Governors own
Monday, Nov 30, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The virus has to come from somewhere, and considering the phenomenally high positivity rate in that area, it was bound to get into the veterans’ home…
Through letters, phone calls and social media, state Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, weeks ago began raising alarm bells about a coronavirus outbreak at the veterans home in her district.
“All along I had been receiving phone calls, emails and anonymous letters from people who worked in the home or had family members there about serious breaches of protocol that they were concerned about,” Rezin told us. “I know the (Gov. J.B. Pritzker) administration believes (the outbreak) is because people aren’t enforcing his mitigation plan, and they brought it into the nursing home. But that does not compute with what is going on.”
* However, other veterans’ homes are in hotspots and have so far managed to prevent a massive outbreak. Once the virus got inside, it was the state’s responsibility to halt the spread. That clearly did not happen. The virus spread like wildfire and 20 percent (yes, 20 percent) of the residents have died so far…
Officials are investigating a coronavirus outbreak that has infected nearly 200 residents and staff, and killed 27 veterans.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is attempting to determine what caused the outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home. The department has requested an independent probe into the facility, which was the focus of a state Senate committee virtual hearing on the outbreak.
The current outbreak was identified in late October when a staff member and a resident tested positive for the virus. Since the beginning of November, two-thirds of residents and employees have tested positive, according to the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.
Inspections revealed several issues at the home, including challenges with timely return of testing and breaks from protocol in coronavirus prevention and containment including wearing masks and social distancing. Issues of short staffing were also a concern, including clear procedures on whether staff was required to work even though they tested positive for COVID-19.
* And then there was the hand sanitizer that didn’t work on viruses…
All of this is completely and totally unacceptable.
* Also…
“Here I am by Day 11 practically screaming to whoever will listen to me,” Rezin said. “(The state) didn’t conduct a site visit until 11 days after the outbreak. When the Quincy Veterans’ Home experienced a Legionnaires outbreak, they did a site visit on Day 3, and they were crucified for waiting until Day 3.”
* Timeline from Rep. Randy Frese during a House Republican press conference today…
On November, 1, the first case of a resident testing positive occurred.
On November 3, after mass testing, 22 residents and seven staff tested positive.
On November 8, it was 59 residents and 64 staff testing positive. […]
On November 12, IDPH personnel were finally called to the site.
This was a gigantic failure at the site level and at the state level.
* Sen. Paul Schimpf…
“This is what’s frustrating to me, Director (Chapa LaVia). Your legislative liaison sent an email to the senators on this committee and I appreciate the update. But that email talked about the sense of urgency in the sense of trying to do everything that could be done to ensure the safety. But the actions don’t seem to match the rhetoric,” Schimpf, R-Waterloo, said.
“So, the two questions are, when was Gov. (J.B.) Pritzker notified about this, did he give any guidance and then why again was it not until Nov. 12 that we had IDPH personnel on site?”
Chapa LaVia said she personally did not speak to Pritzker but he was aware of the outbreak.
Chapa LaVia, who served as a First Lieutenant in the Illinois Army National Guard, also pushed back against the charge that the IDVA officials should have moved more quickly to respond to the LaSalle outbreak.
She didn’t personally speak with the governor about this? And she thinks the response was just fine?
* More Schimpf…
On Veterans Day alone, we lost seven veterans at this facility. Shouldn’t that have been enough to warrant a direct, person-to-person conversation between our governor and the director of the Department of Veterans Affairs? This is even more infuriating, considering that in the spring of 2018, then-candidate Pritzker made the Quincy Legionnaire’s outbreak a focal point of his gubernatorial campaign.
* The ongoing investigations will help prevent failures in the future. But heads need to roll and there’s ample precedent…
Pritzker ought to be furious about this down to his marrow, but that has not been communicated to the public.
* And perhaps the state finally needs to decide whether it can continue providing this care and whether the federal government might be better suited to do it…
- hot chocolate - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 11:47 am:
I’m guessing the usual, “This is just a political stunt by the Republicans,” won’t suffice at the 2:30 JB show today?
- Annoyed - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 11:50 am:
I’d like to see the UofI medical system run the medical side of these homes. State VA is not the group that should be in charge of medical care.
