Sussex County: Murphy is ducking our requests concerning scores of Andover Subacute COVID-19 deaths

NEWTON, N.J. – 82 residents and 2 employees of the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center died last spring during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey. On Easter Sunday, 17 bodies were discovered on site in an improvised morgue.

Sussex County filed two OPRA (Open Public Records Act) requests in May in an attempt to get to the bottom of what happened at the state-regulated facility inside of its county boundaries. The county is still waiting for an answer.

On Wednesday, the county government expressed its frustration in a statement outlining the long and unsatisfactory history of its OPRA requests.

“If this were a municipality or a county, we’d be censured for failure to provide the requested information,” said Sussex County Freeholder Herbert Yardley. “It is outrageous the State hasn’t given us the reports about Andover Subacute.”

The county say it made its requests on May 1st and May 12th. The documents requested included all communications the State and Sussex County and proof of civil penalties payments allegedly made by the facility prior to the pandemic. 

“On June 13, Raganelli [Genevieve – the Department of Health’s OPRA point person] responded, stating Kelly’s May 12 request had been closed, because she claimed it was sent to the incorrect office within the Department of Health, which she said was then forwarded to her in the correct office. She then asked for more time through June 29 to fulfill the requests made,” the county explained in its press release. “On June 24, she made similar allegations that the May 1 request had been re-routed to her, but rather than fulfilling the request, Raganelli directed Kelly to the State’s website, where she said he could look up the information he requested.”

After considerable back-and-forth, the State’s requested third extension until August 19th has long since lapsed with no response to the original demand for documents.

Requesters are supposed to receive an OPRA inquiry response no later than seven business days after the custodian is in receipt of the request. While extensions are common, the extraordinary time lapse experienced by Sussex County is a problem unique to the Murphy Administration.

“IT’S BEEN SIX MONTHS,” Deputy Freeholder Director Dawn Fantasia complained on Facebook. “Governor Phil Murphy, when you say “Jersey Strong”, do you mean “Jersey Strong-arm”, as in strong-arming your OPRA custodian of New Jersey’s Department of Health, Genevieve Raganelli, from adhering to the LAW? What kind of game are you playing here? Why won’t the New Jersey Department of Health comply and release the records regarding Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center to the County of Sussex? DOZENS OF OUR PEOPLE DIED INSIDE THERE. This, folks, is your NJ Democrat “leadership”. Flat-out corrupt, and nauseating.”

Even the notoriously far-Left NJ.com editorial board has criticized the Murphy Administration practice of using COVID-19 as an excuse to duck otherwise valid OPRA requests.

New Jersey has had the country’s second worst nursing home death rate second only to Massachusetts.

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