{"id":75822,"date":"2024-05-31T04:57:58","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T12:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/05\/31\/massachusetts-marijuana-regulator-cites-discord-and-instability-as-officials-clash-over-leadership-duties\/"},"modified":"2024-05-31T12:45:54","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T20:45:54","slug":"massachusetts-marijuana-regulator-cites-discord-and-instability-as-officials-clash-over-leadership-duties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/05\/31\/massachusetts-marijuana-regulator-cites-discord-and-instability-as-officials-clash-over-leadership-duties\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts Marijuana Regulator Cites \u2018Discord And Instability\u2019 As Officials Clash Over Leadership Duties"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really about building and solidifying our team going forward, especially with all the work that\u2019s on our plate.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Colin Young, State House News Service Via CommonWealth Beacon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Turmoil reared its head again at the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) last week, when one commissioner suggested that another had done something that \u201ccreated intense upheaval, discord and instability\u201d at the agency and then torpedoed an effort to divide up the agency\u2019s acting executive director\u2019s duties.<\/p>\n

The CCC has been in disarray for much of the last year. The agency has been without a dedicated chairperson since Shannon O\u2019Brien was suspended by Treasurer Deborah Goldberg in September and without an executive director for nearly as long.<\/p>\n

Shawn Collins, the only administrative head in the CCC\u2019s history, went out on parental leave in September and\u00a0resigned before returning<\/a>\u00a0in December. Chief People Officer Debra Hilton-Creek\u00a0has been serving<\/a>\u00a0as acting executive director in the meantime, and the agency\u2019s search for a new executive director\u00a0appears months behind<\/a> its originally envisioned schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re mindful and we\u2019re preparing for the next ED, for the next leader and administrative leader, of the agency. So it\u2019s important that we essentially just get our ducks in a row and prepare ourselves for that transition during this transition period,\u201d Acting Chair Ava Callender Concepcion said last week.<\/p>\n

Tensions were obvious Thursday when the CCC took up an an item referred to on the meeting agenda as \u201cCCC 2024 Key Priorities and Operational Changes.\u201d Concepcion then presented two motions: one to direct the CCC\u2019s top lawyer to move ahead with the promulgation process for regulatory changes the commission has already agreed to (which passed) and a second to delegate many of the acting executive director responsibilities from Hilton-Creek to various other CCC department heads, a proposal which led to a messy exchange.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Kimberly Roy was recognized at the start of the discussion and read a short statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know, I\u2019m one of five appointed members of the CCC. All five of us are co-equal voting members of this body. As members of the commission, we are required to operate under certain rules, regulations and statutes in which we operate. I have questions and concerns about certain activities that may have occurred in the last 48 hours or so that not only myself as a commissioner, CCC staff and the public at large need answers to,\u201d said Roy, a Gov. Charlie Baker (R) appointee. \u201cIt is further important to note these actions have created intense upheaval, discord and instability within our staff, as I\u2019ve heard from many of them, as well as a device of distraction to our agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy, who served as acting chairwoman for the first meeting following O\u2019Brien\u2019s suspension before Concepcion was voted into that temporary position, then asked Concepcion to recognize her \u201cthroughout the course of this discussion and that no parliamentary procedures such as moving the question or the motion are deployed to stifle debate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public will recognize this as censorship, and the press watching today,\u201d Roy said.<\/p>\n

Roy then turned her attention to Commissioner Bruce Stebbins. \u201cCommissioner Stebbins, over the last 48 hours have you been involved in a process to replace acting Executive Director Hilton-Creek? Did you make employment offers\u2026\u201d Roy said before Concepcion shut her down by talking over her.<\/p>\n

Concepcion said that Roy was \u201centering statements and information that is not a part of today\u2019s discussion or vote\u201d and asked that the CCC\u2019s general counsel provide \u201cany legal guidance at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

General Counsel Kristina Gasson said she \u201cwould just caution commissioners from adding anything that\u2026involves like a personnel action that might be considered to be held confidential on privacy implications, implications under the public records law, and just making sure that we preserve privacy in those cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy did not specify which job or jobs were supposedly offered to whom, and no additional details about the alleged offers was shared during the meeting last Thursday.<\/p>\n

