Kathy Clown relinquishes her emergency autocrat powers

NY Post

 

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday she will not extend the COVID-19 state of emergency amid falling caseloads and rising criticism of her use of the powers ahead of the Nov. 8 election that has seen Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin close the gap on her once-big lead.

The incumbent Democrat — who is seeking to be elected to the executive chamber for the first time since taking over after Andrew Cuomo stepped down last year — has renewed two executive orders each month since first issuing them as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus hit the state late last year.

While an order giving hospitals more leeway to hire health care staff has been relatively uncontroversial, the same cannot be said about Hochul suspending state contract rules that have led to accusations of pay-to-play politics involving the governor. 

 

Stringer sues the Blaz for abusing emergency powers

 

 NY Post

Comptroller Scott Stringer decried Mayor Bill de Blasio’s spending of $6.9 billion worth of fast-tracked city contracts, while announcing Tuesday he’d taken the mayor to court to put a stop to the “unacceptable” practice enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The comptroller’s lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, is aimed at bringing back procurement laws and regulations that mandate comptroller oversight on City Hall’s spending — regulations that have been suspended since March 2020.

“This mayor does not have a great track record on transparency, [Freedom of Information Law], and good government, and I’ll be damned if we’re going to walk out on December 31 with $7 billion truly unaccounted for,” Stringer said at a press conference in Lower Manhattan.

“We can’t let this man’s hubris outlast the pandemic, or even his mayoralty,” said Stringer, who in June received just five percent of first-choice votes in his failed bid to succeed de Blasio.

On March 16, 2020 — just before the COVID-19 pandemic reached its peak in New York City — de Blasio signed an executive order that put a pause on regular procurement rules, with the aim of expediting the process with which the city buys goods and services during the emergency.

But as the Big Apple bounces back from the pandemic’s throes, Stringer wants to bring back normal checks and balances on city spending.

“The mayor has extended the procurement emergency powers more than 100 times, including as recently as last week, allowing the city to continue to spend without the oversight that my office is charter mandated to provide,” said Stringer on Tuesday. “People, this is unacceptable.”

“We’re gonna get to the bottom of this,” the city’s top bean counter vowed. 

 It's taking Stringer 14 months to get to the bottom of this, and since then the Blaz has made his job wholly irrelevant. What a wimp.

Cuomo's COVID tyranny is about to end

 

Bloomberg

 New York legislative leaders announced an agreement Tuesday to curb pandemic-related emergency powers granted to Governor Andrew Cuomo last year, in the latest blow to his tenure amid growing calls for him to resign over dual scandals.

The legislature will likely act on the bill as soon as Friday, Democratic Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner said Tuesday in a Twitter post. The measure would repeal the extraordinary powers they gave Cuomo at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, limiting his directives to those “necessary to reduce the spread or increase vaccinations.” On a broader level, it would require the governor to provide online reporting on all executive orders, increasing transparency, Woerner wrote.

Cuomo, 63, a third-term Democrat, is facing investigations over accusations from three women of inappropriate behavior, and questions over whether his administration purposely concealed data on Covid-19 deaths of nursing-home residents. Several Democratic lawmakers have called on the governor to step down, while others have suggested impeachment.

 A call to his office for comment on the agreement wasn’t returned.