Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal | November 11, 2024 | wbjournal.com quired much-needed attention, including filling 20 open positions. It is unclear whether the stripping of Hilton-Creek's authority over other de- partments was related to the complaints against her. Emails obtained by WBJ suggest conflict-of-interest concerns prompted Callender Concepcion and the agency's then-general counsel to assume responsibility in January for all com- plaints regarding Hilton-Creek. Even so, Dube and others who had complaints against Hilton-Creek have little confidence in the agency's leaders to make any improvements. Impatient with CCC and mistrustful of how it will handle the results of outside in- vestigations, Dube, Johnson, and another employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity have filed a half dozen complaints with various state agencies and legislators. Dube was granted leave in October, aer she said she could no lon- ger continue reporting to Hilton-Creek. Due to the multi-sided nature of inter- nal CCC disputes, Johnson said she sus- pects charges against Hilton-Creek are exaggerated and calculated to sabotage her attempts at imposing accountability. Johnson is on medical leave related to the impacts of what she says was mis- treatment by other staff. She said the web of accusations and counterclaims among CCC employees was already extensive by the time Hilton-Creek took charge, leaving her with an impossible task. "Debbie came in as very strong with a ton of potential, but she's just been un- dermined at every corner," Johnson said. Hilton-Creek's hiring as chief people officer in August 2023 indeed came at a time of disarray and transition for CCC. e agency was facing public concerns over industry safety following the death of a cannabis worker in January 2022. Mean- while, longtime executive director Shawn Collins was on his way out the door, and incoming chair O'Brien would soon find herself mired in a controversy over her ownership in a marijuana company. O'Brien would later be suspended and eventually fired by Goldberg, the state treasurer, who appoints the commis- sion's chair, for allegedly making racially insensitive remarks and other miscon- duct, including allegedly mishandling a request for parental leave by Collins. Almost immediately aer Hilton-Creek was elevated to acting executive direc- tor in October, six staff members raised concerns about someone so new to the agency being tapped to lead it. On Nov. 16, concerned employees requested a meeting with then-acting chair Callen- der Concepcion, outlining why they felt Hilton-Creek was unprepared. Hilton-Creek herself has noted defi- ciencies in the agency's human resources apparatus, saying at a public meeting in March staff in the department were inexperienced. She urged commissioners to approve the hiring of a new manager to oversee them. "is is really stressing me out," Hilton-Creek said aer commissioners questioned the need for the position. "I gotta be honest with you ... I have a lot of work to do, and I need someone who is going to come in and jump in alongside me and the rest of the staff to get the work done." Commissioners ultimately approved the request, but Hilton-Creek reversed course in September, saying at a public meeting she had paused hiring for the role to prioritize the search for a new executive director and in order "to make sure that this is exactly the role ... that the team is aspiring to bring on." Slow response to business struggles, consumer protections e ongoing accountability vacuum is just one factor sapping the confidence of business owners. While companies in regulated in- dustries routinely grumble about their overseers, the delays have been especially costly in the young and fast-evolving cannabis industry, where changes can easily come too late to have their intend- ed impact, Dominguez said. "Massachusetts is a [cannabis] market that is just not one of those places that people are looking to invest in right now, and I don't know if all of the news coverage that has come out has helped," said Dominguez. "ere's a lot of tran- sition that's happening at the CCC, and that leaves the whole industry in a really tough position." In Worcester County, cannabis has quickly become part of the local econo- my, as more prospective Massachusetts cannabis businesses have applied for licenses than any other county. Statewide, marijuana sales and fees generated $292.4 million in state tax revenue in fiscal 2024. Despite those figures, at least two dis- pensaries in Central Massachusetts have shuttered in 2024, as the wholesale price of cannabis has plummeted nearly 67% from 2020, according to CCC data. Cannabis industry difficulties are not limited to Massachusetts, but business conditions add greater urgency to a laundry list of regulatory changes, said Lucien, the cannabis attorney. e reforms sought by businesses and advocates include relaxed transportation rules for marijuana deliveries, where CCC has finally made some progress. Even before the start of delivery sales in 2021, business owners had warned a rule requiring two employees to be pres- ent in a delivery vehicle was financially infeasible, logistically