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At least four high-ranking employees at New York’s Office of Cannabis Management have recently resigned their positions, a month after NY Cannabis Insider reported on other high-profile departures from the agency.
The OCM confirmed the agency received notices of resignation this week from Deputy Director of Licensing Danielle Holmes, Director of Health and Safety Nicole Rosa and First Deputy General Counsel Patricia Piskorski Heer. Additionally, General Counsel Linda Baldwin will leave the OCM once a replacement is hired.
Aaron Ghitelman, the OCM’s former spokesperson who worked with the four resigning employees, said all are top-notch public servants, but that he’s not surprised they’re leaving. Ghitelman said the clock for mass resignations in the agency has been ticking since Gov. Kathy Hochul publicly called New York’s cannabis rollout a “disaster” in January.
“These are people who are working six, seven-day weeks, working overtime for well over a year now,” Ghitelman said Thursday afternoon. “To have the chief executive of the state … publicly criticize and humiliate you for doing things she approved, why would anybody in their right mind stick around?”
Ghitelman, who left the OCM four months ago, said employees at the OCM have been working long hours while short-staffed for over a year, and public criticism of the agency has affected morale there. He added that Baldwin, Heer, Holmes and Rosa will be difficult to replace, as they have decades of experience in state government, combined.
Staffing the licensing and legal positions will likely slow down operations at the OCM, Ghitelman said, because there’s a sharp learning curve for anyone unfamiliar with cannabis regulation in New York, and the various lawsuits that have been filed against the OCM by licensees, anti-cannabis groups and others.
“These resignations will slow down every single process already in effect,” Ghitelman said. “I can’t imagine who Hochul will replace them with.”
The resignations come months after Hochul ordered an assessment of the agency in March in response to lawsuits filed against the OCM and the slower-than-expected pace of New York’s legal cannabis rollout.
The assessment was led by Office of General Services Commissioner Jeanette Moy.
Moy’s investigation found inefficiencies and mismanagement at the OCM, along with an unclear hierarchy and other “deep-seeded issues,” Hochul said in May. The report’s fallout led to the resignation of the OCM’s inaugural Executive Director Chris Alexander.
Hochul appointed Felicia A. B. Reid as the acting executive director on June 10.
Baldwin led the Office of General Counsel, which supports the OCM’s programs, legislative and regulatory agenda, and compliance and enforcement efforts.
Rosa was responsible for providing oversight for product quality, compliance, customer service, and research to protect the health and safety of cannabis consumers and medical cannabis patients.
Holmes and Heer served in deputy positions for licensing and legal issues.