- NIU Grad - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 11:58 am:
One problem with appointing a politician like Chapa LaVia as an agency director is there’s hesitance to fire them if there’s an obvious case of neglect. Any other agency and they would have showed the director the door (see: IDES).
- Citizen Kane - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 12:00 pm:
There are a lot of issues at the IDVA unfortunately. The lack of communication of very serious problems between the Director and the Governor really concerns me in this instance. I hope the Governor fixes that.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 12:02 pm:
The thing I learned about Chapa LaVia is that she refuses to take responsibility for her own actions, and what actions she does are curiously acceptable for her.
How Chapa LaVia is still the head of the agency is a head scratcher.
Governors own, they always do… this is another example too…
Personnel *is* policy.
The scope of failure here is unacceptable and no excuse will suffice, but keeping an agency head so flippantly accepting this specific response to this, *and* seemingly not thinking the governor should hear from her is gross malpractice to the mission of the agency and the head of the agency.
Every day Chapa LaVia stays is a day that the administration sees Chapa LaVia’s actions as she’s sees them… as fine.
- Merica - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 12:03 pm:
The hand soap is a good catch but i would bet it’s the least of the facility issues.
- Are there daily temperature checks for
employees? (probably not)
- Do employees who test positive test negative before returning to work? (probably not)
- Candy Dogood - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 12:04 pm:
Not to mix news, but should we be wondering about Rep Rezin’s motives to be circulating a petition to “save” Dresden Generating Station, owned and operated at a profit by the Exelon/ComEd criminal syndicate?
- MarineKevin - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 12:04 pm:
Let’s not use veterans as political pawns, they say.
Reality:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=imd1mQRfpVw
- Anyone Remember - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 12:05 pm:
We are all prisoners of the past. “Issues of short staffing were also a concern, … .”
- yeah... - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 12:19 pm:
Perhaps the LaSalle County State’s Attorney will lend Kwame his grand jury?
- Cubs in '16 - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 12:35 pm:
The State of IL has a poor track record of caring for any group in their charge including children and folks with developmental disabilities. It’s clearly a systemic problem that should be dealt with immediately.
- Lt Guv - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 12:37 pm:
If Chapa LaVia didn’t immediately take this directly to the Gov. she should have reported it to the appropriate Deputy Gov. who should have taken it directly to the Gov. A head needs to roll here and JB needs to accept responsibility and apologize. I’m a fan of JB, but this is not acceptable.
- Nip it in the Bud - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 12:48 pm:
The Administration needs to get the U of I Saliva Test over there. Results in a short time. Get this under control.
- On point - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 12:49 pm:
–If Chapa LaVia didn’t immediately take this directly to the Gov. she should have reported it to the appropriate Deputy Gov. who should have taken it directly to the Gov. A head needs to roll here and JB needs to accept responsibility and apologize. I’m a fan of JB, but this is not acceptable. –
Exactly. Someone in the chain of command needs to held accountable. Gov… Chief of Staff….Deputy Gov….VA Director. Our Veterans deceiver better. Shameful.
- West Wing - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 12:50 pm:
Heads need to roll - that is unacceptable
- Arock - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 12:51 pm:
Short of making the workers live in isolation themselves as well there is not much more than you can do to keep the virus out of long term care facilities. You have a community of people living in a facility that probably doesn’t have the necessary ventilation system with a adequate fresh air exchanger system. Probably no UVC in the duct work to help kill the virus or uplight UVC to kill the virus. So you are probably recycling contaminated air constantly throughout the whole facility. You take these facilities with many frail people and people with underlying conditions and restrict them inside getting no vitamin D from the sun and very little fresh air. It is a mix for rapid growth of virus spread and not much in the way of a strong immune system to fight the virus. This is happening all over the State/Country and the workers are working their butts off trying to keep this from happening.
- Rich Miller - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 1:09 pm:
===The Administration needs to get the U of I Saliva Test over there===
That’s been done. Not the U of I test but another one.
- Gravy Bond - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 1:11 pm:
When is Schimpf going to make it official that he is running for Governor in 2022? The Federal Judge position never happened, so what else does he have to do? Probably isn’t running for Governor to win, but to set himself as a contender to replace Bost in Congress. How is that for some speculation.
- TheInvisibleMan - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 1:12 pm:
=== that is unacceptable ===
Is it?
