The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission is awaiting guidance from the attorney general’s office on the validity of votes taken during the two years following the removal of Chairwoman Shannon O’Brien.
The votes include the approval of licenses and two rounds of regulatory updates, according to State House News Service.
The request for legal clarification arises from concerns O’Brien raised over the process used to appoint acting chairs after her removal, which a judge deemed unlawful.
After O’Brien’s removal, Commissioner Kimberly Roy chaired the next meeting, stating she had been “designated as chair.”
In subsequent meetings, commissioners voted to appoint others as acting chair. O’Brien has argued that only the chair has the authority to designate an acting chair.
“My concern is that because we have not, for two years, had an appropriately delegated acting chair, some of the votes that took place may not be valid,” O’Brien told State House News Service.
“The authority of the chair runs through the term of the person so designated to be chair,” O’Brien said, pointing to the CCC’s enabling law. “Once you – and I use the term power baton – once you place the power baton in the hand of whatever commissioner … so once I had the power baton, I’m the only one who can hand it off.”
CCC Executive Director Travis Ahern, who was appointed during O’Brien’s removal, said he and O’Brien would work with the Massachusetts attorney general’s office to ensure previous commissioner votes were conducted in accordance with the law.
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