CCC reaches $43K settlement with whistleblower, adding to $1.1M spent on legal and employment issues since 2023, as State Auditor outlines agency dysfunction

The state’s Cannabis Control Commission has reached a settlement agreement worth $42,500 with a former employee and whistleblower who brought attention to widespread dysfunction at the agency, outlined in an October investigation by WBJ. 

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The settlement sees former CCC Business Operations Manager Meghan Dube drop her complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in exchange for the settlement and payment.

Dube claimed the agency has retaliated against her in violation of the state’s whistleblower statute and interfered with her rights under the state’s family and medical leave provisions, according to a copy of the settlement Dube shared with WBJ. 

CCC’s document denies liabilities for any of Dube’s claims, but says a settlement would avoid additional costs and the uncertainty of litigation. 

Dube signed her settlement on April 23, a few months before an Aug. 14 report from State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, which found CCC lacked a documented and transparent process for employee settlement agreements. Her office found CCC has spent an increasing amount of funds on outside counsel to address accumulating employment-related matters, internal investigations, and compliance issues. 

The audit found CCC spent $221,205 on outside counsel in the first six months of 2024 alone. 

CCC spending on outside counsel, mediations, settlements, and suspended employee’s pay has continued to spiral, reaching over $1.1 million since July 2023, according to a WBJ review of state records.

DiZoglio’s audit found a number of other issues at the Commission, some of which had been identified in WBJ’s October investigation. 

The audit, which covered a period from July 2022 to June 2024, found the agency mismanaged licensing fees, violated state regulations by failing to ensure fines were assessed and collected within reasonable timeframes, and failed to meet its obligations in reviewing host community agreements between businesses and municipalities.  

DiZolgio’s office said a breakdown of the agency's management structure and consolidation of key roles led to turnover of employees which contributed to operational and compliance links. 

The state audit and news of another settlement with a former employee is a further blow to an agency which insists it’s made progress towards righting its ship, as the state legislature continues to consider a complete overhaul of the agency’s structure. 

CCC declined to comment on the settlement, citing a policy of not commenting on personnel matters, but released a statement regarding the audit.

“The Commission worked closely with the State Auditor’s Office for almost a year on the audit released Aug. 14 in furtherance of our shared commitment to government improvement,” CCC Press Secretary Neal McNamara wrote in a statement. “Over the course of the audit period and since, the Commission has hired key leaders, made progress to address many of the issues referenced, and begun to move forward in a constructive way.”

Dube wasn’t buying the idea that CCC had turned the page or that the agency’s new executive director is an effective change agent.

“I find there’s a juxtaposition between saying 'everything was [messed] up before, but now we're moving forward because we have new leadership and a new direction,’ because they really have all the same leadership that were there,” Dube told WBJ, referencing the three active commissioners of the agency. 

The latest settlement

Dube signing the settlement agreement marked the end of a five-year career at the Commission. She had been suspended in January by CCC Chief People Officer Debbie Hilton-Creek after speaking to WBJ about systemic dysfunction at the agency, making her complaints public despite the risk to her career because she believed the agency was incapable of resolving them without public pressure. 

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Photo | Edd Cote

Meghan Dube, former business operations manager at the Cannabis Control Commission

At the time of Dube’s suspension, Hilton-Creek was serving in the dual role of CPO and executive director of the Commission, as the agency waited for newly-hired Executive Director Travis Ahern to take over in March. 

Hilton-Creek had been subject to complaints from four former CCC employees who spoke with WBJ, as they accused her of creating a hostile work environment and said her role as both the agency’s lead HR official and overall leader complicated attempts to report her behavior. 

After playing a role in hiring Ahern, who accepted the role after CCC’s first choice declined to take on the position, Hilton-Creek has remained in her role as chief people officer. 

After Dube filed a complaint, State Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s office found CCC violated open meeting law in two separate incidents where it went into executive session to discuss the executive director hiring process. A May 19 letter from Campbell’s office ordered CCC to review training videos regarding the state’s open meeting law and warned future violations “could be considered evidence of intent to violate the law.” 

