13 September 2021: NYDOH Deputy Commissioner Steps Down, Calling Attention to Official They Replaced

Another top DOH official leaves, new deputy commissioner steps in

This report is notable because although it's about an official, Lisa J. Pino, who had little-to-no role in the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive that sent patients known to have COVID infections into nursing homes or its subsequent cover-up of COVID-related nursing home deaths, it does identify another official who has received little notice for their potential role in those scandals. In the following excerpts, we've highlighted information related to that official, Sally Dreslin:

The state Department of Health continues to see turnover among its employees as its second-in-command, Lisa J. Pino, departed Thursday after a little more than a year in the job.

Kristin M. Proud is now the acting executive deputy commissioner, the agency said. Politico first reported the staff changeover. Proud was the commissioner of the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance from 2013 to 2015 during the administration of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. She left the position as Cuomo was preparing for a second term....

Pino, who was making $187,000, replaced Sally Dreslin, who was reported at the time to be on leave since April, four months prior to the change. Dreslin, according to the state's payroll database, is now working as a special assistant with the state's Department of Mental Health. Her rate of pay was cut by about $18,000, down to $160,000....

Some of the lawmakers have been pressuring Gov. Kathy Hochul to terminate the state's top health official for his role with the Cuomo administration in distorting the death toll in nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic; Cuomo has denied wrongdoing. In a January report by the office of state Attorney General Letitia James on the nursing home issue, Zucker was never mentioned. The names of Zucker, Dreslin and Cuomo were at the top of the controversial March 25, 2020, directive that had instructed nursing home operators they must accept residents discharged from hospitals, even if they were still positive for COVID-19.

Strange that a bureaucrat would choose to step down from the Number Two position at the New York Department of Health, taking both a demotion and a pay cut at the time the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect. There's a story there.