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[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC] - Hi, everyone.

Steve Adubato.

We welcome all the way from his beautiful backyard in Monmouth County State Senator Declan O'Scanlon.

He's the chief budget officer in the Republican Party in the Senate.

How you doing, Senator, and how's your yard?

- I'm doing really well.

So is my yard.

I'm clinging to summer.

I will refuse to let it go as long as I possibly can.

- We better not air this in November when it's a lot colder.

We're taping this at the end of September.

Do this for us.

I wanna talk about a few different things with you, but you have said publicly, you actually said this in a Paul Mulshine column.

Check out NJ.com, Star-Ledger, still actually in print.

Check out NJ.com.

He says that, quote, "The Democrats need to defund a wind power plan and, which ruins our view and raises taxes," and you're quoted in here as saying...

This is great, Declan.

"The Democrats are running scared," said Senator Declan O'Scanlon.

You're in Monmouth County, as we said.

"We're gonna run on energy issues in this campaign."

What energy issues are you gonna run on, and why is that so compelling in your mind?

- Well, it's not just my mind, but the voters as well are telling pollsters that they care about our energy policy.

The ridiculous half-baked energy master plan that the Murphy administration put out quietly a couple of years ago is a mess.

It doesn't account for the costs to upgrade our grid.

It doesn't account for the costs that everyone will have to spend to upgrade equipment in their houses and the additional costs of energy that will happen because of that plan.

I'm not saying that we don't care about the environment.

I'm not saying we may not have to transition to more, to relying on the electric grid for more things, and that might not be beneficial.

What I am saying is we have to be honest with the people.

The current energy master plan is a ticking time bomb of dramatically increased costs for utilities, dramatically less convenient availability of energy to run our cars, et cetera.

So it's a real issue, and it's one that voters should be concerned about, and it's one, Republicans are not radical about this.

We're not saying to hell with the environment.

We're saying we need to be honest with people and we need to have reasonable, attainable policy.

What the Murphy administration has out there right now is none of those things.

- Okay, so we had your colleague in the Republican Party, Senator Tony Bucco, talking about some of the same issues, and he has a very similar point of view, and I asked him what I'm about to ask you.

You're saying you're not against these policies, but you're just against the Murphy administration clean energy policies.

You're against the wind energy initiatives.

Let me disclose we have a grant from the Clean Energy Program to do public awareness around clean energy.

We don't have a point of view.

We're just doing educational programming in that regard.

But I have to ask you this, Senator.

What the heck is your plan other than saying that the governor's wrong on his plan?

- We've been out there with, and I just reiterate, first off, you do a moratorium on wind right now.

There's a whole host of questions about it.

Whether you believe that offshore wind activities are affecting whales and dolphins or not- - There's no scientific evidence of that, Senator.

Respectfully, I know that's a, I hate to call it a talking point, but I don't know what else to call it.

Where is the evidence that wind turbines are, quote, killing whales?

- I will side with you on that.

There is no evidence that wind turbines are killing whales.

However, however, the other side can't say that they know definitively that some of the activities of offshore wind, 'cause we don't have turbines yet, some of the preparatory activities of offshore wind might be affecting whales and dolphins, et cetera.

But you're right, we don't know.

It's not definitive, and there are people on my side of the aisle saying they absolutely know or believe that those activities are causing those deaths.

I don't go that far.

I believe both sides don't know what the hell's causing the whale and dolphin deaths, and a short moratorium to see if those activities are the culprit seems perfectly reasonable to me.

- Okay, but you also have argued the cost, and I mentioned this in the Senator Bucco interview as well, that the tragic passing of the president of the Board of Public Utilities, Joe Fiordaliso- - A good guy, good guy.

- Best guy.

And again, check out our series "Remember Them" where we honor and recognize people who have passed in New Jersey with a great impact.

The last thing we wanted to do was do a program with my colleague Jacqui Tricarico about Joe Fiordaliso, but he died tragically too soon.

That being said, one of the last things he said, Senator, was "Stop the lying," and he was talking about not you specifically, but the lying and the exaggerating and the hyperbole scaring the heck out of people saying the governor is coming to take your stove.