During a June 12 meeting, CCC addressed the complaint, with Acting Chair Bruce Stebbins saying he had requested additional open meeting law training from Campbell’s office. 

Dube feels the controversy over the executive director hiring process and the continued presence of commissioners who were in charge during the audit period will prevent CCC from a true course correction.

“I feel like in a year, we're going to be looking back on the two years prior and say, ‘hey, we still [messed] it up again,” she said.

The state legislature has been considering overhauling the agency, but has yet to move forward. State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, who stepped in to fire O’Brien and is responsible for appointing the agency’s chair, has otherwise disavowed responsibility for fixing the ailing agency, saying her office doesn’t have oversight over the independent CCC. 

Even though Dube signed the settlement in April, she has yet to be paid. The state’s settlement and judgement fund for fiscal 2025 ran out of money at the end of April, according to an email from the state’s Office of the Comptroller Dube shared with WBJ. Dube said she was told by CCC the payment will be received by the end of August, after Gov. Maura Healey signed a supplemental budget to close fiscal 2025 on Aug. 14.

The lack of money in the state’s fund, which is used by state-run agencies and institutions, seems to be tied more to how much was allocated to it in the budget process rather than a large amount of settlements; only $1 million had been appropriated to the fund in fiscal 2025, instead of the $15 million allocated in 2024. 

Fourth quarter data is not available yet, but the state spent $18.38 million through the first three quarters of 2025, compared to $29.76 million spent in total during 2024 and $27.66 million spent in 2023. 

Lack of transparency

While Dube’s settlement occurred outside the time period of the State Auditor’s report, the topic of settlements was one focus for the audit. 

DiZoglio’s office found CCC lacks a documented and transparent process for handling employee settlement agreements, particularly those containing non-disclosure or non-disparagement clauses. The report says the lack of a documented process means the agency is unable to ensure settlements are handled in an equitable and ethical manner. 

The report notes two settlements which occurred during the audit period. One settlement was for $5,000, and another for $92,970. WBJ reported on a settlement of similar amount to the latter number, one of $87,970, in its October investigation, based on state payroll data.

While the recipient of that larger settlement has never been officially identified, the report offers more details, saying the agreement was for claims of defamation, interference with rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act, retaliation for family medical leave, invasion of privacy, subjection to intentional infliction of emotional distress, and intentional interference with business relationships.

These accusations closely align with those made by former Executive Director Shawn Collins against former Chair Shannon O’Brien. Collins declined to comment. 

The report mentions one settlement which was in the process of being executed at the end of the audit period, and was therefore unavailable for review by DiZoglio’s office. It’s unclear whether this settlement was Dube’s or one related to other employees who have left the agency since 2023. 

Dube was able to share her settlement agreement and associated documents because CCC has since stopped using non-disclosure agreements in settlements, according to its response to the auditor which was included in the report. 

CCC decided to stop using NDAs after Gov. Maura Healey issued a formal policy prohibiting the use of NDAs across the executive branch. While CCC noted its an independent agency not directly governed by Healey, it decided to comply with the NDA ban. 

Dube’s settlement agreement noted CCC would pay for a mediation session which occurred between the two parties on April 3. 

Outside legal costs

CCC spending on outside mediators and legal counsel has continued to pile up since WBJ’s October investigation. CCC has spent at least $321,092 on attorney fees, legal services, and employee settlements since WBJ’s investigation was published, according to state records. 

DiZoglio’s audit took issue with the agency’s frequent use of outside counsel, as CCC’s own legal staff had faced significant turnover since 2023.

Use of outside counsel among state agencies and bodies is not particularly rare; the state government spent $17.78 million on attorneys and legal services in fiscal 2025, according to state financial data. Even DiZoglio’s office itself is using outside counsel in her efforts to sue the state legislature over their refusal to comply with an audit of the state legislature, according to Spectrum News 1.  

