What happens to SLO County cannabis shops now that founder is charged with bribery?
Both the Grover Beach and Morro Bay Natural Healing Center cannabis dispensaries were operating as usual on Thursday, a day after the Department of Justice announced founder Helios Dayspring had been charged with bribing an elected official, as well as tax evasion.
Dayspring is expected to plead guilty to charges that he bribed late county supervisor Adam Hill for favorable votes and attempted to bribe former Grover Beach Mayor John Shoals for permits for dispensaries in the city.
Despite Dayspring’s charges, it appears SLO County’s Natural Healing Center locations will remain open and plans to open new locations will continue for the near future — though some city officials say they will review the businesses’ permits more closely in light of the news.
Natural Healing Centers in SLO County under new ownership
Dayspring opened the first of his SLO County cannabis dispensaries, the Grover Beach Natural Healing Center, in 2018.
That was followed by a Lemoore location in 2020 and a Morro Bay location in April of this year.
New locations in San Luis Obispo and Turlock are also expected in the coming months.
Though Dayspring has as recently as April been referred to as the owner of the dispensary chain, he appears to have transferred most of his business interests to girlfriend Valnette Garcia over the past two years.
Garcia is now the CEO of Natural Healing Center, as well as the primary registered agent for the separate Grover Beach, San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay Natural Healing Center corporations, according to filings with the California Secretary of State’s Office.
As recently as 2019, Dayspring was listed as the primary agent for all three of those corporations.
The Grover Beach location is additionally co-owned by a trio of corporations whose agents are affiliated with Dayspring, according to filings with the secretary of state. The largest ownership share of those is held by VGM Holdings, for which Garcia is the registered agent.
State licenses to operate a cannabis business for the San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay locations are both under Garcia’s name, according to the California Department of Cannabis Control website, though the license for the Grover Beach location is still under Dayspring’s name as of Thursday.
On July 27 — a day before Dayspring’s charges were announced — a Facebook post on the Natural Healing Center website announced Garcia as the business’ new CEO.
A Natural Healing Center representative told The Tribune on Thursday that Garcia was promoted on July 19 and replaces Jim Clancy, who had served as NHC’s interim CEO since July 2020.
Prior to that, Dayspring was CEO.
The representative, who declined to comment on Dayspring’s legal matters, said NHC “will continue growing and thriving and continue to be one of California’s most successful, and dynamic vertically integrated cannabis companies with three high-end retail stores in San Luis Obispo County, and two more high-end stores in the Central Valley.”
Grover Beach Natural Healing Center still open
A call to the Grover Beach location revealed the business appears to still be running as usual, though management declined to comment on Dayspring’s arrest.
“We are not making any comments on the situation,” a manager said.
When asked if the business was continuing operations as normal, the manager once again responded that they are not making any comments on the situation.
When asked for his name, the manager hung up.
Grover Beach City Manager Matt Bronson said the city is conducting an internal review given the nature of the allegations against Dayspring, but that currently “city records indicate that Grover Beach commercial cannabis businesses, including Natural Healing Center, have followed all guidelines set forth by the city’s ordinances and have stayed up-to-date with paying applicable taxes including the city’s cannabis tax.”
Bronson noted that Dayspring is no longer affiliated with the Grover Beach Natural Healing Center, saying that the city approved a change in ownership of the business on July 20.
Bronson said he hopes the “alleged actions by Mr. Dayspring” don’t “cast a shadow on a successful and legal industry in Grover Beach that has greatly contributed to the local economy.”
“The cannabis industry is an important component of the city’s thriving and growing business community, which provides jobs and helps improve the quality of life for residents,” Bronson said.
In Morro Bay, City Manager Scott Collins said the city is “going to review the matter, with regard to the (Natural Healing Center) permit.”
“From what we have observed, this incident of the individual being brought to justice does not represent the industry in SLO County and Morro Bay as a whole,” Collins wrote in an email to The Tribune.
San Luis Obispo ‘carefully reviewing’ Dayspring operations
Dayspring was expected to open a new location in San Luis Obispo at 2600 Broad St. earlier this year, but that project was held up by a permitting issue.
It is expected to be one of the first cannabis dispensaries in SLO city.
On Thursday, San Luis Obispo City Manager Derek Johnson said the city will “carefully review permit applications, documents and statements that involved (Dayspring).”
“The details released by the U.S. Department of Justice this week are disappointing and concerning,” Johnson wrote in an email to The Tribune. “The city of San Luis Obispo worked with our community to create a thoughtful, transparent and fair process for granting permits to cannabis businesses.”
Johnson added that to the city’s knowledge, Dayspring “has no current interest in any permitted cannabis businesses in San Luis Obispo.”
“We will take all necessary actions once our review is complete,” he said.
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