The actions of the local officials, including Rezin, have been communicating that all these restrictions are not necessary.
Rezin herself was circulating her support to open-up Illinois for weeks, at the same time she was supposedly screaming to anyone who would listen. And I’m supposed to believe she suddenly cares about the obvious consequences of her stance only now that the consequences have actually arrived?
The minority republican party was holding rallies to defy any mitigation efforts, even having a bus tour around the entire state to spread the message - among other things it was spreading.
The LaSalle county states attorney was openly stating his defiance of any restrictions. The local health department issued a grand total of zero citations for the multitude of violations continuing out in the open.
Legionaires isn’t airborne, and wasn’t rampaging across the state at the same time. I don’t see the comparison in outbreaks.
This is the outcome the republican party has deemed acceptable by their actions, in their crusade of pushing back against any and all restrictions during a global pandemic.
- Precinct Captain - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 1:15 pm:
The Tribune editorial is written like a Rezin press release. The truth of the matter is that while this has been handled poorly (putting it nicely), no one in the GOP has any credibility to criticize. Their Covid-19 strategy is unmitigated community spread, which would wipe out pretty much the entire veterans home population. As it is now, they still have no plans and no solutions to control the outbreak at LaSalle or provide a solution in the future. They want all budget cuts. How much should come from the veterans homes?
- Pelonski - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 1:24 pm:
We are starting to see a trend with this governor. He simply is not involved enough with the operations of State government. It’s not fun, and it doesn’t get headlines, but this is his most important responsibility.
- Annoyed - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 1:31 pm:
Here’s a quote still on Sue’s website from Nov 1 press release: “Our restaurants are being forced to close despite the lack of data showing they are the culprit for the recent increase in COVID-19 cases,” said Sen. Rezin. “In fact, many local health departments show that restaurants are very little to blame for outbreaks.” — So Sue, if local employees ate out then went to work at the VA home, aren’t you equal, or more responsible than the governor for the deaths? I think you should resign.
- AlfondoGonz - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 1:34 pm:
Having served as procedural counsel on a committee chaired by, at the time, representative Chapa LaVia, I’ll just say I’m not surprised by the lack of urgency shown here.
- In 630 - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 1:44 pm:
The “Pritzker Sucks” culture in the community may be defining the atmosphere the staff lives in- and Rezin owns that part.
But what happens in the 4 walls of the home is under the administration’s control, and just inexcusable. Beyond the up the chain problems, my first thought is: Are there people on in leadership roles there at the home that reflect the community’s attitude about the pandemic instead of the health care consensus?
- DemVet - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 1:44 pm:
Protect our Veterans.
Prosecute the negligent.
Purge the Gov staff responsible.
Punt the politician.
- Blake - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 1:55 pm:
Rich’s last point “And perhaps the state finally needs to decide whether it can continue providing this care” is one we should seek answers on. Do other states directly run these facilities?
- Blue Dog Dem - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 2:19 pm:
GravyBond. I think your spot on.
- Candy Dogood - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 2:27 pm:
===Do other states directly run these facilities? ===
Yes. I didn’t actually check to confirm, but it’s my understanding that every state runs at least one Veterans home.
https://www.veteransaidbenefit.org/list_state_veterans_homes.htm
- Dutch - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 2:36 pm:
They are run by the states in partnership with the federal government with a lot of federal funding.
- OneMan - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 2:51 pm:
Who cares if Republicans have an ounce of credibility here? Who cares? A facility where the state takes care of vulnerable people had a COVID outbreak and that outbreak seems not to have been addressed well.
That’s it, even if every lawmaker involved thinks COVID is a hoax, it doesn’t change the facts on the ground. The state runs a facility that appears to have addressed an outbreak poorly. It appears to have communicated poorly and made some basic errors (the hand sanitizer along with others, not being clear if you should come to work if you test COVID positive).
In the words of OW, Governor’s own.
- Adjutant - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 2:58 pm:
There were many failures at IVHL.
Many heads should roll, starting with the facility Administrator.
- State Employee - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 3:05 pm:
==The Administration needs to get the U of I Saliva Test over there. Results in a short time.==
And same for all State Employees and offices which are still open and employees still expected to come to work daily despite Tier III mitigations.
