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Cannabis agency reaches $305K settlement with former communications chief, as total spent on employee disputes reaches $1.5M
The Cannabis Control Commission is headquartered in Worcester's Union Station.
Cedric Sinclair, former chief communications officer at the Cannabis Control Commission, has reached a settlement agreement worth $304,591 over his dismissal, with the Massachusetts regulatory agency preparing to release a statement to thank him for his service to the state.
The settlement comes following Sinclair’s suspension and later termination from the agency, with the agreement removing the punitive actions of his suspension and firing and allowing him to be vested in the state’s pension plan.
“Mr. Cedric Sinclair has notified the Cannabis Control Commission of his intention to resign from his role as chief communications officer with immediate effect,” the statement, included as an exhibit in the settlement agreement, reads. “Mr. Sinclair is one of the Commission's inaugural staff members and was part of the team that helped to steer the agency from its initial startup days to the mature agency it is today with over 140 employees overseeing a vibrant $8-billion cannabis industry in Massachusetts. We thank Mr. Sinclair for his service to the Commonwealth, and we wish him well in his future endeavors.”
Sinclair’s settlement brings the total spent by CCC to resolve employee disputes to about $1.5 million since July 2023, according to a WBJ review of state records. The expenditures include outside counsel, mediations, settlements, and suspended employee’s pay.
“The settlement is a public vindication that underscores a toxic culture of retaliation and corruption at the Cannabis Control Commission,” Sinclair wrote in an email to WBJ on Tuesday. “Staff were pressured to violate state conflict-of-interest laws during the Greenfield Greenery investigation, and facts were misrepresented to the public through intentionally flawed human resources investigations, personnel leaks, and other mismanagement and abuse in the human resources office. Until there is accountability, the commission will remain a cautionary tale to the entire nation.”
Photo | Courtesy of Cedric Sinclair
Cedric Sinclair, former chief communications officer at the Cannabis Control Commission
The CCC declined to comment for this story, referring WBJ instead to the statement in the settlement. The CCC is headquartered in Worcester's Union Station.
The settlement amount is just under two years worth of pay for Sinclair, who had an annual pay rate of $161,244 in 2023, according to state payroll data. The payment involves $42,591 in attorney fees and $262,000 in a lump sum payment, according to the document.
The agreement was signed by CCC Executive Director Travis Ahern on Aug. 21, with Sinclair signing four days later.
Sinclair had been suspended in December 2023, continuing to be paid until he left the agency in January 2025, with the settlement making his exit official.
Like the agreement signed by former CCC employee and whistleblower Meghan Dube that WBJ reported on Thursday, Sinclair’s agreement sees him drop claims filed against CCC with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. CCC denied any liabilities for the claims in both agreements, again saying it was the best course of action to avoid the cost and uncertainty of litigation.
Sinclair had faced allegations of mistreatment and bullying from three anonymous former CCC staffers in a June 2024 article from WBUR and from current CCC Chief of Research Julie Johnson in a September 2024 Boston Globe article.
An investigation of Johnson’s allegations found insufficient evidence Sinclair violated bullying policies, with Johnson saying that investigation was not thorough, according to Globe reporting.
Photo | Courtesy of Shannon O'Brien
Shannon O'Brien, chair of the Cannabis Control Commission
Sinclair has drawn the ire of CCC Chair Shannon O’Brien, with the complaints and cross-complaints between O’Brien and Sinclar being investigated in a report by Kimberly Jones, of Boston-based Athena Legal Strategies Group. One of the disputes between Sinclair and O’Brien had to do with a commission investigation into whether O’Brien had properly removed herself from the ownership of Greenfield Greenery before the CCC awarded the cannabis cultivation company a license.
Jones had been engaged by Morgan, Brown and Joy, a Boston-based law firm the CCC frequently leans on, to conduct an internal investigation on behalf of CCC. The report was published by CommonWealth Beacon in September 2024 and was included in more than 3,000 pages released by the courts in connection to the legal battle between O’Brien and State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg over O’Brien’s firing. O’Brien succeeded in her lawsuit on Tuesday, when a judge ordered her to be reinstated as CCC chair, which O’Brien intends to do.
The investigation found O’Brien repeatedly made inappropriate remarks regarding the professional work relationship between then-commissioner Nurys Camargo and Sinclair. It found insufficient evidence O’Brien bullied Sinclair over his race and insufficient evidence Sinclair bullied O’Brien regarding her gender.
“The allegations that I bullied or mistreated women staff are patently false, and they reflect the retaliatory environment that I described in my MCAD complaint,” Sinclair wrote in a Friday statement to WBJ. He called the settlement a public vindication.
Sinclair took issue with both WBUR’s and the Globe’s news reports and denied the allegations of bullying or mistreatment levied against him, saying they were “part of a broader pattern where certain staff, aligned with leadership, manufactured meritless complaints that were then weaponized by human resources as tools of retaliation. These attacks were further amplified without corroboration, creating a distorted public narrative.”
Complaints, cross-complaints, and frustrations about human resources investigations have been common occurrences at CCC, according to a WBJ investigation published in October.
Sinclair called on the state legislature and the commission’s three appointing powers — Gov. Maura Healey, Treasurer Goldberg, and Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell — to act with urgency in addressing the systematic issues at the agency.
“I often see articles, and there's a quote that goes something to the effect of ‘Another scandal at the Cannabis Control Commission.’” Sinclair told WBJ. “What the public should understand is that it's not another scandal. It's the same ongoing scandal that's been happening over several years, and it's a through line through all of the challenges that the agency has had early on… The two key pieces for this agency to move forward is closing the gap that exists between commissioners and staff, as far as accountability and reporting structure to human resources and actually addressing people who have caused harm.”
The settlement was in the works for months.
O’Brien has denied the accusations against her.
Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.
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