Massachusetts Treasurer Deb Goldberg was inextricably involved in the personnel matters of the state’s cannabis commission despite Beacon Hill lawmakers intending the board to be independent, lawyers for suspended pot boss Shannon O’Brien said.
O’Brien’s lawyers used that argument in a Suffolk Superior courtroom as they pushed for a hearing to determine O’Brien’s fate to be held in public and with what they described as an impartial fact-finder. But state lawyers argued Goldberg, over the course of this year, was doing solely what state law permits.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, O’Brien said if she had a “fair hearing” with an unbiased finder of fact, “I would be successful.” And keep her $181,722-a-year post.
“I think that we made our case that the treasurer is not an independent finder of fact. She may be a witness, her general counsel might be a witness. And so ultimately, you can’t allow the person who may be a witness to some of these allegations also be the judge and the jury,” O’Brien said.
Assistant Attorney General John Hitt, who is defending the treasurer’s office, said O’Brien’s lawyers were asking Suffolk Superior Court Judge Debra Squires-Lee to “draw unreasonable inferences concerning the bias of the treasurer.”
“When you get right down to it, what the treasurer is doing here is just what’s required by the statute,” Hitt said in court. “The statute requires her, as the person who appoints the plaintiff to the commission, to be the person who provides the written notice of the basis for the removal proceedings.”
A spokesperson for Goldberg did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment after the hearing late Thursday afternoon.
Squires-Lee delayed a meeting last week between O’Brien and Goldberg that could have ended in O’Brien’s firing after ruling a hearing would have to wait until the results of an ongoing investigation are made available to O’Brien’s attorneys and investigators are made available for cross-examination.
O’Brien was suspended in September with pay at Goldberg’s direction with no initial reason offered to the public. But weeks later, court filings showed that O’Brien was accused of making “racially, ethnically, culturally insensitive statements” to fellow commissioners and commission staff.
Todd and Weld Attorney Max Stern, who represents Goldberg, said in court that the Cannabis Control Commission is an independent entity.
“That was done deliberately by the Legislature to make it possible to prevent, or at least diminish the possibility of, political interference, political intervention, and so forth in the affairs of the commission and in particularly, personnel issues in the commission,” he said.
But despite the requirements of state law and how the commission is organized, Stern argued Goldberg “has been totally immersed into the internal affairs of the commission from the outset of this controversy.”
Squires-Lee asked Stern what evidence backs up that allegation, and Stern pointed to what he described as a close relationship between former Commission Executive Director Shawn Collins and Goldberg.
“What the evidence shows is that she, for a lengthy period of time, was involved with dealing with this person’s particular personnel status at the commission and in protecting him in that status,” Stern said in response to Squires-Lee.
Hitt said Goldberg is not “the accuser” in this case.
“She’s simply complying with the statute when she sends the Oct. 4 letter. She’s not the accuser. She’s the one who by statute is required to provide notice of the charges and the opportunity to be heard,” Hitt said.