- TheInvisibleMan - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 3:06 pm:
=== thinks COVID is a hoax, it doesn’t change the facts on the ground. ===
Since just about every republican has been repeating the same mantra for months that restrictions are not necessary, this only impacts the elderly, and there is a 99% survival rate, republicans should be pleased with this outcome and the governor. 99% of people in LaSalle county haven’t died, so what’s the big deal suddenly? This is exactly the outcome they have been saying is acceptable to them.
This is what they wanted. I don’t want to hear them once again trying to foist the consequences of their own actions onto someone else when these consequences are what they have spelled out as wanting for months now.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 3:08 pm:
This is a really bad look for a team that bashed Rauner repeatedly for practically the same thing. JB’s people couldn’t get this response right, couldn’t get IDES issues straightened out - and I don’t buy the staffing excuse, they’ve had almost three years now to hire more staff. What’s the point of having JB in the big chair if his people can’t handle the most important day to day stuff?
- Rich Miller - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 3:09 pm:
===they’ve had almost three years now===
Where did you go to elementary school?
- Candy Dogood - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 3:09 pm:
===Who cares if Republicans have an ounce of credibility here?===
People who are against fire codes shouldn’t be able to complain about everything being on fire without their feet being held to the fire for being against fire codes.
When you invest considerable effort downplaying a deadly pandemic and decrying efforts to control that pandemic and the uncontrolled community spread reaches the veterans home in your community you should be forced to address the role you played in creating the situations.
We have failed our Veterans yet again, but lets not pretend it was only the Executive branch that failed them.
They’ve been failed by the state legislators and local elected officials too.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 3:11 pm:
===This is what they wanted. I don’t want to hear them once again trying to foist the consequences of their own actions onto someone else when these consequences are what they have spelled out as wanting for months now.===
“Let veterans, staff, and family die to own the Trumpkins”?
Is that how this works?
Hmm.
Also, all well said - OneMan - and thanks too
- Frank talks - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 3:33 pm:
Politically looks bad for the JB team unless they start pounding out answers right now and how it will go moving forward. Does someone have to take one for the team? Yes Can they pivot to community spread, locals who pushed against closing and mitigations? Yes only after they’ve accounted for their own faults.
Policy- a full revamp of how the Veteran’s homes are operated and handled. It shouldn’t take a Legionaires scandal to upgrade and rebuild Quincy. It shouldn’t take Covid to see if ventilation and other factors contribute to veterans dying. Why shouldn’t the Illinois veterans homes be full partnerships with the Feds? These are real policy decisions that can be looked at and debated.
- Thomas Paine - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 3:43 pm:
November 3 was a state holiday, but by Nov 4, the deputy governors over IDPH and IDVA, the chief of staff and the governor all should have known about the outbreak.
What happened between Nov. 4th and Nov 12th?
Who is the person responsible for the state’s response to the pandemic? I assume it is the Chief-of-Staff and not the director of IDPH.
Does the Chief-of-staff meet regularly with the state agencies primarily resonsible for pandemic response, or do they still have to go through the deputy governors to get to the chief of staff?
IDPH, IEMA, ISBE, IDVA, DCEO, and DCFS should all be reporting straight to the Chief-of-staff now, shouldn’t they?
- TheInvisibleMan - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 3:47 pm:
=== Is that how this works? ===
Yes. Ignoring the seriousness of a pandemic leading to the deaths of multiple elderly people in the same location is exactly ‘how it works’.
I’ve been on these comment sections castigating this nonsense gop approach for months now. Calling for local officials, specifically in LaSalle county to be held accountable for the abrogation of their public responsibilities.
That my warnings and caution has been ignored is not my problem now. It is the problem of the people who ignored it. Or are you seriously suggesting the gop is going to start coming to me first for guidance on decision making now because they see the error of their ways?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 3:52 pm:
=== === Is that how this works? ===
Yes.===
I feel sorry… for you and I feel embarrassment for you
===That my warnings and caution has been ignored is not my problem now. It is the problem of the people who ignored it.===
The veterans, staff and family are suppose to die so your righteous indignation is justified?
I dunno if gleefully seeing death as a “I told you so” to own the Trumpkins is a solid argument to wish death.
