Hearing to decide cannabis chief ’s fate delayed

O’Brien attorneys ask to postpone; no new dates set

The long-running saga surrounding Shannon O’Brien will apparently run even longer.

Aides to state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg said Tuesday that she agreed to a request from O’Brien’s attorneys to postpone a two-day administrative hearing just hours before the two sides were slated to meet in the closed-door sessions.

The proceedings, ostensibly designed to give O’Brien a forum to challenge Goldberg’s decision to suspend her as chair of the Cannabis Control Commission, were expected to pave the way for O’Brien’s termination.

Andrew Napolitano, a Goldberg spokesperson, said O’Brien’s attorneys said that they couldn’t attend the scheduled hearing “due to unforeseen circumstances” and asked to postpone. Joe Baerlein, a spokesperson for O’Brien, did not specify what prompted the request, saying only that lastminute “personal scheduling issues” came up.

Neither Goldberg’s office nor Baerlein provided new dates for the hearing.

“We have been attempting to meet with [O’Brien] since September and we hope to avoid further delays in scheduling the meetings,” Napolitano said in a statement.

The delay adds yet another twist to an episode that’s dragged for months. Goldberg abruptly suspended O’Brien in September after receiving an outside investigator’s report alleging that O’Brien made a series of racist and “culturally insensitive” remarks.

O’Brien, a former state treasurer herself and the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in 2002, has denied the accusations, and sued Goldberg, charging that the state treasurer unlawfully removed O’Brien from her position. She also pushed to alter the contours of the administrative hearing.

A state judge ultimately delayed an initial December hearing date before denying many of O’Brien’s arguments, including a demand to make the hearing public. An appellate court judge later denied an appeal from O’Brien in February.

The two-day hearing was expected to be closed to the public. Goldberg’s office said this week that it would not provide a list of expected witnesses, nor was it releasing copies of reports submitted by outside investigators upon which Goldberg will rely as she makes her decision.

Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell’s office, which represented Goldberg in the lawsuit, argued in court filings against holding a public administrative hearing, charging that O’Brien’s push for a public setting was an attempt to “embarrass Commission employees about matters they disclosed as part of a confidential internal investigation.”

Assistant Attorney General John R. Hitt wrote in court documents that Goldberg’s decision on whether to fire O’Brien from the $196,551-a-year post, including her reasons, will be made public after the hearing.

“She seeks ‘political theatre,’” Hitt wrote of O’Brien.

First, of course, opening night actually has to happen.