State asks marijuana board to erase $100 violation against Wasilla shop tied to board's chair

The state has asked the Alaska Marijuana Control Board to erase a $100 violation against Green Jar, a marijuana store on East Blue Lupine Drive in Wasilla whose licensee is the board's own chair, when it meets Sept. 2 and 3 in Anchorage.

State records list Bailey Stuart as both the store's designated licensee and the board's chair, who holds the industry seat on the five-member board, a seat structured for a member who also holds a marijuana license. Nothing published establishes whether she will preside, vote or recuse herself on the Green Jar item, and the agenda records no recusal, abstention or declared conflict so far. Minutes from the board's June 24-25 meeting in Fairbanks show Stuart participating in recorded enforcement roll-call votes on other licensees, though those minutes say nothing about how she will act on her own case.

The state ethics act requires a member to declare a conflict on the public record, and when the conflicted member is the chair, the other members decide whether she may take part.

An inspector found the violation on July 15. A garage door at the back of the premises had no locking mechanism. Manager John Osborne told the inspector the door may have gone unsecured since concrete work in early June; he went to a local store, bought a lock and installed it. The notice of violation issued the next day cites one regulation, 3 AAC 306.715, which requires commercial-grade, non-residential door locks on all exterior entry points, and carries a single fine of $100.

A contractor took responsibility in writing that same afternoon. "I was given access through the overhead doors to work the concrete from both businesses. When finished I shut the doors down walked out the man door and forgot to lock them both," he wrote in a letter enclosed with the response.

Green Jar's response letter says the door sits behind commercial shelving and functions essentially as a wall within the premises, and that door sensors and interior motion detectors remained operational. "This incident was the result of a one time human error by the landlord during building renovations," Stuart, the store's chief operations officer, wrote, requesting the notice be downgraded. Green Jar carries two prior notices, one from February 2017 citing five regulations at once and one from October 2021 over advertising and promotions.

AMCO and the licensee held an informal conference July 29. Director Kevin Richard then wrote to the board: "it is recommended that the Marijuana Control Board vacate NOV AM26-1633 and request this be reduced to an advisory notice. The advisory notice will be retained in the licensee's file with AMCO."

Green Jar is one of four disciplinary items on the September agenda and the only one recommended for vacatur. The other three, all Anchorage licensees, carry fines, suspended penalties or dismissal. The board need not follow the recommendation and could uphold the notice or push for suspension or revocation.