Thank you, however, for telling me who you are, I do appreciate that very much.
- TheInvisibleMan - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 4:01 pm:
OW, you are missing the point.
=== are suppose to die so your righteous indignation is justified? ===
No, they are not supposed to die. That they are is the source of my indignation.
=== gleefully seeing death ===
Where do you see glee in my responses? Are you getting confused that I’m pointing out that a certain number of elderly deaths has been stated as acceptable from the gop as a policy position? Those aren’t my words. It is me repeating the words of others in the context of the actual consequences of those policy decisions.
You want to pin this exclusively on the governor, and that’s fine because of your oft repeated mantra of governors own. Yes they do, and the most abhorrent choice the governor has made has been to be extremely lax on any enforcement for those officials openly stating they will not prosecute or enforce these health guidelines. For that choice he does own and it was a mistake for him to take that hands off approach.
However, the local atmosphere in the area is not his creation. Those who created and encouraged this lax approach until the consequences arrived at their doorstep bare the responsibility - and the governor bares the responsibility for not holding them accountable for what they have done.
- FormerParatrooper - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 4:08 pm:
There are many in the Veteran’s who served in combat. Many were shot at with machine guns, artillery, mortars, grenades among the arsenals other military forces have to bear and they survived just to die from other people’s incompetence. Neglect, Legionnaires and covid are not what such men and women should die from.
It is the head of the chain of command who is responsible for those they lead. They can delegate their authority to the lower parts of that chain, but the responsibility cannot be delegated from the head.
Governor, please do the right thing. Clean house in the agencies that are not doing what they are assigned to do. Leadership is what this State has needed, it is your opportunity to provide it.
- Thomas Paine - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 4:16 pm:
=== Is that how this works? ===
There is a scene in Platoon where the Vietnamese army is moving in seemingly from all directions. Realizing he is in an unwinnable position the commanding officer calls in for an air strike. Dues to a series of mishaps and miscommunications the airstrike seems to take forever, and by the time it finally arrives, the enemy is so far inside the wire that the US casualties are overwhelming.
Most people either blame the Vietnamese or the officer in command of the post. Few blame HQ for sending them to that position without adequate troops or support, and fewer blame the Pentagon.
The system at the Pentagon, big corporations and most large institutions is designed to insulate the people who are actually responsible for systemic failures from any blame. In Illinois, the Chief of Staff’s job is to insulate the governor, and the deputy governors’ jobs is to insulate the Chief of Staff.
Some people seem amazed that Chapa LaVia didnt call rhe governor, The system is designed to make sure Chapa La Via never calls the governor if something is wrong, so that not only he but also the COS have deniability.
As I said above, the Governor no doubt knew on Nov 4 about the outbreak. He didn’f call Chapa La Via, not to ask how her staff was doing, not to see if she needed anything, not to check on the residents firsthand. He didn’t want to know.
- Thomas Paine - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 4:32 pm:
=== Governor, please do the right thing. Clean house in the agencies that are not doing what they are assigned to do. ===
I don’t think Harry Truman would approve of this message.
Either the buck stops in the Governor’s Office or the buck stops at Chapa La Via’s office.
IDPH and the Govermor’s Office new about the outbreak November 4th.
Reinforcments arrived Nov 12, the day after Veteran’s Day holiday.
If you tell me IDPH was just stretched too thin to get there sooner, I will believe you.
Chapa La Via could have gotten IDPH there faster than six business days exactly how?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 4:43 pm:
===you are missing the point.===
Yeah, I’m not.
You’re gleefully wanting to have righteous indignation at the cost of the deaths of veterans, family, and staff.
It’s a sad and pathetic way to think about this, but you typed it, and I am glad you told me who you are. Truly.
=== Are you getting confused that I’m pointing out that a certain number of elderly deaths has been stated as acceptable from the gop as a policy position?===
No. You want certain deaths to mean something for your righteous indignation and others not. That’s an odd take. You get to decide which deaths are better to own the Trumpkins… gleefully?
Ya shoulda just left it at this;
===You want to pin this exclusively on the governor, … Yes they do===
The rest is making sure that the Trumpkins own whatever it is you want your own righteous indignation to be about everything outside the Veterans Home.
