TRENTON – A package of bills focused on the management of New Jersey’s veterans’ homes was endorsed this week by Senate and Assembly panels and appears likely to be sent to Gov. Phil Murphy this month.
The bills were negotiated by lawmakers and Murphy’s office and are supported by both parties. They do not include a December bill establishing an independent Office of Inspector General for Veterans’ Facilities – an exclusion the American Legion told lawmakers it would like to see corrected.
“We’re hopeful that this package will prevent a lot of the problems that these veterans’ nursing homes had in the past,” said Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, who chairs the Senate Military and Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
As COVID ravaged N.J. veterans homes, why were dozens of workers suspended with pay?
Updated Mar 02, 2021;
Posted Feb 25, 2021
Susan Ivanitski, at a candlelight vigil, holds a photo of her husband who died from COVID-19 while a resident at Menlo Park Veterans Memorial Home. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media
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As the deadly pandemic swept through New Jersey’s beleaguered veterans homes, the facilities were left dangerously short of help because scores of nurses and others who were sick and or scared did not come to work.
But internal emails obtained by NJ Advance Media show that while administrators were desperately seeking to hire temporary workers, more than two dozen staff members were mysteriously suspended over still-unspecified allegations of abuse or neglect that apparently could not be substantiated. Unable to be fired, they were paid to stay home and told not to come to work.