The long-awaited and often-debated meeting between Massachusetts State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg and suspended Cannabis Control Commission Chairwoman Shannon O'Brien, a meeting that could lead to O'Brien's firing, is being penciled in for April 10 and 11.
Goldberg's office said it proposed the Wednesday and Thursday dates next month for the meeting. A spokesman for O'Brien said those are the dates, but said little other information had been shared.
After appointing her to the top job in 2022, Goldberg suspended O'Brien, a former state treasurer and the Democratic Party's 2002 nominee for governor, with pay in September. O'Brien's annual rate of pay is $181,722.
Goldberg has given two justifications for O'Brien's suspension and possible firing: that the chairwoman is alleged to have made racially insensitive remarks and that she mistreated former CCC Executive Director Shawn Collins, a former Goldberg deputy.
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O'Brien has denied the allegations against her and in the fall sued Goldberg. A Superior Court judge late last year cleared the way for Goldberg to hold the meeting that is required if the treasurer is to fire the CCC chair. The judge denied O'Brien's efforts to force the meeting to be public and blessed a "protocol" for the Goldberg-O'Brien meeting, spelling out how it is to be run.
The protocol calls for two four-hour sessions in a 12th floor conference room in the Treasury's offices at 1 Ashburton Place. Thomas Maffei, a former president of the Massachusetts Bar Association who is now senior counsel at Sherin and Lodgen, is expected to serve as the "officiant" of the meeting, though Goldberg is the one who will determine O'Brien's fate.
Whether the meeting will be public or private has been a point of contention. Goldberg's office on Monday said only that it will follow the court-approved protocol. That document does not explicitly describe the meeting as private, but its list of "permitted attendees" does not include the press or general public.
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The protocol also requires Goldberg to share with O'Brien an updated rationale for her suspension and potential termination. And unless the treasurer determines that the results of the investigation do not support O'Brien's removal, Goldberg must provide an investigatory report related to O'Brien's conduct towards Collins. Those documents are to be shared at least 15 business days in advance of the meeting, which puts the deadline on Wednesday, March 20.
While next month's meeting could lead to O'Brien being cleared to return to the CCC or being fired, it may also lead to more litigation. The Superior Court and Appeals Court judges who have opined on the case have both suggested that O'Brien's next course of legal action may be to contest the validity of the rationale Goldberg relies on if she does fire O'Brien.
