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Assemblyman Says Judiciary Committee’s Cuomo Report Shows Path to Ethics Reform

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Assemblyman Ron Kim, in the Legislative Office Building
Credit: New York NOW

“This is a Lesson of Authoritarianism"

Assm. Ron Kim, a Democrat from Queens who lost an uncle to COVID-19 in a nursing home, said the Assembly Judiciary’s report into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo Monday could provide an avenue for comprehensive ethics reform in state government.

“This is a lesson of authoritarianism, a person in full control, that’s never been questioned,” Kim said. 

The committee’s report detailed the alleged withholding of COVID-19 nursing home death numbers, which critics said was related to a directive issued last March that barred nursing homes from turning away COVID-positive residents solely based on that positive diagnosis. 

The report found, specifically, that top aides in the Cuomo administration intentionally left out thousands of COVID-19 fatalities of nursing home residents from the total death toll at those facilities.

Rather than disclose the total number, the administration decided to leave out nursing home residents who were transferred to the hospital, or elsewhere, before they died — a difference of about 3,000 deaths at the start of last summer.

That made a report from the administration on COVID-19 in nursing homes, issued last July, more favorable toward the former governor, the Assembly’s report said.

Kim said that shows a need for more transparency. 

“When I spoke to the current governor, Kathy Hochul, JCOPE was on the top of her mind. Last time I spoke to her, she called me about making it a priority, and not waiting for a constitutional amendment,” Kim said. 

“I also would go as far as working with this governor to put term limits on the executive office. That’s an immediate reform that would check the executive office no matter who the governor is. I would also empower the lieutenant governor.”

Kim said the lieutenant governor could act as a check on the authority of the governor if they were empowered to do so. 

The Assembly’s findings did not contradict statements made by then-DOH Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, who said the virus was brought into nursing homes through staff, but it did clarify that an independent medical review wasn’t conducted for the report.

Kim, however, does believe the directive from last March that require nursing homes to take in COVID-positive patients had an impact on the spread of the virus.

“To say that did not have an impact is simply not following the facts. Every auditor, every person, every outside person who has issued reports, has said that it did have a direct impact,” Kim said. 

Kim also said he would have preferred more work on the nursing homes issue from the Assembly Judiciary Committee’s investigation. 

“I think there are a couple of different things they should have done a better job of, which is linking a number of reasons why the nursing home data was suppressed by the executive office, including legal immunity, which wasn’t covered in this report,” Kim said.

“As well as the book explicitly playing a role as a financial motive for the governor to suppress data. That was implied, but it wasn’t explicit in the report. I think we could have drawn that conclusion a little bit stronger.”

The former governor’s book deal was a part of the report, but it largely focused on the alleged misuse of state resources for its production, including staff who worked on it during business hours. 

Other aspects of the report included another review of the claims of sexual harassment allegations against the former governor, who has denied the allegations.

The report found those claims to be credible. 

Richard Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, disputed the findings in a statement released Monday, focusing on a staffer that accused the former governor of groping her while she was at the Executive Mansion late last year.

“Once again, the fact that an employee entered and exited the Executive Mansion as part of her job was never in dispute and once again this report offers no evidence to support any allegation,” Azzopardi said.

Related: 

Cuomo's Book Deal Revoked

The resolution, which was approved by a 12-to-1 vote, says that Cuomo promised not to use his staff or other state resources to help him write the book.