Politics
Already Down Two Members, Massachusetts Cannabis Commission At Odds Over Who Should Lead The Agency
“Should we take a break or just look at each other because there’s a lot of work?”
By Bhaamati Borkhetaria, CommonWealth Beacon
With the chair of the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) suspended and the acting chair out on pregnancy leave, the three remaining commissioners spent just under an hour on Wednesday wrangling over who should lead the organization.
It wasn’t a pretty sight, particularly given all the attention focused recently on dysfunction at the agency and the focus of the meeting—a governance charter document that in many ways is designed to allay concerns on Beacon Hill about leadership clarity at the commission. The state’s inspector general called for the Legislature to appoint a receiver to run the agency, but lawmakers instead decided to hold hearings this fall.
Three votes are needed to appoint an acting chair, but the three commissioners—Nurys Camargo, Bruce Stebbins, and Kimberly Roy—couldn’t agree on who it should be.
There seemed to be an initial consensus to make Camargo the acting chair. Stebbins said she seemed to be next in line as secretary of the commission, but Camargo said she didn’t want the job. “No thank you. Not interested,” she said.
Camargo then nominated Stebbins to serve as acting chair until Ava Callendar Concepction returns from her pregnancy leave, but Roy voted no. That left the commissioners staring at each other, stalemated.
Roy suggested they may need to adjourn, prompting Camargo to ask if Roy had a solution. More staring ensued, and then the commissioners took a break. Roy urged Camargo to reconsider her decision not to take the post, but Camargo said she had too many other responsibilities.
“Should we take a break or just look at each other because there’s a lot of work?” asked Camargo at one point in the discussion.
Stebbins then nominated Roy to be acting chair, but Camargo voted no. The commissioners took another break. Afterward, Camargo nominated Roy as acting chair for just the current meeting, but that failed because Stebbins voted no.
“We find ourselves in this situation again and I’m reluctant to keep coming back to this—similar to how we’ve filled the acting chair’s position before,” said Stebbins, referring to previous wrangling over Conception’s appointment to the post.
After more discussion, Camargo nominated Roy to be acting chair for the current meeting and the next. Stebbins voted no, prompting Camargo to ask if the acting executive director could break the tie. “I love this. I love what we do,” she said.
After yet another break, all three commissioners finally ended the stalemate for the time being by voting to appoint Roy as the acting chair for the current meeting and next week’s meeting.
The commission took up the governance charter, but it was apparent fairly quickly that the possible vote mentioned on the agenda was not going to happen.
“We want to be thorough and thoughtful and we don’t want to rush through any of this process,” said Roy. “This has been over 16 months in the making. It doesn’t have to be done in a day so I want to set the expectation that we will adjourn at 4 p.m.”
The infighting over who should lead the commission is symptomatic of problems at the agency. Shannon O’Brien was suspended as chair by Treasurer Deborah Goldberg nearly a year ago, leaving the commission with four members. All the hearings and deliberations over whether O’Brien should stay or leave ended over a month ago, and Goldberg still hasn’t made a decision.
The commission recently revealed that its staff had failed to collect $500,000 in licensing fees and it has been reported that the head of licensing and testing have left the agency in rapid succession.
During the discussion about the governance charter, Camargo asked if there was something the CCC could include in the document to prevent staff and commissioners from leaking commission matters to the public.
“There is a leak at the commission either at the commissioner level or at the staff level,” said Camargo. “Folks continue to give out information to the media on personnel matters and all kinds of other stuff. At this point it’s ridiculous how much information—especially personnel and private matters—is being leaked from the commission to the media. It’s disrespectful. It’s ridiculous and it’s messing with people’s livelihood.”
At the end of the meeting, Roy, the temporary acting chair, tried to put a positive spin on the day’s events. “Today was highly productive and we were very thoughtful,” she said.
This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