Not true, Senator.

It's just not true.

- Well, hold on.

And look, I just said we should, both sides should stop the lying and the definitive statements about offshore wind.

Let's talk about gas.

Let's talk about electrification.

- Is the governor coming to take everyone's stove?

- Eventually, that is exactly where the policy will lead if you look at the policy and you look at the pronouncements of the people creating the policy.

Now, it's true the policy today will not take away your stove, but it is also true that if you take the policy desires of the people making it currently today, they absolutely would remove gas appliances from homes going forward.

They would, Steve.

There's no question.

- But do you think they would- - Everybody's gotta be honest.

- Okay, I'm sorry for interrupting, Senator.

There's a little delay, but to say that in ads, and I'm not saying you're responsible for these ads, but you're benefiting from these ads.

The Republicans running, and this, and by the way, November 7th, there's a legislative election.

All 120 seats are up.

The Republicans are salivating, including the senator.

He sees the opportunity on this issue and on issues of parental rights, which we'll talk about in a minute as it relates to children in public schools.

It's just not true that the governor...

I'm not here to defend the governor.

He's not taking anyone's stove.

They might down the road with people involved change the policy to go from voluntary to mandatory.

That's not actually where we are today, Senator, correct?

- That is correct, but to be fair, Steve, the logical conclusion of these policies is exactly that.

They're already talking about the indoor air pollution from what stoves still have a pilot light.

If you're honest from both perspectives, they would actually eventually, not too far down the road either, want to remove your gas stove and other gas appliances, and reliable ones, and replace them with much less reliable, a much less reliable set of appliances dependent on an electric grid that needs billions of dollars of upgrades if we're going to eventually get there.

So, Senator, parental rights.

Put this in perspective.

What is the issue regarding parental rights as it relates to their children in public schools and what the parents should or should not do or do not know about their children and what their children say about their gender, their sexual orientation, please.

- This is another area where there's been, I think on both sides, exaggeration, certainly on the left, on the policies that exist right now.

The administration put out a policy that they suggested was mandatory that schools are prohibited from sharing virtually any facts about their children and certainly their sexuality and their wrestling with such issues with parents.

So they come up with this policy.

School boards reacted to it by actually implementing real policies, and suddenly the administration has a problem with it.

The left is grossly exaggerating the policies as they exist.

Middletown is where I'm most familiar with.

There are blatant lies and misrepresentations being told by numerous people about that policy, which is a very reasonable one.

A child can... A male child can dress like a female, can ask to have his name changed to a female name, can talk to teachers, can do all that without any parental notification.

It is not until and unless they wanna change a formal document or have a public accommodation, like start using girls' bathrooms, when there might be communication with parents.

It's a pretty reasonable policy.

Parents agree with Republicans on this, and the left is exaggerating and blatantly misrepresenting what that policy does.

- This is State Senator Declan O'Scanlon, been with us many times.

Check out previous interviews.

You'll see the website, steveadubato.org.

He is the chief budget officer, Thank you, Senator, for joining us.

We appreciate it.

Talk to you soon.

- Thanks, Steve.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We are pleased to be joined by Vivian Cox Fraser, President and CEO of a great organization, the Urban League of Essex County.

Vivian, good to see you again.

- Great to see you, Steve.

- As we put up the website of the Urban League, tell everyone what the organization is and the impact it has every day.

- Sure.

Well, the Urban League is a social service and community development organization.

Since our founding in 1917, our mission has been to help African Americans and other disadvantaged residents achieve social and economic advancement.

And we are, as I said, a comprehensive social service and community development organization, and we offer relevant programs and services in education, employment, housing, and economic development that empower communities and change lives.

- Let's talk about home ownership, particularly in a city of Newark.

Where are we with home ownership?

What progress have we made and what do we need to do to increase the opportunity for people to own their own home, please?

- Sure.

Well, much like many cities across the country, there is certainly a crisis in affordable housing for families, from rental options as well as home ownership options.

And certainly, with rising interest rates and issues surrounding affordability, many families find themselves locked out of home ownership.