While acknowledging use of external legal counsel is necessary in certain cases, DiZoglio’s audit said CCC’s increasing reliance on external counsel led to increased expenditures and reduced capacity for internal improvement of its own legal team, as it dealt with internal investigations and battles with cannabis companies over compliance-related issues. 

That note came as part of a larger section of the report involving high levels of turnover of critical personnel at CCC. The audit blamed turnover on a breakdown in management structure and role consolidation at the agency, which it said led to operational and compliance risks.

Mishandling fees and fines

The report from DiZoglio’s office found CCC failed to collect up to $530,000 in prorated fees which were issued as part of business license extensions. A lack of regulation and structure in dealing with prorated extension fees meant some companies were required to pay fees, while others were excused. The report found this “created the appearance of potential impropriety, which could erode the public’s trust in CCC.”

In its response included in the report, CCC blamed the issue on a lack of formal procedures in handing license extension fees at the time, saying its manual processing of paperwork, limited staffing, and insufficient oversight contributed to the problem. 

In addition to its failure to equally collect fees, the report found CCC failed to assess and collect fees for regulatory violations within the timeframes established by its own policies. It also violated its own policies by not designating a hearing office to oversee hearings related to violations.

The report said CCC’s failure to follow its own rules may have allowed compliance issues to worsen at cannabis businesses. Notice of deficiencies, for example, were supposed to be issued within two days after an inspection, but the average time during the audit period was 24 days. After its hearing officer left the agency in July 2022, the position went unfilled until October 2024. 

For years, workers and whistleblowers have sounded the alarm over concerns at various cannabis businesses and a perceived lack of response from CCC, saying the health of both workers and consumers were being put at risk. The audit covers the period CCC was dealing with the fallout from the death of Lorna McMurrey, a worker at a Holyoke cultivation facility. 

McMurrey died in January 2022 from occupational-related asthma blamed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on conditions inside the facility, which was run by Florida-based cannabis corporation Trulieve. 

Trulieve’s facility was already under CCC investigation for months prior to McMurry’s death, according to an Oct. 2022 report from the Boston Globe. 

Even though CCC was informed of the death almost immediately, commissioners at the agency did not learn of it until media reports nine months later. 

CCC defended the lack of communication, saying it was standard policy in order to avoid pre-judgement of any business which could find itself in front of commissioners as part of an appeal to an enforcement action, according to Commonwealth Beacon.  

In June 2024, over two years after McMurrey’s death, Trulieve reached a settlement with CCC related to the investigation. The settlement saw the company, which had a market cap of $1.7 billion at the time, pay a fine of $350,000. 

Trulieve also agreed to a $14,502 fine from OSHA over the fatal incident.

CCC took issue with the state auditor’s interpretation of its enforcement policies and defended its efforts to ensure public health and safety.

Host agreements

DiZoglio’s audit found CCC also failed to properly regulate host community agreements. 

These required agreements between cannabis businesses and municipalities often include impact fees intended to cover any unique costs imposed on cities and towns caused by hosting cannabis businesses.

Business leaders in the cannabis space have long decried these fees as exuberant and unnecessary, with some agreements including mandatory donations to local nonprofits and or fees which exceeded more than the amount allowed by law. 

Some municipalities, like Worcester, have decided to forego collection of these fees, while other cities and towns have faced lawsuits over their agreements. 

Of 18 host community agreements reviewed by the state auditor, half had mandatory contributions to charities. Three agreements lacked an expiration date, locking businesses into payments indefinitely. 

After a 2022 law made it clear CCC had the duty and authority to regulate HCA agreements, CCC missed its deadline to pass rules to do so, and failed to review previously-signed agreements for compliance.

In its response, CCC said all agreements involving businesses who applied for new or renewed licenses since March 2024 have been reviewed for compliance, and pointed to ongoing court cases, which it said cast doubt on its authority to regulate agreements made prior to that date. 

Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.