Hands Off One Brooklyn Health System!

Dear Governor Hochul,
We are writing this letter in our capacity as women leaders and organizers, representing the Central and East Brooklyn communities, the constituency who made an extraordinary effort to secure your electoral victory to serve as the first woman Governor of New York State.
We are the faith leaders, union members, community empowerment actors, academicians, entrepreneurs, political activists, and professionals who give life to the civic infrastructure of Central and East Brooklyn.
Moreover, we are the women who struggle to protect, and sustain the healthcare institutions that are intended to service our immediate families and the larger Central and East Brooklyn neighborhoods.
To this end, we have cosigned this appeal to secure your immediate intervention, concerning the recent actions of Mr. Alexander Rovt, the acting chairperson of the One Brooklyn Health System, a person who has engaged in a series of reckless and disrespectful practices that have the potential to jeopardize the future of the OBHS system and better healthcare for our families.

Specifically, we will cite the following problematic behavior that should enact your immediate removal of Mr. Rovt from the OBHS board:
Mr. Rovt has opposed resigning from the OBHS board, even though he currently serves as the Vice President of the Maimonides board. His willful negligence undermines the need to apply full attention to the challenges facing OBHS.
Mr Rovt refuses to enact term limits for the chairperson and other executive offices. This obdurate behavior has contributed to an anti-democratic culture on the board that creates stasis in policy making, at a time when OBHS requires dynamic and forward-thinking leadership.
Mr Rovt has opposed efforts to create a criteria for membership on the OBHS board. This autocratic action will undermine efforts to ensure that current and future board members have the competencies needed to promote health equity via a service that will incorporate a true representation of Central and East Brooklyn communities. We proclaim that this effort must include racial, ethnic, age, sex, gender, religious, and class diversity. Mr. Rovt’s ignoble practice counters this imperative and is exemplified by the notorious appointment of a Rudy Giuliani ally, who recently cast a vote that destabilizes senior staff and OBHS operations.
Mr. Rovt has delayed enacting new by-laws that must incorporate a vision, mission, goals, and actionable objectives that will enable patients, senior management, and staff (1199 and NYSNA) to operationalize the benefits of health equity.

Finally, Mr. Rovt has recently enacted an incompetent and reckless personnel practice that may leave OBHS rudderless just as it is transitioning from the dangers inherent in the COVID crisis and must confront the healthcare disparities that challenge Safety Net Hospitals.
Consequently, we urge you to immediately empower State Attorney General Letitia James to serve as an ex-official member of the OBHS board. This prudent intervention will enable the Attorney General’s Charities Division to orchestrate a judicial review and enactment of new by-laws, that will be in the interests of the Central and East Brooklyn communities.
Again, we are the women who invested enormous efforts to secure your electoral victory, and we beseech you to support our urgent appeal that will enable the OBHS board and staff to provide unfettered service benefiting our families health equity imperatives.
Sincerely,
Annette Robinson
Assemblywoman Stefani Zinerman
Esmeralda Simmons
Marilyn Reid
Coraminita Mahr
Michelle Ned
Jeanette Harper
Paulette Forbes

• 2000 others from Central
  and East Brooklyn.

BP Reynoso’s Statement

“One Brooklyn Health (OBH) was built on transparency and collaboration, yet the Board’s approach to LaRay Brown’s removal flies in the face of OBH’s foundational values,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. “The healthcare workers who deliver on OBH’s vision of a healthy Brooklyn deserve transparency, accountability, and a say in who is at the system’s helm – as do the people the system serves. I stand with 1199SEIU, The New York State Nurses Association, The Committee of Interns and Residents, OBH staff, and community leaders in calling on the State to get involved in establishing transparency and accountability from top to bottom within OBH. Without intervention, OBH will not be able to deliver quality care to Brooklyn residents.”