Marijuana dispensary gives councilwoman $100K in her campaign to become Modesto mayor
Councilwoman Kristi Ah You has accepted a $100,000 contribution from one of the owners of a cannabis dispensary for her campaign to become Modesto’s next mayor in the November election.
The Aug. 17 donation from Angilbert Sarkis — one of the two owners of Phenos — may be the largest one in at least several decades in Stanislaus County for a local election. Ah You received the donation after responding to the owners’ and their landlord’s complaints of bad behavior by police officers, including allegations of harassment, rudeness and threats.
Mike Warda — one of the dispensary’s attorneys — said Sarkis “wrote the check because she was the only one that came up and stood up for him. She was the only one that came up and said this is not good behavior. This is not right. ... These guys wanted to make a statement that people that stand up for businesses, people that stand up for the community, people that stand up, those are the people that should be leading the city.”
Warda said Phenos’ co-owner Devin Stetler also supports Ah You, though the check was from Sarkis. (Warda added he supports Mayor Ted Brandvold in the November election.)
Warda, Stetler and Ron Roberts, the dispensary’s landlord, met with The Bee at Phenos on Thursday. Roberts declined to speak on the record. Sarkis was not there and has not responded to requests for comment.
Roberts is one of the directors of RT Financial, the corporation that owns Phenos’ building, and is the chief executive officer and chief financial officer of Guaranty Holdings of California, the corporation that owns the buildings that house Sarkis and Stetler’s dispensaries in Riverbank, Turlock and Ceres, according to public records. The dispensaries are Flavors, Firehouse and Patient Care First.
Police Chief Galen Carroll said his officers did not engage in misconduct, including harassment or retaliation, and the business can file a complaint if it believes that is not the case. A law firm representing the dispensary has filed a Public Records Act request with Modesto seeking records to substantiate the allegations.
Ah You said she was just responding to the concerns of one of her constituents, something she says she does all the time, including meeting with residents and businesses when her schedule permits. “My purpose that day was to address a constituent’s concerns and convey that information to city staff, and I was hoping to de-escalate the situation and make it better,” she said Thursday.
Roberts contacted Ah You, Councilmen Mani Grewal and Tony Madgrial and Mayor Ted Brandvold for help.
Ah You did not mention the dispensary’s problem with the police when The Bee asked her Wednesday about how the $100,000 donation came about. She said then that she had asked Sarkis and Stetler to contribute to her campaign, just as she is asking others, and did not expect such a sizable contribution.
The dispute between Phenos and the police started with officers investigating a July 28 shooting of a man in a car during a dispute in north Modesto, several miles from the dispensary.
Dispute ends in north Modesto shooting
Carroll said the man was one of two customers who had gotten into an argument at Phenos, which is on the 1200 block of McHenry Avenue between Orangeburg and Roseburg avenues. The dispensary is in a small commercial center it shares with a self-storage business and a furniture, appliance and electronics rental store.
Carroll said initially there was a miscommunication when police tried to get surveillance video from the dispensary. But Stetler said Roberts texted a detective on July 28 photos from surveillance video and other information the detective needed, and Stetler said he provided police with surveillance video the next day.
Police inspected the dispensary on July 30. A city spokesman said this was a routine, scheduled inspection, but the city had sent the email about the inspection to the wrong email address. Warda said Phenos believed at first that the inspection was unscheduled and payback for what police wrongly perceived as a lack of cooperation.
Phenos officials then noticed what they considered increased police presence around the dispensary. They provided photos from surveillance videos of seven instances over 19 days of police officers driving around the parking lot, parking in it, and pulling over and citing drivers.
Phenos officials said officers have followed dispensary managers for several blocks after the business closed at night.
Claims cops were rude and belligerent
Warda said officers were rude and belligerent and threatened to take away Phenos’ license to operate.
Phenos has been open since March 2019, according to Warda. It was one of eight dispensaries the City Council approved in December 2018. Ah You did not take part in the vote because of how close some of the dispensaries would be to her business, Franklin & Downs Funeral Home.
City spokesman Thomas Reeves said city officials are not aware of any complaints involving the dispensary. And a dispensary manager who was part of Thursday’s interview said until the July 28 investigation, Phenos had had a great relationship with police.
Warda said Ah You got involved July 30. The Phenos manager said she was at the dispensary for at least an hour as she untangled the situation.
Ah You said Phenos is in her council district and only a few blocks from her own business, and she had time that day to go. Ah You said she did not give Phenos special treatment, and treated it the same way she treats any other business.
Ah You said as she was leaving Phenos, they asked her how they could help her campaign. She told them that could be discussed later after they resolved their own issues. Ah You said the donation came after a few phone calls.
‘I cannot do anything for you’
Ah You said when the Phenos people asked what she needed, she said she needed to raise $100,000 to run for mayor, but did not expect them to contribute that much. Ah You said she was flabbergasted and shocked when she opened the envelope with the $100,000 check inside. She said the check was hand delivered but declined to say who delivered it.
“He goes, ‘We don’t expect anything from you’,” Ah You said about the man who gave her the check. “I told them, ‘I cannot do anything for you.’ He said, ‘I understand that,’ and off he went.”
While Modesto has no limit on campaign contributions, it does have what it calls the Tin Cup ordinance. It says a council member, including the mayor, cannot vote on any matter affecting a donor who gave them $3,000 or more over four years.
A longtime campaign consultant could not recall another candidate for local office, such as city council, school board or the board of supervisors, getting a donation even approaching what Ah You received.
“I’ve never heard of a contribution of this size,” said Mike Lynch, who has worked as a campaign consultant and for elected officials since 1982. “I could be wrong, but I cannot recall. ... No one I’ve every worked for got a $100,000 check.”
A big contribution for a local race typically is $1,000 to $5,000.
Lynch is Sue Zwahlen’s campaign consultant. Zwahlen, a former Modesto City Schools board member, and Ah You are among the seven candidates challenging Mayor Brandvold as he seeks his second term.
For context, Brandvold raised about $92,000, including $28,000 he lent his campaign, when he challenged and defeated Mayor Garrad Marsh in the November 2015 election, which was concluded in a February 2016 runoff election. Marsh raised more than $160,000. These amounts are from campaign finance forms filed with the city.
Entered mayor’s race late
Brandvold and the six other candidates challenging him have reported raising about $242,000 so far for this election from dozens of individual contributors, though one candidate raised $1,000 and another has not raised anything. Besides the $100,000 check, Ah You reported receiving $3,150 in other contributions.
Ah You entered the mayor’s race late, announcing her candidacy in July. Candidates typically announce they are running about a year before the election to give them time to raise money. And there will be a lot more voters to reach this election than in the previous mayoral election.
That’s because Modesto moved its elections from odd to even years (more people vote in even years) and Lynch expects record turnout because of President Donald Trump. He expects an enormous number of people voting “for or against the president.”
Councilmen Madrigal and Grewal said they both listened to Roberts’ concerns and passed them on to city officials for follow-up. Brandvold said he met with Warda and Roberts. Brandvold said he then took their concerns to City Manager Joe Lopez and Carroll, the police chief.
“I’ve got to believe the police chief that there is no harassment that is going on,” Brandvold said. “From what has been explained to me by the city manager, it’s really just a big misunderstanding. I relayed our regrets to Ron Roberts and Mike Warda about that.”
This story was originally published August 23, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
