Albany Times Union. August 1, 2023.
Editorial: Sunshine needed on church deal
New York’s Catholic leadership reaped billions from the sale of an insurance company — and fenced it off from their creditors.
Attorneys for employees of the former St. Clare’s Hospital in Schenectady want to know more about a decision by the Catholic church’s hierarchy in New York to funnel billions to a nonprofit where the money could be safe from civil judgments.
That pile of cash fell into the church’s hands when Fidelis Care, an insurance company controlled by Catholic leaders, was sold to Centene Corp. in July 2018 — the same year the St. Clare’s pension fund collapsed, erasing all or most of pensioners’ retirement income, and seven months before the state Child Victims Act became law. There is no question that the law’s enactment, which lifted the statute of limitations on previously time-barred civil actions resulting from alleged sexual abuse, was the principal factor in the subsequent decisions by six of New York’s eight dioceses — Albany now among them — to declare bankruptcy.
One organization that is flush with cash is the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, the nonprofit that received the bulk of the proceeds from the $3.75 billion Fidelis sale. Those funds, which support grants to organizations including Catholic groups and even dioceses themselves, are at least for now beyond the reach of those who have brought civil actions against the church and its component parts — including the St. Clare’s pensioners. New York’s archdiocese has argued that the timing of the sale was purely coincidental, and that the Mother Cabrini organization is technically not part of the church — despite the fact that its CEO is Monsignor Greg Mustaciuolo, who previously ran the archdiocese’s day-to-day operations.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany used to make similar claims about the St. Clare’s pension fund, insisting that while it was run by Bishops Howard Hubbard and later Edward Scharfenberger along with a clutch of church insiders, the diocese itself bore no legal responsibility for allegedly mismanaging a pension fund that ended its existence with a whopping $50 million shortfall. In addition to the lawsuit from the pensioners themselves, state Attorney General Letitia James’ office has brought its own legal action against the fund’s principals, including the regional church leaders.
When Cardinal Timothy Dolan announced Monsignor Mustaciuolo’s new role — in a blog post that also credited Michael Costello, the Albany diocese’s longtime attorney, for his key role in the Fidelis sale and establishment of the Mother Cabrini organization — the state’s archbishop said that among the church’s reasons for selling the company was “the fact that the church should not be in the insurance business.”
We hope the federal bankruptcy judge agrees with attorneys for the St. Clare’s pensioners who are arguing that a lot more daylight — in the form of civil subpoenas — would be helpful in illuminating these matters. Because if the Fidelis sale was indeed a tacit attempt to protect the church’s assets from its alleged victims and the former employees of a hospital the Albany Diocese ran for decades, one could make a strong case that New York’s Catholic leadership remains in the insurance business.
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Jamestown Post-Journal. July 27, 2023.
Editorial: Plug Your Nose, Because Smell From Marijuana In Public Isn’t Going Away
We like the idea behind a proposal by Assemblyman Michael Novakhov, R-Brooklyn, and Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, that would allow local governments to levy an additional fine for those who smoke cannabis in areas already off-limits for tobacco users.
Fresh air isn’t as fresh as it used to be, and that’s something many don’t want to get used to.
But there is a fatal flaw in the legislation that has nothing to do with the fact that both Novakhov and Borrello are in the minority party of their respective chamber.
The real problem is there is absolutely no way to enforce the law if it were to pass. Local ordinances prohibiting fireworks are notoriously difficult to enforce because police have to catch someone in the act, and there aren’t enough police officers to blanket a city like Jamestown in order to give teeth to the law. Borrello and Novakhov find themselves in a similar position. New York state already prohibits smoking cigarettes too close to the entrance of stores and businesses. When was the last time someone was ticketed for doing so? It’s an absolutely unenforceable provision of state law because there aren’t enough police officers who have nothing better to do than stand by the doorway of a store with a tape measure to make sure people follow the letter of the law. The provision might as well not exist.
There is a second fatal flaw in the proposal as well.
It should be common sense that marijuana shouldn’t be smoked in areas where tobacco is illegal, but that’s not the way state law is written. Borrello is absolutely right when he says the odor of marijuana in the air in public spaces has increased since the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act was introduced in 2021. There will continue to be debate over whether or not people should smoke marijuana in public spaces, but unless the state wants to get back into the business of low-level marijuana offenses for such behavior, bills like Borrello’s and Novakhov’s will never gain traction in the state Legislature.
The smell from marijuana is delightful to some and offensive to others. Those who take offense should learn to plug their nose — because the smell isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
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New York Post. July 30, 2023.
Editorial: Hochul’s back to signing poorly vetted deals using ‘emergency’ powers
Here we go again?
No sooner did the COVID “emergency” fade than Gov. Kathy Hochul, in May, declared yet another one — this time for the flood of migrants swamping New York.
And now she’s once again using the powers that come with such a declaration, issuing contracts without the state comptroller’s advance OK.
The amounts in two contracts are stunning, totaling $1.6 billion for migrant housing services, to be provided over five years by two Texas firms.
It’s a dangerous practice, to say the least.
The state requires the comptroller to review contracts in advance for a good reason: to ensure New Yorkers get good services for their money and aren’t on the hook for more than necessary.
Recall what happened the last time Hochul used her “emergency” powers, during COVID, to sidestep advance review? Taxpayers wound up paying nearly double for COVID test kits, thanks to $637 million in no-bid state contracts.
Those contracts, by the way, went to Hochul campaign donor, Charles Tebele, raising questions of whether any play-for-play schemes were in the works.
Tebele and his family wound up giving some $300,000 to Hochul’s campaign, and the deal was approved practically overnight.
This time, one of the contracted firms, Garner Environmental services, has given $5,000 to her campaign, though the other, Cotton Commercial, doesn’t appear to have contributed, the Times Union reports.
Yet in light of the vast sums here, letting Comptroller Tom DiNapoli do a pre-contract vetting would’ve been wise. (There’d be plenty of time since, the money is to be spent over five years.)
The city, too, awarded a no-bid contract for $432 million without first sending it to the city comptroller, the New York Times reported this weekend.
Meanwhile, the whole idea of a “migrant emergency” is itself farcical.
Yes, New York is getting blitzed by tens of thousands of newcomers who’ve crossed the southern border and found their way here.
Nearly 100,000 have come to the city just since last spring.
“The arrival of increased numbers of migrants seeking shelter in the City and State of New York is expected to exacerbate an already large-scale humanitarian crisis and create a disaster emergency to which local governments are unable to adequately respond, creating a threat to health and safety, which could result in the loss of life or property,” Hochul’s emergency declaration read.
But these people didn’t come from a wet market or lab in China; they came because President Joe Obama opened the gates and shouted Come on in!
If anyone should be coughing up money, it should be him.
Yet Biden & Co. deny there’s any “crisis” at all.
Let’s face it: This is a man-made disaster that could be fixed simply by keeping the border closed (as the law requires).
Instead, New York taxpayers are now forced to cough up billions (Mayor Eric Adams says the city will spend $4.3 billion on migrants over just two years) — with some of it now possibly wasted for lack of proper oversight.
It’s not just a migrant crisis, but a crisis of government management.
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