difficult, and did little to increase security. Ever since, they have lobbied for it to be rescinded. e commission finally voted to ap- prove final regulations largely eliminat- ing the two-driver rule on Oct. 30, aer years of discussion and over 10 months aer a preliminary vote to change it. e move came much too late, accord- ing to one business owner testifying in front of a State House committee panel also held Oct. 30. "While this is a great thing, it's taken us nearly four years to get here," Chris Fevry, CEO of Dris Corp., a Natick delivery company, said of the two-driver rule change. "ere's companies going out of business." Other regulations have lagged even longer, including licenses for so-called social consumption venues, which were envisioned by the 2016 ballot initiative. While part of the delay is attributable to a hitch in state law — since fixed — CCC in 2023 voted to scrap an earlier set of provisional rules and restart the process of draing regulations, meaning venues are unlikely to open before 2026. Issues surrounding the testing of products to ensure product safety and accuracy of labeling is a concern across the industry, but has been prominent in Massachusetts. In October, an investigation from the Wall Street Journal found from April 2021 through 2023, labs in Massachusetts that failed fewer tests than other labs in the previous year tested a median of 84% more samples during the following 12 months, suggesting growers were seeking out labs likely to approve products with higher levels of contaminants. Johnson, the CCC chief of research since 2018, told the WBJ she tried in vain for years to obtain testing data. So, at a science-themed cannabis event she attended in December, she was shocked when one speaker presented a thorough analysis of the data, accessed via a public record request. Once Johnson got access to the data herself, it didn't take long to find issues. "We analyzed it, and then we realized that there was a huge issue with the data and how labs are reporting total yeast and mold," Johnson said. Data from some labs showed a massive number of samples fell just below the state's threshold for contaminants like mold, she said, while virtually none were above the threshold, a near impossibility statistically, she said. CCC did not respond directly to Johnson's claims. e agency scheduled a Nov. 7 hearing to receive feedback from stakeholders on the issue of testing fraud. Concerns over uncompetitive bid Dube's conflict with commission leadership escalated this summer, aer she raised alarms about what she said was discussion at a meeting in March to predetermine the outcome of a competi- tive contract bid. In a partial recording of the meeting provided to WBJ by Dube, commission Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Paul Clark repeatedly makes clear his intention to select the current contrac- tor, Salem-based JD Soware, when the contract expires. "How narrowly can we scope the [re- quest for quote] that makes it legal to get us to where we really want to be, which is a continuation of the existing contract?" Clark asked other employees at one point during the video. Clark said he and other CCC employ- ees were not entirely satisfied with the JD Soware product. Eventually, Clark said the commission intends to replace the soware, but was too behind on other work to implement such a change quickly. ere is no indication that JD Soware was aware of the internal discussion. Clark did not respond to a WBJ request for comment. Dube alerted a commissioner and other high-ranking officials about the possible violation of rules governing state bids, which generally require a competi- tive process. Dube said she was later reprimanded by her supervisor, Chief Financial and Ac- counting Officer Lisa Schlegel, for sending the email expressing her concerns, saying she should have spoken directly to Clark about the matter instead. Schlegel did not respond to a request for comment. e CCC legal department acknowl- edged Dube's concern about the soware contract and advised Dube of her right to contact the state ethics commission. Dube said she notified the Inspector General, which assigned an investigator to interview her about the allegation. Carrie Kimball, communications offi- cer for the inspector general, declined to comment on the matter, citing state law requiring the work of the office to remain confidential. From the CCC's standpoint, Mc- Namara said the agency was aware of Dube's concerns over the soware contract and the situation had been reviewed. CCC has yet to formally issue a request for bids for the contract. Dube said she is worried further delays will ensure the commission has no option but to select JD Soware when the contract expires in March, essentially rendering the bid noncompetitive anyway. Rising turnover, rising costs e chaos inside the commission ap- pears to have sparked an unprecedented wave of turnover. Since the beginning of 2023, more than 35 employees have le the agen- cy due to termination or resignation, including two chief-level positions and four director-level positions. e agency's legal team in particular has seen nine exits in that time, including Continued from page 11

• Cover