State treasurer alleges inappropriate comments by cannabis commission chair

The battle between the Massachusetts Treasurer and her handpicked chair of the Cannabis Control Commission, Shannon O'Brien, revved into higher gear Friday with a new court filing disclosing allegations of improper conduct by O'Brien.

Treasurer Deborah Goldberg had suspended O'Brien with pay in September, without stating a reason. In the new court filing, O'Brien attached a copy of an October letter from Goldberg that contains a series of allegations. In it, Goldberg said an investigator hired by the commission concluded O'Brien had made "racially, ethnically, culturally insensitive statements."

The letter says O'Brien used the word yellow "in reference to a person of Asian heritage" and made public statements that "could be perceived as creating the impression" that diverse candidates had not been qualified for the commission chair role. Goldberg also alleges that O'Brien yelled at her executive assistant and inappropriately referred to a former executive director as "missing in action" while he was on paternal leave.

O'Brien, a former Massachusetts state treasurer who ran unsuccessfully against Mitt Romney for governor in 2002, denies the allegations. In her court filing, she said the "yellow" comment came from quoting an African American real estate developer who was talking about "Black, brown and yellow" investors. O'Brien said she should not have repeated his exact words.

In the filing, O'Brien is seeking a delay of a planned administrative hearing before Goldberg on Dec. 5, which she said is a nonpublic meeting. O’Brien's lawyers argue that, "None of the accusations have any merit. Chair O'Brien should at least have a fair chance of showing that."

The filing was first reported on by The Boston Globe. O'Brien's request will go before a Suffolk County Court judge on Monday.

In a statement, O'Brien said, "A fair hearing will establish that I was sent in to fix a broken agency and rather than support my efforts, the Treasurer is trying to make me the latest casualty of the dysfunction in the Cannabis Control Commission."

O'Brien was appointed chair of the commission that oversees the $5 billion pot business in the state in September 2022. Her conflict with Goldberg ignited publicly in July, when she said at a meeting that Executive Director Shawn Collins planned to step down at year end and said his departure would only add to an agency in "crisis."

The commission has a number of key positions vacant and has had a rift between its staff and the board, according to current and former employees. The death of a 27-year-old woman working at a cannabis facility in 2022 was not reported to the board for months.

In court filings, O'Brien argues that Goldberg does not have the authority to remove her from the chair's post.

In an email response to a WBUR inquiry last month about the apparent dysfunction at the commission, the treasurer's spokesman, Andrew Napolitano, said, "The role of the Treasurer is to appoint the Chair and jointly appoint two other Commissioners, but beyond that the office of the Treasurer has no other authority, oversight, management, or influence over the Commission."

In a statement Saturday, Napolitano said, "The Treasurer takes these allegations very seriously, which is why she wants to provide Chair O’Brien with the opportunity to address them without further delay, and with a fair process that provides an opportunity for her to do that." He also said it's "in the best interest of the taxpayers and the [commission]" that next week's meeting proceed.

A public meeting of the commission Thursday was conducted almost entirely in private executive session. The subject, according to the agenda, was "Mediation Regarding Commission Governance."

A commission spokesman in an email cited the agency's mediation described in a letter to lawmakers as, “between the Commissioners and staff leadership, for the purpose of finding common ground and obtaining buy-in from all parties, in our efforts to establish a durable and effective governance structure.”

In a statement, Howard Cooper, one of O’Brien’s lawyers, said, "any allegation of racial insensitivity is frivolous in the extreme. The Treasurer appears to be afraid to hold a real hearing, with witnesses and cross-examination, and in public so that Chair O’Brien can show the lack of merit to this entire so-called process.”

This article was updated to include a comment from the state treasurer's office.