One Brooklyn Health Board Member and Hon. Annette Robinson Sue OBH Board for Malfeasance

By Mary Alice Miller
Maurice Reid, Board Member of One Brooklyn Health System, and Honorable Annette Robinson have sued to ask the New York State Supreme Court to dissolve and/or remove the Board of Directors of OBHS for collective malfeasance and negligence in the performance of their duties.
The lawsuit also asks the court to vacate actions taken by the Board in violation of directives set forth in OBHS foundational documents. These actions presumably include the decision not to renew the contract of OBH CEO LaRay Brown.
OBHS Chairman Alexander Rovt is specifically named in the lawsuit for removal due to a “conflict of interest and his personal enrichment of individual Board members serving on the Board of Directors of OBHS.

Member of the Board of Directors of OBHS Maurice Reid stated in an affidavit supporting Show Cause that he is concerned about a “violation of trust” that has harmed and will harm members of OBHS. That violation of trust includes what Reid calls a “Conflict of Interest” arising from OBHS Chairman Rovt also serving as Vice Chairman of Maimodines Board. Maimodines Hospital is in financial dire straits, yet Rovt has not sought to remove the CEO of Maimodines.
Reid is the founder and former CEO of Brownsville Family Services, a federally qualified health care center.
Reid stated that Chairman Rovt “publicly maligned CEO Brown in public statements attributed to him in Politico and other outlets that CEO Brown or those under her had mismanaged the funds of OBHS without a scintilla of evidence.” Those published allegations against Brown have led to expressions of concern to Reid “that their hospital may be closed and/or closing.”
Reid added that “The Chairman’s public charge of ‘mismanagement’ against the CEO was ‘reckless’ and injured the reputation of the members of the finance committee (Michael Nairne) and other Board members (Maurice Reid) who commissioned an outside audit (KPMG Report) that found no mismanagement at OBHS.”
Attorney William T. Martin said in a statement in support of Show Cause that the “present Board and its Chairman Rovt have not taken any credible steps to propose a new set of By-Laws” and has “failed to propound criteria for Board membership and Conflict of Interest rules” as set forth in the Northwell Health study that recommended the formation of One Brooklyn Health.

Martin alleges that “Chairman Rovt has lavished expensive perks on a member of the Board” which has “created a negative impression (amongst other Board members) and favoritism which may affect the independence of the Board.” Martin alleges that “Rovt has used his finances to underwrite several trips by Board Members for their personal and business affairs,” including the possibility of being “unduly influenced or coopted by a ride on Rovt’s private jet.”
“Contrary to the OBHS foundational documents, only two of the board members are from areas covered by OBHS,” stated Martin in the document. The Northwell Health study directed that individual members of the Board of Directors have “firsthand knowledge about the communities that it serves.”
In addition, Attorney Martin stated, “In public statements attributed to Rovt by Politico” CEO LaRay Brown’s contract was not being renewed because of her “mismanagement and overspending on wages.” The Politico article also stated, “Rovt claimed the board recently found the system has a more than $600 million deficit.”
Published reports in Crain’s New York Business insinuate that the OBHS Board voted not to renew CEO LaRay Brown’s contract after Rovt alleged in Politico and other media outlets that Brown was responsible for a $600 million deficit in OBH and that those published reports may have been used to justify the vote not to renew Brown’s contract.
Martin said that Rovt’s statements to Politico “held OBHS up to ridicule” and were “reckless and unsupported by any facts.”

In response to Rovt’s statements to media outlets, members of the OBHS finance committee hired KPMG, an outside audit firm, to conduct an audit of OBHS financials. Contrary to Rovt’s assertions, the KPMG audit showed a tremendous decline in OBHS’s net deficit. Specifically, the KPMG report found the “Net Deficit at the beginning of 2020 was $419,731; Net Deficit at the end of 2021 was $425,220; and the Net Deficit at the end of 2022 was $298,168.”
The Honorable Annette Robinson, a former member of the New York City Council and a former member of the New York State Assembly, stated in an affidavit in support to Show Cause that “during my tenure as an elected member of the NY State Assembly it was determined that the OBHS was negatively impacted by a state finance formula that discriminated against Safety Net Hospitals who serve poor, working poor, and working-class patients via Medicaid. By way of contrast, Hospitals serving wealthy Medicare patients secure disproportionate funding that is on average 60% more than the state resources appropriated to OBHS and other Safety Net Hospitals serving poor, working poor, and working-class patients.”
“As a patient of the OBHS network,” Annette Robinson stated, “I was particularly alarmed and aggrieved when told that the system that I had come to rely upon was ‘mismanaged’.” Further, Robinson stated that “the alleged charge of ‘mismanagement’ has contributed to undercutting public confidence in the OBHS, a charitable non-profit institution that depends on the confidence originating from incumbent and potential patients.”
Robinson contends that “Chairman Rovt has developed a fiefdom amongst members of the Board and has actually enriched member(s) of the Board with personal emoluments and unilaterally picking Board members to fill vacant positions.”
Currently, the 19 member Board has only four minorities, two of the present Board actually live within the geographic area of OBHS.