25 July 2024: NY State Comptroller Calls for Independent Commission to Probe Cuomo COVID Policies after Hochul Commission Whitewash

DiNapoli Op-Ed in Times Union: NY Needs an Independent Commission to Review State's COVID Response

If you needed evidence the Hochul Commission report on the leadership performance of state officials from former governor Andrew M. Cuomo on down was a whitewash, you got it today with an op-ed and official statement by NY State Comptroller Thomas Napoli.

The following excerpt gets straight to the deficiencies of the audit's findings:

An independent report by the Olson Group, prepared under contract with New York state, was expected to be an objective assessment of the state’s response to the crisis. Sorry to say, the Olson report failed to provide the rigorous, fact-based examination New York deserved, nor does it provide a roadmap for future improvement.

For the report to have been credible, it was imperative for its analysis to be accurate and complete. The Olson report often relied on flawed or unvalidated data, and at times data was interpreted incorrectly, resulting in erroneous conclusions.

One of the most glaring examples relates to nursing home deaths. The report cites figures based on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data, stating, “New York’s poor performance, with a rate of 70.9 deaths per 1,000 nursing home residents, ranked it in the bottom third of all states.” The reality is far more grim. It is well known the CMS data undercounted the COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, as facilities’ reporting of COVID deaths was optional up to the week ending May 24, 2020 – a period that accounted for more than 75% of such deaths in New York. As a result, CMS reported our state had 5,974 nursing home deaths as of the last week of 2020. However, the state Department of Health’s data, which the Olson Group should have had access to, showed that the actual number of deaths for that time frame was closer to 11,350. Based on this more accurate data, New York’s nursing home death rate was nearly double at 135 per 1,000 residents, ranking us among the very worst states.

The report’s reliance on data known to be incomplete, as well as the misinterpretation and misreporting of data, is a serious shortcoming. Certain sources often lacked context, and cited information not included or contradicted by other sources. The Olson Group itself acknowledged the limited value of testimonial evidence, yet it leans on personal opinions from anonymous sources of unknown authority (such as a “Town Hall participant”). Rather than rigorous benchmarking or metrics, or evaluation against best practices, the report relies on testimonial evidence – even when substantive or authoritative documentation was available. The result, in many cases, is unsupported conclusions.

To overcome the whitewashed deficiencies of the Hochul Commission's report, DiNapoli proposes a more serious review of the actions taken by state officials during the coronavirus pandemic:

It's time for full consideration of proposed state legislation to establish an independent commission, with subpoena power, to provide the comprehensive accounting New Yorkers deserve.

This entry was added to the timeline on 10 August 2024.

21 June 2024: Hochul’s Pandemic Study Is a $4.3 Million Flop

Hochul’s Pandemic Study Is a $4.3 Million Flop

The report of a commission established by replacement NY governor Kathy Hochul to probe the effectiveness of policies implemented by former governor Andrew M. Cuomo and state officials who served under him is being slammed as a whitewash by the Empire Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy think tank in New York.

One of those policies is Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive, which forced nursing homes to admit patients known to have COVID infections into their facilities, where the highly contagious disease could spread like "fire through dry grass" among the portion of the state's population most vulnerable to a fatal outcome from exposure to it.

The Empire Center's Bill Hammond identifies multiple deficiencies in the report compiled by the Olson Group, which had been hired by Hochul to perform the audit. Here's an overview from the introduction of his analysis:

The newly released study of New York’s coronavirus pandemic response falls far short of what Governor Hochul promised – and the state urgently needs – in the aftermath of its worst natural disaster in modern history.

Hochul had commissioned a $4.3 million after-action review of the crisis, saying she wanted it to cover “the good, the bad and the ugly” and bolster the state’s preparedness for future outbreaks.

Yet the 262-page report from the Olson Group, a Virginia-based consulting firm, turns out to be thinly researched, poorly argued, ill-informed, sloppily presented and marred by obvious errors.

Although many of its findings ring true, it glosses over or ignores some of the state’s most questionable actions – such as ordering thousands of Covid-positive patients into nursing homes.

It looks especially weak in comparison to a similar review prepared for the state of New Jersey, which 648 pages longer – and far more detailed, authoritative and clearly written.

Hochul should declare the Olson Group’s work unacceptable, demand a refund and launch a real after-action review – by joining with Legislature to establish an independent pandemic response commission.

In this next excerpt, Hammond focuses on problems the Hochul Commission had in addressing Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive:

Another weak point is the report’s analysis of the much-debated March 25, 2020, order mandating nursing homes to admit Covid-positive patients being discharged from hospitals.

The report gives a garbled, incomplete account of the events surrounding the order and comes to a generally supportive conclusion:

The State is required by virtue of the applicable federal standards to have planning and processes in place to execute medical surge strategies to preserve the capacity to provide life-saving clinical care. It is also obligated to ensure that people are not discriminated against due to their health conditions. The policy to admit or return COVID-19 patients to nursing homes following hospital admission was an attempt to accomplish both standard public health disaster practices.

That analysis ignores key considerations:

• The policy was based on exaggerated projections of hospital crowding that never came to pass.
• Alternative sites were available, such as the temporary hospital at the Javits Convention Center, but they went largely unused.
• Nursing homes received no warning before the March 25 mandate was issued.
• Officials failed to emphasize the need for precautions in handling the admissions – or that facilities had the option of turning them down.
• The policy applied statewide even though the crisis was concentrated in New York City.
• The policy remained in place until early May even though hospital demand peaked in mid-April.

These are the type of details that a proper after-action review should itemize – not to shame past officials for mistakes, but to help future officials avoid repeating them.

It's quite possible Hochul's commission produced the report New York's state officials and she wanted them to produce. Unfortunately, it's not the report they really needed them to produce, which at $4.3 million, represents a costly flop that still needs to be cleaned up.

This entry was added to the timeline on 10 August 2024.

13 July 2024: Federal Judge Dismisses Retaliation Claim Against Cuomo by Alleged Sexual Harassment Victim

Federal judge dismisses retaliation claims against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

The legal case of State Trooper #1 against former NY Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and his senior aides Melissa DeRosa and Rich Azzopardi had a setback in that one of the female trooper's claims that Cuomo retaliated against her were dismissed by a federal judge hearing the case.

However, as you'll see in the excerpt, the basis of that dismissal relies on a technicality connected to when she served on his protective detail. There no dispute over whether the retaliatory action happened, but rather, whether she was serving on his protective detail when the action taken against her occurred:

A federal judge has dismissed a New York State Trooper's claim of retaliation against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

In the ruling, the judge says the supposed action Cuomo took against the trooper happened after her employment contract had already ended.

The trooper sued the former governor and his top aides in 2022 after saying Cuomo had inappropriate conversations and physical contact with her when she was part of his security detail.

This entry was added to the timeline on 10 August 2024.