The chairwoman of the Cannabis Control Commission took commissioners unexpectedly Friday when she introduced in the midst of a regulatory dialogue that Executive Director Shawn Collins is planning to depart the company he has run since its inception and described the CCC as being “in crisis.”
Chairwoman Shannon O’Brien mentioned she needs to satisfy subsequent week or the week after along with her fellow commissioners to debate Collins’ departure — which has not been acknowledged by Collins, who was not made out there to the News Service on Friday afternoon — and the way the CCC ought to proceed because it will get into the meat of its newest spherical of marijuana trade regulation revisions.
O’Brien, the previous state treasurer who got here underneath scrutiny for her ties to a hashish firm quickly after Treasurer Deborah Goldberg tapped her to chair the CCC final September, introduced throughout Friday’s digital assembly that Collins knowledgeable her in May that he deliberate announce that he would go away the CCC on the finish of this yr and that he wished to take 10 weeks of household go away starting in September. O’Brien mentioned she requested Collins to not make that announcement in May.
“It was a little bit out of the blue. I wasn’t sure, I said, ‘I would ask that you wait.’ We’re in the process of hiring a new chief people officer, we’re hiring a new general counsel, we are depleted in terms of some of our top management and staff to help us not only get through regulatory writing but to exercise the important responsibilities that we have,” she mentioned Friday.
O’Brien mentioned she spoke with Collins about his departure once more Thursday and that he “further indicated to me that he planned on taking his family leave beginning on Monday.” That prompted the chairwoman to seek the advice of labor attorneys and O’Brien mentioned the expectation is that staff give their employer 30 days discover earlier than beginning household go away in most conditions.
“We are in crisis right now as a commission. We need to make sure that we know how to manage through this regulatory process,” O’Brien mentioned. She added, “I did not want to announce this in May because I wanted to make sure that we got our chief people officer in place. We were doing a search for general counsel. We were in the throes of regulatory writing. So to that extent, I just want to notify my fellow commissioners I will be sensitive to — I want to protect the rights of all employees at the commission. But I want to have a conversation with my fellow commissioners to discuss this, to discuss the leave, and to do that in a way where we have time to prepare, where we properly notify the employee about how we will have this conversation.”
O’Brien mentioned the announcement fell underneath a line on the CCC’s agenda permitting for “New Business Not Anticipated at the Time of Posting” and he or she made it earlier than she needed to make an early exit from the assembly to journey.
Other commissioners gave the impression to be caught off-guard. Commissioner Nurys Camargo mentioned “everyone’s in shock” that the subject was introduced up for dialogue in public the way in which it was and Commissioner Bruce Stebbins mentioned he was “still trying to figure out where that fit into our consideration of the agenda and the work we have to get done.” Commissioner Ava Callender Concepcion mentioned she would “prefer that we put a pin in this, honestly” due to the necessary regulatory work that was additionally on Friday’s agenda. O’Brien responded by saying she was frightened that Collins’ go away may have an effect on that work.
“I don’t want to get into the specifics, but when I was notified that the family leave, the intent was that the family leave begin on Monday, I felt that that could have an impact on regulations and everything else that we need to do,” the chairwoman mentioned. “So that’s why I, again, I don’t think it’s inappropriate. I think it’s me responding to a statement that was made to me yesterday about beginning the 10-week paid family leave that he is entitled to, but it creates chaos for us.”
After Friday’s assembly, Concepcion mentioned she and others on the CCC had nonetheless not heard instantly from Collins, solely from O’Brien.
“I want to make sure that the executive director has the ability to give his statements, any perspective that he wants to offer, and also just clarify that there is no official statement there that was given, both to the public or to myself,” the commissioner mentioned. “But I also want to make sure that it’s really clear that I do, I find it a bit inappropriate to discuss personal matters both to the press and at a public meeting setting.”
A spokesperson mentioned late Friday afternoon that the CCC “cannot confirm whether Executive Director Collins is stepping down. In general, the agency cannot comment on personnel matters.”
Concepcion additionally made clear that she didn’t agree with O’Brien’s evaluation that the CCC is “in crisis.”
“No, I would never say that we’re in crisis. I think it’s a bit inflammatory, but you would have to speak to the chair in order to understand why, where that was coming from,” she mentioned. “She was speaking from an individual capacity. So I don’t share that same perspective. And that did not come from me or any other commissioner for that matter. But when she was speaking, she was speaking in her own capacity.”
The CCC is within the midst of implementing the state’s new hashish fairness legislation, which goals to rein in a few of the hiccups within the maturing trade, and has been busy engaged on revisions to the detailed guidelines for the trade in Massachusetts.
Collins was unanimously chosen within the fall of 2017 to guide the CCC as its inaugural government director. Prior to that, he was an assistant treasurer who served as Treasurer Deborah Goldberg’s level individual on pot throughout the debate over legalization and till oversight of marijuana was faraway from the treasurer’s direct auspices by the Legislature in a rewrite of the 2016 poll legislation.
Grant Smith Ellis, an unbiased journalist who carefully follows the CCC, posted a video of a lot of the dialogue on X, the platform previously generally known as Twitter, Friday.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”