Queens lawmakers introduce confl ict of interest bill
following proposed cuts to Far Rockaway hospital
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | MARCH 19-MARCH 25, 2021 5
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer
Amato has introduced legislation that
would address conflicts of interest for
public employees in response to the
proposals that could have drastically
cut capacity and services at St. John’s
Episcopal Hospital (SJEH).
SJEH, the only full-service hospital
in Far Rockaway, was presented with
three cost-cutting proposals by the
state that would have fundamentally
changed the hospital’s existing services
and resulted in hundreds of jobs
lost, including one option to transform
it into a “micro hospital.”
The New York State Department of
Health (NYSDOH) hired the consulting
firm ToneyKorf Partners, LLC, in
2019 to analyze the hospital’s operations
and come up with the proposals
— which were condemned by community
leaders and local elected officials.
The plans have since been put on hold
by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
However, elected officials are concerned
about the consulting firm’s
influence over SJEH’s review on the
state level, due to Cuomo’s appointment
of ToneyKorf’s Senior Managing
Director Richard Becker as deputy secretary
for Health and Human Services
at NYSDOH last year.
Pheffer Amato’s newly introduced
bill would prohibit any public employee
from overseeing a project that
they were previously a consultant on,
which the southeast Queens lawmaker
said was what happened at SJEH.
“This consultant should never have
been in the position of being able to
make decisions that would drastically
change how St. John’s functions,” Pheffer
Amato said. “With his intimate
knowledge of St. John’s inner workings,
this consultant created proposals
that would fundamentally change
how the hospital works. Consultants
can play an important role in assisting
agencies in New York state, but a
distinction must be made when a state
contracted consultant transitions to
government. This bill will ensure that
a conflict of interest of this magnitude
will never happen again.”
State Senator James Sanders Jr.,
who represents parts of the Rockaways,
will be introducing the Senate version
of this bill.
“This legislation will increase the
standards of integrity for New York
state employees and the policy process,”
Sanders said. “Taxpayers rely
on state employees to give objective advice
on behalf of the public interest to
promote sound policy decisions. This
bill will remove conflicts of interest in
the decision-making process.”
SJEH is a safety net hospital that
serves more than 100,000 residents
in the Rockaways, particularly residents
in underserved communities.
It’s where the first case of COVID-19
in Queens was identified. It’s also a
significant source of jobs in the community,
employing about 1,000 union
workers.
Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato speaks at SJEH ribbon-cutting ceremony in
2019. Photo by Dean Moses
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