Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

January 8, 2025

Troubled cannabis Social Equity Council approves strategic plan recommendations, could restart grant making soon

Chloe Poisson/CT Mirror Former state rep. Brandon McGee is the executive director of the Social Equity Council
By Harriet Jones

Connecticut’s Social Equity Council, the body charged with ensuring that revenues from legal cannabis sales benefit marginalized communities, has adopted recommendations for a strategic plan, and given a timeline for its grants program to resume.

The moves, outlined in a meeting this week, come after internal tensions and external criticism of the council prompted a four-month investigation last year and led to the resignation of its first executive director, Ginne-Rae Clay.

Her replacement, former state representative Brandon McGee, told a meeting of the council Tuesday that he aims to release a “notice of funding opportunities” for the body’s community reinvestment grant program by the end of the first quarter. The council has $5.6 million earmarked for community reinvestment in its current budget.

The council was set up in part to disburse funding that comes from the licensing fees paid by cannabis companies being established in the state. More than $5 million was awarded last year in grants to projects in communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs — what the council terms “disproportionately impacted areas” or DIAs.

But tensions within the council and external concerns from Gov. Ned Lamont’s office and from the legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus centered on a lack of strategy and accountability in the grant-making process, as well as delays in the council’s work to review social impact plans required from any cultivator, retailer or delivery service seeking a cannabis license.

These concerns and others led to an official probe conducted by the office of Comptroller Sean Scanlon. His report, released in September, found no criminal wrongdoing, but recommended a continued suspension of grant funding until reforms could be made to the council’s practices.

“We will be extremely intentional about accountability from grant managers and recipients, ensuring deliverables and reporting requirements are met,” McGee told council members during the meeting. “We also want to document our impact and inform future funding.”

McGee has also been tasked with formulating a strategic plan for the council. His staff concluded a six-week project with consultants Slalom in December. The key recommendations to emerge center on four areas: staff and organizational culture, integrating appointed council members more closely into governance, measuring the impact of community reinvestment, and enhancing the council’s work with cannabis entrepreneurs.

“Our vision is very simple and it's clear,” McGee said. “The communities most impacted by the war on drugs, we want to see them prosperous and we want to see them thrive.” 

However he cautioned, “the tall task of reimagining the SEC and realigning our staff and programs still sits in front of us.”

The strategic plan recommendations were unanimously approved.
 

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

0 Comments

Order a PDF