Coronavirus tragedy at Holyoke Soldiers’ Home puts spotlight on Gov. Charlie Baker
Thirteen dead. A state agency under fire. A $122,000-a-year politically-connected boss put on administrative leave. And a lot of questions for Gov. Charlie Baker.
Sound familiar?
It’s the latest brewing scandal in the Baker administration, only this time it’s not the Registry of Motor Vehicles, it’s the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home.
Baker said on Tuesday he was trying to get to the bottom of the deaths at the soldiers’ home, but he and other state officials weren’t notified of the coronavirus problem until Sunday, well after the death toll was beginning to mount.
Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse said in a statement that he was “shocked” to learn of eight deaths at the home from Wednesday to Sunday, and tried to get answers from Superintendent Bennett Walsh and Secretary of Veterans’ Services Francisco Urena.
When that failed, Morse directly called Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito to tell her of the deaths at the facility.
And family members of residents at the soldiers’ home say they have been having difficulty getting answers from administrators at the home.
“Simply put, there must be accountability for what happened in Holyoke,” U.S. Rep. Richard Neal told Statehouse News Service.
Baker needs to turn over the rock at the soldiers’ home and find out what went wrong — even if he doesn’t like the results. And he needs to determine whether some of the deaths could have been avoided.
There are already indications of political connections in administration of the home.
Walsh, a Marine veteran who was appointed in 2016, is now on administrative leave. He is earning $122,000 a year, according to payroll records. His mother is a Springfield city councilor.
Some of the registered nurses and doctors at the soldiers’ home make more than $150,000, including overtime.
One registered nurse, Jessica Mojica, earned more than $103,000 in overtime this year, boosting her annual pay to more than $215,000, according to payroll records.
The soldiers’ home is run by a board of trustees, which is chaired by a lawyer, former Holyoke City Council President Kevin Jourdain.
Baker has endured several high profile scandals recently, including at the Registry and the state police.
He has taken some responsibility for those agencies and worked to clean up the problems.
Let’s hope he can do the same thing at the soldiers’ home. The veterans there and the public deserve a full accounting of what happened.
“I’m glad that the state is now taking swift action to protect the most vulnerable among us and the people that did everything they could to protect our rights and freedoms as Americans,” Morse said.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2Jvulnm
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