16 August 2021: Hochul to Retain Ethically-Compromised NY DOH Commissioner Howard Zucker

New York’s incoming governor Kathy Hochul will keep some of Cuomo’s commissioners

Evidence is emerging NY Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will not complete the full housecleaning New York's state government needs following Andrew M. Cuomo's resignation.

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul —who has vowed to end Albany’s “legacy of sleaze” when she replaces scandal-scared Gov. Andrew Cuomo this month — said Sunday she will keep some of his agency heads.

Hochul — who also said she’ll oust staffers implicated in Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandal — will keep some of his commissioners for at least 45 days, she said at a press conference at the Erie County Fair.

Among the commissioners she will be retaining is Howard Zucker, who has been implicated in the Cuomo administration's COVID nursing home deaths scandal and cover-up.

But at least one commissioner she plans to keep was involved in ethically dubious behavior during Cuomo’s reign, sources said.

Hochul asked Health Commissioner Howard Zucker to stay on during a meeting about the pandemic Thursday, sources told The Post— even though he’s embroiled in a scandal over nursing home fatalities and allegedly covering up death data.

“Anyone involved in covering up the Governor’s behavior, or responsible for fudging nursing home data, or who engaged in retaliation against the women who spoke up should have no place in government. Kathy Hochul will have to make those decisions,” Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) told The Post last week.

During the press conference Sunday, Hochul said she plans to retain some Cuomo commissioners because she has good working relationships with them.

That kind of "go along, get along" psychology is part of how corruption is able to flourish in the background. She seems to have a higher than zero tolerance for that aspect of Albany's "legacy of sleaze".