Judge delays state treasurer's hearing of suspended Cannabis Control Commission chair

A Superior Court judge has allowed suspended Cannabis Control Commission Chair Shannon O'Brien's request to block Treasurer Deborah Goldberg from holding a Tuesday afternoon meeting that could lead to O'Brien's firing.

The meeting was scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday in the Treasury offices on the 12th floor of One Ashburton Place.

O'Brien's attorney, Max Stern, said during a hearing on the motion Monday that the suspended chairwoman's side is not prepared for the meeting and objects to some of the ground rules Goldberg has set for it — particularly that it's private, that O'Brien can offer witness testimony but is given no way to compel witnesses to testify, and that Goldberg would ultimately be the "finder of facts" and decider.

Goldberg suspended O'Brien from the chair's position in mid-September. O'Brien responded about two weeks later with a lawsuit charging that the treasurer had removed her "without articulated reason, and without any opportunity to be heard, all of which is required by the clear and unambiguous provisions of Massachusetts law ... as well as basic norms of due process."

In a statement Tuesday, O'Brien said the judge's ruling "is the first step in getting my good reputation back after ten weeks of being smeared by the actions of Treasurer Goldberg in suspending me with no process in place for a fair and impartial hearing."

O'Brien also said when Goldberg had named her to the chair post in 2022, she "told me I needed to clean up the mess and dysfunction" of the commission. "Instead, the Treasurer has plunged the CCC into even more chaos."

Goldberg spokesman Andrew Napolitano in a statement Tuesday said, "We were prepared to begin the process today to address the serious issues raised by Chair O'Brien's colleagues" at the commission. "We of course respect the court’s ruling, and the Treasurer remains ready to hear from Chair O’Brien on these issues as soon as possible."

Goldberg's office had argued Monday that it was in the public interest for the meeting to take place since the taxpayers are paying O'Brien's salary while she is suspended.

"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," Goldberg's spokesman, Andrew Napolitano, said Monday. "In October, Chair O’Brien was so adamant about having this meeting that she went to court to demand it. Now, despite knowing about the allegations since September, she is asking to delay the meeting again."

When she suspended O'Brien in September, Goldberg issued a statement saying she did so based on several "serious allegations" made by an unnamed commissioner and CCC staff about O'Brien's behavior.

In an Oct. 4 letter that O'Brien included as an exhibit to her latest court filings, Goldberg told O'Brien that an investigator brought in by the commission "concluded that you made 'racially, ethnically, culturally insensitive statements,' including 'public statements that could reasonably be perceived as creating the impression that ... diverse candidates were not qualified for the CCC Chair role.'

In one instance, Goldberg alleged that in response to an allegation that in a meeting in the fall of 2022 O'Brien remarked, in reference to a person of Asian heritage, "I guess you’re not allowed to say 'yellow' anymore,' " and did not deny doing so.

O'Brien, in a court filing, said she was quoting a developer when she said there was a need for "Black, brown and yellow" investors. She acknowledged in the filing she should not have repeated his exact words.

This story was updated to include statements from O'Brien and Goldberg's office.

WBUR staff contributed to this report.