Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | November 11, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 13 two general counsels, with former top attorney Kristina Gasson leaving in June aer just eight months on the job. At the same time, the agency has spent significant amounts of time and money trying to resolve seemingly intractable disagreements. "e fact that we actually have an agency that is disputing the oversight of its commissioners ... I think it's a joke," said state Sen. Michael Moore (D-Millbury), who has emerged as a prominent critic of the commission. "It's pretty common sense that the commissioners are put in as the overseers of the agency. ey appoint- ment the executive director. at shows to me that that's the chain of command … it's been a waste of taxpayers' dollars." e commission voted in April 2022 to begin the process of draing a charter to clarify those questions, and in June of that year hired Brookline-based mediator Susan Podziba to guide the closed-door discussions. In July 2022, Podziba set December 2022 as the deadline for the mediation to conclude, but the process ended up drag- ging into November 2023, costing around $175,000. Meeting minutes show staff culture was a frequent topic of discussion. In June, then-acting chair Callender Concepcion said the charter was mostly done. A dra of the charter was released in July and discussed at length during a September commission meeting, but was not approved. ere's question of if the dra reflects the viewpoints of current officials: Seven of the 11 officials who were participat- W Expense Details July 2019 - June 2023 Since July 2023 Total since July 2019 Morgan Brown & Joy, LLP, Boston Management-side employment law firm, Morgan Brown & Joy has hired multiple additional outside investigators to look into agency leaks, human resource problems, and other issues. $209,499 $333,731 $543,230 Susan Podziba, founder of Brookline- Podziba led efforts between commissioners and staff to based Podziba Policy Mediation produce a governance charter for the agency, resulting in more than 20 executive session meetings between 2022 and 2024. The governance charter has not yet been implemented. $156,348 $18,606 $174,954 Employment-related settlement/judgment The commission made a payout in early 2024 for an and known suspended employee salaries* employment-related settlement or judgement, which includes awards of back pay for improper termination, lump sum awards, discrimination claims, emotional distress, attorneys fees and costs. Salary expenses for suspended employees include Chief Communications Officer Cedric Sinclair (suspended since December 2023) and now-fired chair Shannon O'Brien (suspended 362 days). - $418,240 $418,240 Other related expenses Includes payments to Washienko Law, a Boston-based boutique law firm specializing in resolving workplace-related issues, and Crisis Management Group, a Framingham-based human resources consulting firm providing a wide variety of employee assistance, managment consultation, counseling, and other employment-related services $33,634 $5,315 $38,949 TOTAL $399,481 $775,892 $1,175,373 * Suspended employee salary costs based off annual salary rates in 2023 and 2024. Source: Massachusetts Office of the Comptroller statewide spending database Mounting costs of CCC dysfunction With issues at the Cannabis Control Commission on the rise, an increasing amount of public funds are being spent on employment-related legal fees, mediation, and other expenses related to human resources. Combined with the $872,587 in legal fees spent by the office of Treasurer Deborah Goldberg (not included in figures below) as part of fighting now-fired Chair Shannon O'Brien's legal appeals, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has spent more than $1.64 million on CCC-related employment- and mediation-related costs in fiscals 2024 and 2025. ing in the mediation as of December 2022 are no longer at CCC or have been suspended. CCC has spent more than $1.17 mil- lion on employment-related legal fees, mediation, and other outside expenses related to human resources, according to a WBJ analysis of state financial data, with $775,000 of that total being spent since July 2023. e sum includes the salaries of sus- pended employees and a $87,969 payment made in January classified as an employ- ment-related settlement or judgment. A large portion of the funds, $543,230, has gone to Morgan Brown & Joy, a Bos- ton-based employment law firm who has hired additional outside firms to conduct investigations, according to documents and emails obtained by WBJ. A lack of accountability If lines of authority are muddled within the commission, that's true externally, too. Under state law, the commission does not answer to a single political authority; its five commissioners are appointed var- iously by the governor, attorney general, treasurer, or jointly by all three. at was a change from the 2016 ballot initiative that legalized recreational marijuana sales in Massachusetts, where voters approved a three-member agency under the treasurer's office. State lawmakers in December 2016 paused implementation of legalization, and the next summer passed a revised version centered around an independent, five-member commission. While the move was intended to insulate CCC from undue political inter- ference, Lucien said it insulated it from accountability amid its current crisis. "At this point, with all the chaos and all the things going wrong simultane- ously, there needs to be a grownup in the room," said Lucien. "Someone should be given the final say to jump in and set things in order and tell all these people, 'You're in time out.' I'm not sure if receivership is the best option, but there has to be some form of accountability to ensure the success- ful operation of the commission and the industry." Indeed, a review of news coverage suggests the three appointing authorities, along with legislative leaders, have most- ly been at pains to distance themselves from the commission. House Speaker Ronald Mariano, for example, told WCVB-TV in 2023 law- makers who wanted additional oversight of the agency were "folks who want to get in the middle of a fight." Commenting in October about this year's spate of ballot initiatives, Mariano seemed to partially blame voters themselves, telling State House News Service he was "no fan of making laws by ballot initiative, aer seeing how screwed up the marijuana thing got." Goldberg, who stepped in to fire O'Brien and is responsible for appointing the agency's chair, has otherwise dis- avowed responsibility for fixing CCC. "I'm not being cute here. We don't have oversight," Goldberg told reporters in October, according to State House News Service. "We have no way of really knowing what goes on over there, so I have absolutely no idea." CCC leaders have cast some blame at the legislature, noting in public meetings lawmakers have refused to fully fund the agency's most recent budget request. The road ahead Current and former employees who spoke to WBJ agree on one key principle: e agency has little hope to get back on track without outside intervention. Dube suspects commissioners knew early installing Hilton-Creek as the acting executive director was a mistake, but they are afraid to acknowledge the mistake while legislators are considering over- hauling the agency or even receivership. While Dube sees Hilton-Creek as a ma- jor obstacle to reforming the organization, she – along with Johnson and other cur- rent and former employees – have doubts the agency's four remaining commission- ers will be able to refocus the agency. "I kept trying to give [commissioners] the benefit of the doubt, but inaction is action," Dube said. "e pain of hearing them in public meetings talk about how great Hilton-Creek is and how she's doing so much is so incredibly painful. It's a slap in the face. I think they are culpable." State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg

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