And in Newark, the home ownership rate is, I guess over 70% of residents are renting.

And that has serious implications for the stability of communities, and importantly, of families.

So our work really is about helping people get their stake in their communities, and that's through home ownership.

- As you were talking to our producers, you talked about housing counseling services.

What exactly are we talking about?

What services are we talking about?

- So the Urban League, we have a HUD-approved housing counseling program.

- That's Housing and Urban Development.

I'm sorry for interrupting.

A federal agency, Housing and Urban Development, please.

- Yes.

And the services range from rental assistance all the way to home ownership and first-time home buyers programs, as well as also foreclosure mitigation.

So it ranges the whole home ownership or housing continuum.

So many people may come into the Urban League looking for rental assistance.

And certainly, in COVID, we had significant increase around people with the threat of eviction through the crisis.

But also all the way through home ownership.

We have programs around first-time home buyers, as well as post-purchase programs as many people who begin to purchase homes haven't had the experience of actually maintaining homes, so we have classes in that.

And then for some of the programs that we have, the houses that we're building, they're multi-family, they're two and three family homes, So we also have classes and landlord tenant laws so that people can also get the experience of being landlords.

So it ranges from the continuum.

- Vivian, put this in perspective for those of us who are blessed enough, fortunate enough to own a home.

We know that while it's challenging and a lot of, you talk about maintenance, I don't even want to go there, you know, upkeep, but how fortunate we are to own our own home, as challenging as that may be for many folks, given the high cost of living in this state, and et cetera, et cetera.

From your perspective, particularly in urban areas like Newark, what do you believe the impact is on a person on a family when they own a home?

- Well, I can speak of even my own experience.

My parents were like many of the families that we work with here in Newark, I tell everybody, my father had a third grade education, he learned to trade, he started a business, he worked like a dog, and his daughter got Ivy League education.

- That's right.

- But my mother's a nursing assistant, okay?

And so when I graduated from college, my mother graduated from college with her nursing degree, but she had been a nursing assistant.

(Steve applauding) So I really understand, you know, how to help families move and advance economically, and home ownership is key to that.

So most families, it doesn't matter your race or where you live, they have their wealth in their homes, right?

So home ownership is key to actually addressing the racial wealth gap, and also intergenerational poverty.

So being able to have home ownership really is about creating a better future for yourself, for your family, and for the next generation.

And so even the families that we serve here in Newark, when they come in, we used to serve people in our home ownership program, they were different than the people who came in for rental assistance because people that came in home ownership were already thinking that they could become homeowners.

And what we've done is really sort of shifted that model to say, you may be renting today, but we want you to understand that you can be a homeowner tomorrow.

So really, our pathway to home ownership program is really about building wealth and addressing economic disparity that we see.

So if you have your home, maybe and you've built up equity over time, if your children wanna go to college, you can tap into that equity.

If somebody's lost their job, you can tap into that equity.

If you don't have that, you don't have that financial resource to tap into.

And many families don't have like a rich uncle they can go borrow money if they needed a car repair.

So the importance of home ownership really is about building wealth for families, but also stabilizing a community.

So if you have communities that have more home ownership, those tend to be safer communities.

You don't have as many transient things going on in your communities.

And so, you know, so really when you think about it, if you- My dad used to say, "You don't see people washing a rental car," right?

(chuckling) Because- - That's right.

- When you own that car, you take care of it.

- You own it.

- And that also translates into home ownership.

- Vivian, got a minute left.

Do this for us.

You talk about home ownership, the economic challenges, and children, what they learn from that in a family by living in their own home.

But childcare.

Switch gears for a moment, we have a minute left.

We're very much involved, as you well know, in an initiative that helps create greater public awareness around accessible, affordable childcare.

There's a direct impact of the ability to purchase a home as it relates to the cost of healthcare, particularly in communities like Newark, or access to.

The importance of accessible, affordable, quality childcare, please, go ahead.

- Well, I think when you see lower income families, every expense that they have, it takes away from the amount that they have to save.

