For a time, emergency orders served New Yorkers well during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Quick action needed to be taken to respond to the evolving conditions regarding rates of infection and hospitalization. Under specific circumstances, the long legislative process would hamper public safety.
The nature of the pandemic has changed, though, making emergency orders no longer necessary. If we find ourselves in moments of crisis, they can be reimposed as situations warrant. But we should once again be able to rely upon the normal checks and balances of representative government.
However, Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul has resisted returning to business as usual in all cases. She has maintained two emergency orders — and one of them is providing some very poor optics.
One of her emergency orders suspends the need to seek competitive bids on major purchases and have the office of state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli review the transaction. This could lead to the state government spending more than it should on some projects, and this seems to have occurred in at least one instance.
Since December, the New Jersey-based Digital Gadgets received $637 million from the state Department of Health for 52 million at-home coronavirus testing kits, according to a story published July 19 by the Times Union in Albany. Interestingly, family members of the company’s owner enjoy giving as well. They donated $300,000 to Hochul’s gubernatorial campaign — some contributing to a political candidate for the first time.
Charlie Tebele of New York City “is the longtime owner of Digital Gadgets LLC, a New Jersey-based wholesaler of hoverboards and other electronic devices that sells its wares to companies like the home shopping network QVC. When the [coronavirus] pandemic struck in 2020, the company pivoted to supplying medical equipment and began landing major government contracts in New York,” the article reported. “Though Digital Gadgets has not always delivered as promised, it has continued to reap major government payments, while the family has kept donating heavily to select politicians. The $637 million from the Department of Health began on Dec. 30, and the agency made 239 separate payments through March 25 to Tebele’s company, according to state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s OpenBookNY website. The website, however, provides no record of a formal contract being signed between Digital Gadgets and the Department of Health. Jennifer Freeman, a spokeswoman for DiNapoli’s office, said that no such contract existed: The Department of Health entered into ‘purchase orders’ instead with the company, she said.
“On Nov. 26, Hochul had signed an executive order declaring a new COVID-19 state of emergency and suspending certain aspects of state finance law. The order suspended competitive bidding for certain contracts as well as the normal contract review and approval process conducted by DiNapoli’s office, which oversees state government spending. As the pandemic has subsided and surged, Hochul has extended the executive order on a monthly basis; its current expiration date is Aug. 13.”
While an initial set of 17 million kits were purchased before school reopened in January, the remaining kits were ordered over the next three months. Hammond wrote this should have given the state sufficient time to look over competitive bids for the tests, but Hochul has not allowed this to happen.
Hochul’s office denies there was any connection between awarding Digital Gadgets this contract and the Tebele family’s donations to the governor’s campaign. This may be true, but it simply doesn’t look good.
Hochul has not delivered on her promise of ushering in a new era of transparency in state government. Putting an end to unnecessary emergency orders would be a step in the right direction.
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