You wrote what you wrote. I feel sorry you think that, and that lives lost to own the Trumpkins on another issue is… odd.
- Thomas Paine -
If you’re comparing the preventable issues at the Veterans Home the US Policy in VietNam and the chain of command in a war thousands of miles away to deaths, 20%, in a that home to “well, you know, cover your…”
That a failure of the Governor.
A governor doesn’t want to know of deaths in a Veterans Home?
Ok.
- Thomas Paine - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 5:10 pm:
=== A governor doesn’t want to know of deaths in a Veterans Home? ===
A governor doesn’t want to be held responsible for the deaths in a Veteran’s home.
Having layers of bureaucacy insulating the governor from the veterans’ homes is how you achieve that.
It seems like a series of small mistakes led up to the outbreak. What happened between Nov. 4 and 12th is the headscratcher.
The Deputy Governors, Chief of Staff and Governor would rather cut Chapa La Via loose than tell us what chain of decisions occured in the interim. Preserving the layers of insulation is second only to prserving the governor.
I dont know why the governor has not formally tapped his chief of staff to oversee the state response, or the Lt. Governor as Trump did. But someone needs to be in charge and it can’t be Ezike, she has her hands full running her own agency.
- Bruce( no not him) - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 5:16 pm:
This is a disaster that needed to be dealt with on day 1 or as soon as possible. Not day 11. Now, that time is past, it’s time to step up and take responsibility and move forward decisively. Blame time is past. Prove that you care about the Veterans and fix this. Blame can come after.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 5:23 pm:
=== A governor doesn’t want to be held responsible for the deaths in a Veteran’s home.===
Tell that to Bruce Rauner.
The rest? The rest is trying to seem winning to a point of “plausible deniability” is at play… but tell that to the 20%
I don’t care about a chain of command, because the families planning funerals don’t care.
Same with Rauner and his handling.
- OneMan - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 5:26 pm:
== However, the local atmosphere in the area is not his creation. Those who created and encouraged this lax approach until the consequences arrived at their doorstep bare the responsibility - and the governor bares the responsibility for not holding them accountable for what they have
done. ==
The ‘local atmosphere’ is not the creation of a couple of Republican state reps either.
Regardless the ‘local atmosphere’ ends at the front door. Failing to use the correct hand sanitizer, that isn’t ‘local atmosphere’, failing to have a clear policy about if someone testing positive should be coming to work isn’t ‘local atmosphere’.
As Rich points out, once it got in the door, it is the state’s responsibility to deal with it.
The thing is you need to figure out what went right and what went wrong and it needs to be done now and people need to know there are consequences.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 5:31 pm:
=== Regardless the ‘local atmosphere’ ends at the front door. Failing to use the correct hand sanitizer, that isn’t ‘local atmosphere’, failing to have a clear policy about if someone testing positive should be coming to work isn’t ‘local atmosphere’.
As Rich points out, once it got in the door, it is the state’s responsibility to deal with it.
The thing is you need to figure out what went right and what went wrong and it needs to be done now and people need to know there are consequences.===
This is top choice. This is understanding.
This is not grasping what this post is about;
“Let veterans, staff, and family die to own the Trumpkins”?
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 6:16 pm:
There is an outside investigation by the inspector general of DHS into whether there was any misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance.
They wanted someone from outside of IDPH and IDVA, and they got that person.
We should see the results of that independent investigation before we start demanding people’s heads, shouldn’t we?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 6:18 pm:
=== We should see the results…===
The deaths themselves aren’t sufficient?
- Adjutant - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 6:42 pm:
IVHL Failures (short list)
- Lack of leadership (starting at Chapa LaVia)
- Incompetent CoS, Home Administrator
- Inadequate processes to prevent COVID
- Weak housekeeping department leader
- They removed a key piece to the Home back in September
- IVHL management vs the union rhetoric cost veterans lives
- FormerParatrooper - Monday, Nov 30, 20 @ 9:43 pm:
Thomas Paine. My post does not give the Governor a pass. I stated responsibility cannot be delegated. He can’t be fired, but as OW states, Governors own. He can clean up the agencies that need cleaned. Even Harry Truman took action when those below him failed retaining responsibility. That is all the Governor is asked to do, take action. We need people to take seriously the duties they elected and appointed to do.