Roy complained she\u2019s \u201cnot briefed on any of these things\u201d and said that Concepcion has \u201cnot provided me any context.\u201d She again alluded to employment offers having been extended, saying, \u201cthere were actions over the last 48 hours that, offers were made to employees\u2026\u201d before Concepcion again stopped the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommissioner Roy, please. I will not get into a conversation about personnel matters during an open meeting. We\u2019ve already gotten into a place where it\u2019s gotten really complicated from past actions. I am not going to entertain that,\u201d Concepcion said, perhaps alluding to the\u00a0firestorm O\u2019Brien caused<\/a>\u00a0last summer when she aired commission personnel matters publicly. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think it is something that should be allowed during this conversation. So I want us to continue with the conversation at hand\u2026anything else is not for this space. And I feel a little bit conflicted with the fact that I need to say that now to a commissioner in public, but we will not engage in that conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hilton-Creek weighed in, calling the exchange \u201ca little bit unfortunate\u201d and suggesting \u201cthat we, to your point, not have this conversation here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would really appreciate it,\u201d she said. \u201cCan we table that for maybe another forum?\u201d<\/p>\n

Concepcion reiterated the request for Roy to put a lid on her comments during the public meeting and then tried to refocus the meeting onto the motion she had made to delegate many of Hilton-Creek\u2019s acting executive director responsibilities to others.<\/p>\n

But Roy had a question for Gasson: Is it correct that the\u00a0CCC\u2019s enabling law<\/a>\u00a0requires \u201can affirmative vote of three commissioners for any action taken by the commission?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gasson confirmed that three \u201cyes\u201d votes are required for a motion to pass the CCC.<\/p>\n

With O\u2019Brien suspended and Commissioner Nurys Camargo not participating in Thursday\u2019s meeting, that meant that the motion to delegate acting executive director duties needed to pass unanimously among Concepcion, Stebbins and Roy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we vote, due to the lack of time with this motion language, I will have to vote no. Or if we table it, then I will have time to be able to absorb and digest this motion language,\u201d Roy said, referring to a lengthy and multi-part motion that Concepcion read aloud and shared in a private CCC chat during the meeting.<\/p>\n

Concepcion asked if Roy had a preference between taking the vote or tabling the motion, and Roy said, \u201cSure, let\u2019s vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

The motion failed on a 2\u20131 vote, with Concepcion and Stebbins in support and Roy dissenting.<\/p>\n

Roy and Stebbins were not available on Tuesday to talk about Thursday\u2019s meeting, the CCC said. Stebbins fielded one question about Roy\u2019s assertions during a post-meeting press conference last week, but he did not directly answer the question, according to audio provided by the CCC.<\/p>\n

The idea of carving up Hilton-Creek\u2019s acting executive director duties was meant, Concepcion said, to allow her to focus more on her job as chief people officer to \u201creally make sure that the executive director search moves along, moves along in a timely manner, and that she\u2019s able to have more time for that, while also recognizing and empowering the other chiefs of the CCC.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stebbins said during the meeting that he thought realigning the executive duties would be helpful \u201cfor us to give some direction to our acting ED and chief people officer as to where we hope she can focus her time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s not just the ED\u2019s role. It\u2019s we have a number of people who are in acting capacities, and those searches have started up, and this is really about building and solidifying our team going forward, especially with all the work that\u2019s on our plate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Lawmakers Push To Let VA Doctors Recommend Medical Marijuana And End THC Testing For Federal Job Applicants<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Massachusetts Marijuana Regulator Cites \u2018Discord And Instability\u2019 As Officials Clash Over Leadership Duties<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\n
\nRead More: Massachusetts Marijuana Regulator Cites \u2018Discord And Instability\u2019 As Officials Clash Over Leadership Duties<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is really about building and solidifying our team going forward, especially with all the work that\u2019s on our plate.\u201d By Colin Young, State House News Service Via CommonWealth Beacon Turmoil reared its head again at the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) last week, when one commissioner suggested that another hadContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75823,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75822\/revisions\/75823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}