NUMC diagnosis: Out of order

Daily Point

Hospital board meeting gets ill

By all accounts, the first segment of Wednesday evening’s Nassau University Medical Center board meeting was surprisingly calm and business was conducted smoothly.

But once in executive session, things turned ugly. That’s more the norm of late, as the board has been consumed with a power struggle brought on by County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s defeat of Laura Curran in November.

Several of the Democratic members, led by Jason Abelove and Lisa Daniels, argued that NUMC executive vice president, chief legal officer and general counsel Meg Ryan should be dismissed.

“Numerous things happened with respect to Ms. Ryan’s performance that, in the view of many members of the board, were negligent in her performance for the hospital and constituted malpractice,” Abelove told The Point Thursday.

But board chairman Matthew Bruderman reportedly did not want the issue considered Thursday, arguing to postpone the move to at least have more of a process for considering Ryan’s dismissal. But when Ryan’s detractors would not relent, according to the meeting minutes, Bruderman “left the meeting.” The minutes go on to say, “Within minutes of Bruderman leaving the Zoom link was cut.”

After two members were reached by telephone, a quorum was reestablished, Daniels was voted acting chair, and Abelove was voted acting secretary.

Then, the minutes say, “Bruderman returned to the meeting. He announced that he was declaring the meeting closed without a vote, banged his gavel and left the meeting. Chairman Bruderman was observed outside the conference room for the remainder of the meeting.”

Abelove then made a motion to dismiss Ryan, for cause, effective immediately, which passed.

“Bruderman tried to shut down the meeting without a motion or a second, and someone pulled the plug on our Zoom,” said Edward Farbenblum, still serving on the board after Blakeman removed him from the chairmanship. “It was all highly irregular.”

Ryan did not return calls seeking comment.

But in a surprising twist, the dismissal was made possible by two Blakeman allies, Bobby Kalotee and Steve Cohn, staying to maintain a quorum, even as Bruderman and a few other Republicans left. Cohn and Kalotee voted against the dismissal, but the Democrats did not need their votes, merely their attendance.

Asked to comment by The Point, Blakeman responded in a text message: “Certain trustees appointed by Governor Hochul and former County Executive Laura Curran in a blatantly political move attempted to fire longtime counsel to NUMC Meg Ryan who enjoyed broad bipartisan support, without consulting a lawyer or reviewing the terms of her contract. Their action is not legal and violates their fiduciary responsibilities to the board.” Blakeman said he is considering “a wide range of options to thwart this blatantly political move in furtherance of the Democrat plan to close the hospital.”

In other words, tune in again soon for another episode of Nassau’s long-running reality show: “Public-Mission Hospital!”

— Lane Filler @lanefiller

Talking Point

Blue, red and green

A Long Island moment of sorts took place during a State Assembly floor debate on a recycling bill the week before last, the kind of moment that may prove instructive about New York’s green initiatives of the future.

The issue at hand was a bill from Setauket Democrat Steve Englebright, chairman of the Committee on Environmental Conservation, which would establish as a state goal to “source reduce, reuse, recycle, or compost no less than eighty-five percent of the solid waste generated by the year 2032.”

The effort is not a mandate, nor does it include penalties. Other pending bills that change the way we recycle and reuse would be tools to help get NY to this goal. But Englebright argued that other jurisdictions already have goals like this, and cited the infamous itinerant Long Island garbage barge of 1987 to show that trash has long been a New York problem.

Then, according to video of the session, two upstate Republicans rose to trash the legislation, with criticism about it being too “one size fits all” or seeming “very ambitious to me.”

Before the typical partisan lines could get established, however, Riverhead Republican Jodi Giglio rose to Englebright’s defense with LI-specific arguments. She cited the slated-for-closure Brookhaven Town landfill and the troubling cost of getting garbage off the Island as reasons to support the measure, which she called a “noble goal.”

It “changed the tenor of the debate,” said Englebright counsel Stephen Liss.

It could be that the environment is more bipartisan on Long Island, bound by shorelines, subsisting on a lone aquifer, and reveling in natural beauty. Giglio can often be heard criticizing Democrats on bail reform and COVID-19 restrictions, but she told The Point on Thursday that the garbage issue was well-known to her as she served as a liaison for sanitation while a member of the Riverhead Town board.

Long Island Republicans Keith Brown and Michael Fitzpatrick also rose in support of the Englebright recycling goal, with Fitzpatrick noting he goes back “a long way on this issue” and adding that “packaging is the real problem.”

More cooperation could be coming. The bill, which is sponsored in the Senate by Levittown’s Kevin Thomas, ended up passing the Assembly 147-1.

— Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Spot the difference

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/nationalcartoons

Puzzle Point

In the news

Welcome to this week’s news quiz, based on recent events. As usual, provide the answer for each clue, one letter per blank. The first letter of each answer, taken in order, spells the name of the Republican politician who in remarking that the political prospects for the party this election year are better than they were even in 1994, said, “From an atmospheric point of view, it’s a perfect storm of problems for the Democrats. How could you screw this up? It’s actually possible. And we’ve had some experience with that in the past … You can’t nominate somebody who’s just sort of unacceptable to a broader group of people and win.”

A link to the answers appears below.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Devastated Ukrainian city that appears to be the principal target of increasing Russian aggression in the eastern part of Ukraine.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Numerous polls show this is voters’ top concern heading into the 2022 midterms.

_ _ _ Number of people shot in the Brooklyn subway attack.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ New York City university that brought back a mask mandate after a fourfold rise in COVID-19 cases on campus.

_ _ _ _ Type of raptor wreaking havoc in Northport by swooping down on and attacking people, seven of whom have required medical attention.

_ _ _ _      _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Former top Trump aide who was removed from the voting rolls in North Carolina because he voted in Virginia in 2021.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Restaurant chain that announced plans to open its first drive-thru lanes on Long Island in two new restaurants in Westbury and Deer Park.

_ _ _ _      _ _ _ _ _ _ _      _ _. Oscar-winning “Jerry Maguire” actor who pleaded guilty to forcibly touching a woman in a Manhattan nightclub in 2018.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said Republicans will no longer seek to repeal this federal health care program.

_ _ _ _ _ _ Number of federal judicial nominees made by President Joe Biden, after another five were announced this week.

_ _ _ _ One of two entities that will pay the Bethpage Water District $49 million to treat groundwater contamination it was responsible for causing.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ President Joe Biden announced a waiver to allow the summertime sale in some places of a gasoline mixed with 15% of this product.

_ _ _ _      _ _ _ _ _ One of three Long Island municipalities named by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli as being susceptible to fiscal stress.

_ _ _ _ _ _ One of four Eastern European nations whose leaders visited Kyiv and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Click here for the answers to the clued words and to the identity of the mystery Republican politician.

— Michael Dobie @mwdobie

Programming Point

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