And so really, if families can't work (chuckling) and they have to stay home, we saw that in COVID, many women started taking off, left their jobs during COVID because they needed to take care of the children.

So if you don't have adequate, affordable, high-quality childcare, you can't work.

And being able to work is really an economic priority for most families.

- This is, you've been listening to Vivian Cox Fraser.

She's the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Urban League of Essex County.

Vivian, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- Sure, thanks, Steve.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're honored to be joined by State Senator Joseph Cryan, Chair of the Senate Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee, of New Jersey Senator.

Good to have you with us.

- Steve, good to see you, as always.

- You've been talking about leading, legislating, and trying to deal with Veterans issues for years.

Federal government, The Star-Ledger, "Feds blast state on safety of homes."

There are three Veterans homes in New Jersey.

The federal government, I believe through the Department of Justice, came in and said New Jersey failed miserably to protect our Veterans, particularly during COVID.

Hundreds died.

They should not have died.

A, how did it happen?

B, what do we do now?

Senator, please.

- A, it happened out of a systematic formula of neglect.

And clearly the response to the initial, the DOJ came in, did an investigation, and essentially worked from the period of March of 2020 through 2021.

And there they found literally horrific and appalling actions by those in charge of our Veterans.

They found ongoing, systematic issues with the Veterans homes.

And by the way, Steve, primarily, even though there's three, Vineland, Paramus and Menlo Park, report focuses on two, Paramus and Menlo Park.

In there, they found a systematic problem in terms of response, infection control, quality assurance, reporting, lack of metrics, basic things like even after, for lack of a better way to put it, we in New Jersey understood what our obligations were under COVID, with PPE, lack of controls, lack of masks, lack of, just frankly, in some cases what it seems like is just common sense.

So for a variety of reasons, those things caused DOJ to come in.

And the report that you just showed, the The Ledger article to, is horrific.

It basically says that the DOJ has made the comment that we violated, the state of New Jersey, the constitutional rights of these folks.

That's a horrific and appalling statement.

- Senator, who is responsible?

I'm sorry for interrupting.

Who is?

And this isn't a blame game.

It's an accountability, not even game.

It's questioning the accountability.

Who is responsible for this, A?

And B, who should be responsible moving forward?

Because you're proposing a major change in state government structure.

Please.

- We are, and we're hopeful that that change includes those that, look, the head of DMAVA and the folks that work at the division of military, go ahead.

- No, that was an acronym.

I want to make sure, not everyone.

- Military and Veterans Affairs.

Okay.

Sorry about.

The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

So I apologize for the acronym, DMAVA.

- No, it's all right.

Were they responsible for this or the Department of Health?

- Department of Health has some responsibility here.

Although, there was a strike force put in at times.

Should have been more enforcement.

The report's pretty clear about that.

But ultimately, the charge of taking care of our Veterans, who earn the right to quality service falls under the head of the DMAVA and falls under the DMAVA department.

As a result of that, that's why we're doing the B part of your comment, what are we doing to propose for change?

We're literally proposing that the folks that run DMAVA are out, that we create a separate agency, that's, Department of Veterans Services.

And the intention is to put professionals in charge of these nursing homes.

There are three of them as we've mentioned before in this discussion.

Those three deserve laser-focused quality care over long periods of time for our Veterans.

And DMAVA's issues here with nursing homes didn't start with this report, but they're obviously embellished at every level through the loss of life and the horrific documentation that shows it.

So we think it's long past time.

Senator Vitale, myself and many other senators believe that we need to create a separate department focused on the nursing homes, take them out of DMAVA, because, you know, when you're a general in the military, even though you're a medical doctor, like the current head of DMAVA, the reality of it is you didn't go in the military to run nursing homes.

So we want professionals and accountability, metrics, costs, all the things that are responsible within that.

- Now, the governor has said, Governor Murphy has said, I think he said, "The buck stops with me."

It's an expression, not sure, means different things to different people.

But with all due respect to the governor, my question is, what has the governor said to you and Senator Vitale and other senators and other legislators who have called for the creation of this cabinet level department with "laser focus" to quote you, senator, attention on Veterans affairs, particularly these nursing homes?

