But the court battle drags on and reform is still in the talking phase. A spokesperson for House Speaker Ron Mariano told the editorial board the Legislature’s joint committee on cannabis policy “will soon hold a public hearing on structure-related bills and take it from there.”As much agreement as there seems to be on the need for reform, somebody still needs to step up to lead the charge to devise an actual reform plan.

Under the current governance structure, there are five commissioners — one appointed by the governor, one by the attorney general, and one by the treasurer. Two other commissioners are appointed by majority vote of the governor, AG, and treasurer. The treasurer chooses the chair from among those five.

Given that shared responsibility for appointing commissioners, where are Governor Maura Healey and Attorney General Andrea Campbell on this mess?

A spokesperson for Healey declined comment. A spokesperson for Campbell — whose office now represents Goldberg in court — said that Campbell “continues to believe that the Commission should be reformed with permanent leadership and clearly defined responsibilities and she is prepared to work with her fellow appointing authorities and the Legislature on a path forward.”

State Senator Michael Moore of Worcester, one of the most active members of the Legislature on cannabis issues and reforming the CCC, said he believes Healey and Campbell could be doing more to lead. As he told the editorial board, “There could have been a role for the attorney general and governor to sit down with the treasurer and look at the impact of what is going on.” About the Goldberg and O’Brien fight, Moore said: “I personally feel it could have played out very differently. Based on the allegations we know of, by the treasurer just talking to the former chair about the concerns brought forward, it would have been resolved in a simple meeting between the two … rather than going to suspension, then a termination.”

A spokesperson for Goldberg blamed O’Brien for the dragged-out process. “The treasurer has used every effort to resolve the issue with the chair, since serious concerns about the chair’s conduct and behavior were brought to her attention in the summer of 2023,” the spokesperson said. However, O’Brien, a former state treasurer and Democratic gubernatorial nominee, is fighting to clear her name. It is Goldberg who refused to open the hearing process to the public and and who is now withholding testimony from the public. If Goldberg agreed to make all outstanding documents public, that would speed up the process, a spokesperson for O’Brien said.

Goldberg suspended O’Brien in September 2023 and fired her a year later, saying she made racially insensitive remarks and would “bully, humiliate and abuse her colleagues.” O’Brien, who disputes all those allegations, is suing for public release of all hearing transcripts relative to her firing. O’Brien is also suing on the grounds that her firing did not meet the standard of “gross misconduct” required under the CCC’s enabling legislation. Separate hearings on these two issues are expected to take place in April and May.

O’Brien’s quest to restore her reputation is understandable. But to state leaders, the bigger concern should be the internal dysfunction of the commission itself, which O’Brien said she was brought in to address. O’Brien contends that staff resistance to her reform efforts, and most notably conflict with the now-former executive director, led to what she insists are false allegations.

Goldberg disputes that. But what is indisputable is that the CCC was declared operationally dysfunctional by Shapiro, who last summer called for state lawmakers to appoint a temporary receiver. That did not happen, and as Shapiro wrote in a recent Globe Opinion piece, “the organization remains dysfunctional,” citing excessive employee turnover, vacancies, and workplace complaints, among other serious issues.

To Shapiro, the underlying problem is structural. As he described it in the Globe — a “bifurcated model with shared leadership between a commission, chair, and executive director when a strong executive director model works for the majority of states that allow for adult-use cannabis.” He recommends “a revised structure featuring a stronger executive director and a commission with responsibilities limited to public policy matters.” The commission has attempted to untangle its lines of authority, hiring mediators to clarify its own rules, but that’s not a substitute for legislation with the force of law.

Others, like James Smith, a lawyer who has worked on cannabis policy issues and represents cannabis clients, believe state lawmakers should consider “bringing the commission inside a state agency to be regulated like any other product or service.”

In a bit of good news, the Cannabis Control Commission does have a new executive director — Travis Ahern, the former Holliston town administrator, who accepted the job after another candidate was selected but turned down the job. In a statement on the release of his latest report, Shapiro said while he is optimistic that the new executive director is “committed to establishing sound operational procedures and management” that does not change the fact that the commission’s enabling statute does not clearly define the authority of the chair and executive director.” Until that happens, Shapiro warned, “I fear that responsibility and accountability will struggle to gain its footing to chart a proper path forward.”

Lawmakers should move quickly to change that and give Ahern a fighting chance to be successful.

Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.