Saturday, May 01, 2021

1 May 2021: NJ County Officials Considering Referendum to Investigate COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Should NJ nursing, veterans homes COVID deaths be investigated? Sussex board takes action

Like New York's Cuomo administration, the administration of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is resisting probes into its COVID nursing home policies, which it copied from New York with similarly disastrous results. Like New York's Cuomo administration, the Murphy administration is stonewalling efforts by the media and local government officials to get relevant public data that is controlled by the state.

This report covers the efforts by Sussex County's Board of Commissioners to place a referendum on the November election ballot in the county asking voters for support in investigating the COVID nursing home deaths that resulted:

Sussex County's Board of Commissioners has scheduled a November referendum question to ask voters if the board should "consider every legal action necessary" to force a state investigation into COVID-19 deaths of residents of nursing and veterans homes.

The board will also consider other options until then, commissioners said during the Wednesday night meeting.

The board will continue to go after documents about the deaths through the state's OPRA or Open Public Records Act, although it "has been ignored by Murphy," Commissioner Director Dawn Fantasia said Thursday.

The board will also create lines of communications with "various attorneys for the family members of victims of Executive Order 103, to see if they will share with us any of the public information they obtain through the discovery process;" as well as talk with journalists "who have independently attempted to obtain public information they obtain through the discovery process," Fantasia said.

This is an interesting approach to establish a probe of a subject that state officials are resisting. Unlike New York, New Jersey allows referendums to be placed on its election ballots, which provides a way for citizens to work around the interests their public officials.

Meanwhile, here is where the timeline has previously intersected the "copied from NY" scandal of COVID nursing home deaths in New Jersey:

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