Gov. Kathy Hochul has awarded a $4.3 million contract to analyze New York’s Andrew Cuomo-led response to the coronavirus outbreak — drawing fireplace from critics who accuse her of slow-walking the probe till after Tuesday’s election.
The one-year contract goes to guide the Olson Group, an emergency administration agency in Alexandria, Va. Hochul, who was lieutenant governor throughout the pandemic, first introduced the deliberate probe in July.
However critics say the timing of the agency’s rent is curious — introduced throughout the closing days of a gubernatorial marketing campaign the place Hochul is combating for her political life in a better than anticipated race towards Republican opponent Lee Zeldin.
“Provided that COVID killed greater than 75,000 New Yorkers — and the following virus might arrive at any time — the state’s leaders may need been anticipated to indicate extra urgency in finding out how you can enhance their operations,” stated Invoice Hammond, well being analyst on the Empire Middle for Public Coverage, in a weblog submit.
“The hiring got here greater than two and half years after the state discovered how tragically unprepared it was for a significant pandemic, and 15 months after a governor resigned reasonably than face impeachment partially due to how he dealt with the disaster,” he wrote.
The outcomes of the overview may very well be explosive, scrutinizing life-and-death selections made throughout the worst interval of the COVID-19 outbreak, not solely by the disgraced ex-Gov. Cuomo but additionally the politically highly effective hospital and nursing dwelling industries that now largely help Hochul.
A no-holds barred probe might additionally query what position Hochul performed in decision-making throughout the pandemic.
The awarding of the contract was first reported by Spectrum Information’ State of Politics.
Hammond has reservations concerning the research, which is being overseen by the governor’s workplace and the state Division of Homeland Safety. He stated the investigation of what occurred needs to be impartial and the guide ought to have subpoena energy to get info.
“There’s little or no motive to consider they are going to rock the boat,” he informed The Put up.
“Up to now, the Hochul administration’s efforts on this entrance are sending troubling alerts. Totally analyzing New York’s response to a disaster as huge as COVID-19 needs to be a significant, pressing precedence for the state authorities – not one thing to be grudgingly addressed years later by a guide on a skimpy funds.”
Cuomo got here underneath fireplace for a controversial March 2020 edict that required nursing properties to simply accept recovering COVID-19 sufferers launched from hospitals, regardless that the previous governor himself beforehand stated the extremely contagious killer bug had unfold by means of the amenities like “fireplace by means of dry grass” — killing greater than 15,000 frail, immunosuppressed aged residents.
Investigative reviews by state Lawyer Normal Letitia James and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli discovered that the Cuomo administration initially undercounted nursing dwelling deaths by half and The Put up uncovered a technique to cowl up the true outcomes amid a federal probe.
The previous governor additionally enraged many New Yorkers by writing a $5 million profit-making memoir about his dealing with of the pandemic, accusing him of profiting off the backs of lifeless individuals. He additionally had authorities staffers assist draft the e book, titled “American Disaster: Management Classes from the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Leaders of Voices for Seniors, the key advocacy group for 1000's of nursing dwelling households whose family members have been killed by COVID, stated Hochul failed them and have endorsed Lee Zeldin for governor.
“If Gov. Hochul can sit in a room in entrance of crying and heart-torn households, whereas promising an investigation and has didn't ship; how can we consider she's going to maintain any promise to her constituents,” the group stated in a press release endorsing Zeldin.
Vivian Zayas, co-founder of Voices for Seniors and whose mom, Ana Martinez, died of COVID in a Lengthy Island nursing dwelling, stated, “We consider our cries for justice will now not fall on deaf ears underneath a Zeldin Administration. We now have not forgotten and won't neglect Gov. Hochul abandoning our households.”
Zeldin — who promised to nominate a particular prosecutor to investigative pandemic-related nursing dwelling deaths if elected — accused Hochul of being “complicit” within the COVID-related scandals as a result of he served as Cuomo’s lieutenant governor after they occurred and “she is aware of it.”
“Hochul by no means stated a phrase concerning the administration’s lethal nursing dwelling order and canopy up. She was silent as State Well being Division officers went to non-public residences of the administration’s household and buddies to offer VIP testing close to the beginning of the pandemic,” Zeldin stated.
“Hochul remained AWOL as taxpayer-funded administration staffers have been being misused to jot down Andrew Cuomo’s $5.1 million self-congratulatory e book… As an alternative of swift solutions, she’s dragging her toes simply lengthy sufficient in order that the preliminary findings don’t come out till after the November election. The voters of New York have a chance on November eighth to close down this corrupt machine as soon as and for all.”
Hochul’s workplace stated the governor is delivering on her promise of a no-holds barred probe.
“New Yorkers who've lived by means of being on the epicenter of a worldwide pandemic, misplaced family members, and skilled financial hardship deserve a considerate, significant, and impartial after motion overview, and that’s precisely what we’re working to ship,” stated Hochul spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays.
“We now have recognized the Olson Group because the profitable bidder of the RFP for a contract with a most worth of $4.3 million, and we're shifting by means of the contract approval course of.”
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