[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - 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.

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