A letter obtained by Gothamist/WNYC shows the civil rights organization's lawyer demanding that the state reveal the backgrounds of the five appointed commission members.
In the letter, Gregg L. Zeff quoted a section of the new cannabis legislation, “At least one member shall by a State representative of a national organization or State branch of a national organization with a stated mission of studying, advocating, or adjudicating against minority historical oppression, past and present discrimination, unemployment, poverty and income inequality, and other forms of social injustice or inequality.”
“It is not clear to me that any appointed member of the commission meets this mandatory requirement,” Zeff, the NJ NAACP’s Legal Redress Chair of the NJ NAACP, wrote.
The commission is made up of a Latina woman, a Latino man, a white woman, a white man, and a Black woman, Dianna Houenou. Houenou, a former ACLU attorney, is the commission’s chair. Zeff commented on her appointment, stating that while she is an “excellent choice” for chair, “be reminded that she has been working for the Governor’s office for two years and is not ‘a State representative of a national organization or State branch of a national organization with a stated mission of studying, advocating, or adjudicating against minority historical oppression…’”