Applicants that have passed the initial cuts in a bid to secure permits to sell storefront cannabis products in Manteca are being interviewed next week.

City Manager Toni Lundgren indicated the city’s review process of applicants is ahead of schedule. That means the city likely will issue the first permits before year’s end.

The progress comes as an effort is being made on social media to pressure Mayor Gary Singh to push the council to stop the process.

Singh on Friday made it clear that he has no intention of caving into pressure.

The mayor said the city has taken its time to be “deliberate end thorough” to make sure that every necessary precaution is taken so that the cannabis operations will not create problems.

He noted that it is clear the majority of the community favors having storefront cannabis sales in Manteca to eliminate the need to travel to Modesto or elsewhere.

At the same time, Singh said cannabis sales will provide another revenue stream to help underate day-to-day municipal services.

Seven applicants submitted sealed applications by the May 8 deadline in a bid to secure one of for three coveted permits to legally sell marijuana in Manteca.

Each of the seven submitted a non-refundable check for $10,000 to cover the exhaustive review process.

It was just the first step in a thorough multiple-step vetting procedures.

And unless there are three applicants that pass all requirements 100 percent, the city will not issue all three of the allowed permits.

The applications were turned over to an  independent third-party consulting firm to vet. The firm has performed similar services for municipalities up and down California .

They reviewed each application to make sure they meet city requirements covering a wide array of concerns from financial stability, background checks, business plan, and operations and security.

The scoring process was designed to make sure the best possible outcome is obtained.

An example is the proposed locations within the areas in Manteca that qualify for storefront cannabis operations under criteria established by the council.

While minimum distances from concerns such as schools, youth services and such have been established in the enabling ordinance, applications with locations that  exceed those minimum distances by the most could garner higher points on that part of the review process.

In other words, those applicants with the least obtrusive proposed location are ranked higher.

The applicants that passed the first screening then advanced to a second step.

An outside legal firms along with the police department are doing further vetting and conducting interviews.

The applications that pass the first two stages will then be sent to the city manager.

The city manager will then decide among those applications still standing which ones to recommend that the council consider approving.

It could be three, two, one, or none.

The council could also decide if they get three applications forwarded to them to do the same — approve three, two, one, or none. If they  approve only two for whatever reason and still want to award a third permit, they could instruct the city manager to forward then  another recommended applicant.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com