Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | November 11, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 21 My friend Frank Carroll BY JAMES O'BRIEN Special to WBJ I n late October, we saw the passing of Francis R. "Frank" Carroll, a favorite son of Worcester and one of its truly outstanding citizens. His wake and funeral, both at St. John's Catholic Church, were two days of tribute to a man who, from humble beginnings, developed an extremely successful business. Frank had an energy level he seemed to maintain all of his life and made contributions to the city and its citizens through charitable, political, and educational programs. His accomplishments included the establishment of the St. John's Food for the Poor program, which has become a major staple for the less fortunate in our city. He was a long-time advocate for veterans, including his work establishing a living memorial hospital in the Vietnam central highlands in memory of the men from Worcester County who died in the Vietnam War or were still missing. I came to know Frank in June 1965 when I was 17. My father was hospitalized with congestive heart failure at Saint Vincent's Hospital. Frank came to visit my father and talk with him about the upcoming city council election. Little did I know that despite my father looking very healthy during Frank's visit, he would pass away three days later. at unexpected introduction to Frank created an immediate bond between us that would grow stronger over the years. Pretty soon Frank was off and running with his new business, and I was on my way to law school, although we would see each other at various functions around the city. More than 20 years ago, Frank and I would become part of the founding group of the Hanover eatre, joining the fledgling effort by Ed Madaus and Paul Demoga to convert the former Lowe's Poli eatre into a first-class performing center. By that time Frank was well-established in his business and brought his financial expertise to that project. He volunteered space in his office building so the theater staff, as small as it was at the time, would have an official operating area. He was an immense help and inspiration to me when I became chair of the Hanover eatre, as Frank made sure I was sensitive to the various competing interests impacting the theater. We became close friends. With Frank's passing, I have lost an irreplaceable special friend, but I am not the only one. All the organizations and people who benefitted from Frank's charity have lost a true friend, but his good works will carry into the foreseeable future. His memory will always be a part of the Worcester community. James O'Brien is a long-time Worcester attorney. Worcester's state agency needs to change W hen the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission decided to establish its headquarters in Worcester's Union Station, it was quite the win for the city and Central Massachusetts. So much of the state's regulatory and political power is centralized around Greater Boston, so getting the main offices of the agency in charge of a buzzy new industry provided some much-deserved clout to this region. And it turns out Central Massachusetts has become the epicenter of the state's legal marijuana industry, as Worcester County has more business license applicants than any other county. is all makes the flailing of the CCC that much more disappointing. Central Massachusetts finally got a major state agency here, and the net result of its continued dysfunction is it's harming the very busi- nesses it was designed to oversee and help grow. e CCC has gone through growing pains from the beginning, although those early struggles could be more easily forgiven. Recreational marijuana had not been legalized anywhere east of the Mississippi River when Massachusetts voters passed the 2016 ballot initiative, and aer the CCC was established by the legislature in 2017, then Chairman Steven Hoffman would oen ask for understanding of the agency's challenges, saying regulators were building the plane as they were flying it. Still, the problems have gotten significantly worse. CCC moves at a snail's pace in granting businesses licenses, which particularly hurts small businesses and entrepreneurs who invested significant capital, oen raising money from family and friends in order to get their ventures off the ground. In addition, the early licenses didn't go to people from underserved populations, which was one of the original tenets of the 2016 ballot initiative. e testing system is flawed, as it can be easily manipulated, leading to potentially unsafe products hitting the retail shelves. As competition in the industry ramped up and busi- nesses started closing, CCC was slow to ease onerous regulations, such as the two-driver rule for deliveries. Now, an investigation by WBJ reporters Eric Casey and Dan Adams reveals the toxic culture and dysfunction at the agency is nearing critical levels. eir "Failed oversight" story on page 10 shows an agency where staff has lost complete confidence in leadership, employees have divided into factions and are lobbing HR complaints at each other, missed deadlines are the norm, and business needs have fallen by the wayside. Some of this stems from the now seven-year-old dispute over whether the CCC executive director or the commissioners are the true power in the agency, which is a situation that feels painfully obvious to everyone outside the CCC. Structural changes are needed now. What could have been a shining star state agency in the Heart of the Commonwealth has turned into a headache in need of pain relief. Even with commis- sioners picking a new executive director on Oct. 28, the problems at CCC are more widespread than any one person can fix. State legislators need to step back in and rebuild the CCC from the ground up, keeping in mind the $1.7-billion legal marijuana industry deserves a highly functioning regulatory partner. W James O'Brien WO R D F R O M T H E W E B WBJournal.com "Not promising when a 7/11 and CVS can't survive, and grocery chains pass on downtown." – Anonymous commenter, Nov. 1, on a retrospective story on how Worcester city and business officials tore down the Worcester Center Galleria in hopes of spurring more downtown activity "I thought MassPort had the muscle to get additional airline service here … as leverage if the airline wanted to increase their service to Logan. Sounds like that is not the case anymore." – Richard Patient, Nov. 1, on a story about the future of Worcester Regional Airport and how proximity to Boston's airport remains a hurdle The Worcester Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Please send submissions to Brad Kane, editor, at bkane@wbjournal.com. Facebook feedback "anks to State Treasurer Deb Goldberg wasting millions on firing the director then getting sued in the process." – Worcester Politics 101, Oct. 29, on WBJ's investigative story into the toxic dysfunction at the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission "Webster Square needs some new life. Great idea." – James Lewis, Nov. 5, about Chick-fil-A considering a second Worcester location on Stafford Street, at a former Walgreens location WBJ Frank Carroll W

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