Nectar, and Off the Charts could be open for business in Manteca sometime this year.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com