Is the governor committed to supporting your initiative?

- Yeah, we're encouraged by the positivity of the discussions.

Wants to hear it, has not ruled it out, hasn't said we're staying the way we are.

Yeah, I believe actually we will get this done through the help of the governor and the governor's office.

We think it's time for change and we know that the governor's embracing of anything that supports our Veterans.

- Did we fail our Veterans?

- Yes, period.

We failed them.

We lost lives early.

We lost lives due to neglect in care.

That's a collective failure on the behalf of the state government of New Jersey.

We failed.

And when you fail, you fix.

And that's what we need to do.

- But senator, let me try this, because you said before that these issues are not new.

That the systematic issues of how they were responding in an emergency, in a public health pandemic, if you will, people say, "Well, no one could have predicted COVID."

And that's true.

But in Veterans nursing homes and in nursing homes, and trust me, go back and look at the interviews I've done with Governor Murphy, I've asked him several times about that, and the governor's response is, "We couldn't have known.

We trusted the nursing homes.

We trusted the nursing homes to do what they said they were gonna do and segregate those with COVID from those who did not have COVID."

That's not what happened.

So my question is, could we have seen this coming, senator?

And it's not about blame, again, but shouldn't and couldn't have we seen this coming for those who we say we honor their service to our country?

This seems, in the eyes of many experts, quite predictable.

- There were, and much documentation over the years about particular issues in the nursing homes, the Veterans nursing homes.

There were.

So because it, frankly, came to a head with the nightmare called COVID.

Yes.

The answer to that is yes.

Should have?

Yes, we should have seen it coming.

Should we have done something earlier?

Yes, we absolutely should have.

System controls, Steve, infection controls, you know, quality assurance were all things that didn't come up just as a result of COVID.

They were there in place.

And, you know, maybe the most horrific part of the report, for me, is where DMAVA didn't exactly cooperate with these folks when they came in.

You know, you've got to take an opportunity to work with what you have and fix it.

And that's what's been frustrating.

But we knew.

Of course we knew.

- Senator, before I let you go, shifting gears dramatically in the minute or so we have left, we're involved in an initiative "Reimagine Child Care," looking at the importance of accessible, affordable childcare.

And also its impact on the economy and people's ability to work.

Your commitment to quality, accessible, affordable childcare.

And by the way, check out our interview with Senator Teresa Ruiz in this regard.

Talk about it, senator.

- Oh, incredibly important.

And, you know, as someone who's, for example, today, where I work, I have 216 employees.

I used to be the sheriff in Union County, had over 250 employees.

You watch people not come to work over the lack of ability sometimes, because their child couldn't get the access to the kind of supports, healthcare and things that they deserve.

No, it's a societal issue, that not only needs to be addressed, but it reflects what's important in us, the next generation and their opportunities.

- You've been listening to Senator Joseph Cryan, Chair of the Senate Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee.

I promise, senator, this will not be a one-off segment on these Veterans nursing homes.

We'll be back to visit again.

Thank you for joining us.

We appreciate it, Joe.

- Always good to see you, Steve.

- Folks, this is a message I want to deliver to all those who may or may not have known of Joe Fiordaliso, the head of the Board of Public Utilities who passed way too soon, a public servant, someone who served in government for many years a former public school teacher, he cared deeply about making a difference.

He cared deeply about climate change.

Whether people agreed or disagree with him, he always did it in a classy way, as a gentleman.

Could disagree without being disagreeable, if you will.

He will be missed.

A great public servant, a life well lived.

Rest in peace.

Our friend Joe Fiordaliso.

- Sentimantal music - [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato Is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Rowan University.

Johnson & Johnson.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

Wells Fargo.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

Veolia, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters.

And by these public spirited organizations, individuals and associations committed to informing New Jersey citizens about the important issues facing the Garden State.

And by Employers Association of New Jersey.

Promotional support provided by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

And by ROI-NJ.

(Sounds of Water) - (Narrator) Most people don'’t think of where there water comes from.

But we do.

Veolia, more than water.

Resourcing the world.