Republican Council Candidate Calls for Disclosure of Hamilton Covid-19 Nursing Home Plan

Calls Mayor Jeff Martin’s efforts “Concerning” in the face of a death rate

that at one point was DOUBLE that of Trenton

Following media reports of a significant number of Covid-19 cases and many tragic
deaths in Hamilton nursing homes, Republican Candidate for Hamilton Council David
Maher called for an aggressive effort to “educate the public as to Mayor Jeff
Martin’s plans to address the disturbing fact that Hamilton’s Covid-19 mortality rate
has, at times, more than doubled that of our neighbor Trenton.”

Most notable is Mayor Martin’s media response that the nursing home cases are a
“state problem” and not in his jurisdiction. Mr. Maher pointed to former Mayor Glen
Gilmore’s response to Anthrax, as it struck the Hamilton post office. “Mayor Gilmore
did not say it was a Federal government issue,” said Maher. Gilmore took the bull by
the horns and found Cipro (the antibiotic to treat Anthrax) and raised the profile of
the issue to protect Hamiltonians.” Mayor Martin punted responsibility of our most
treasured senior citizens and instead decided to be photographed handing face
masks out to pizza parlor owners.”

Maher said the Township Health Department response should be
transparent, especially given the politically motivated move by Martin, during his
election campaign, to move the Health Department under the Township Council to
embarrass then-Mayor Kelly Yaede.
Martin, as Council President, led the charge to move Health Department operations
to Council oversight and sacked the Health Director, who had years of experience, to
include H1N1 outbreak, and many other outbreak, in favor of his current pick with
no experience.

“Martin’s political move to fire a health director with years of experience in crisis
management because of poor paperwork while euthanizing several dozen dogs (at
the owners request) was blatantly political.” said Maher. He compounded this by
hiring a political hack who has not even done a single health inspection before
getting the job as Health Director,” “These actions call into question whether Mayor
Martin has set Hamilton up for this tragic outcome.”

Maher closed by reiterating that Hamilton Council should “aggressively”
communicate its actions and plans to remediate the “Hamilton Nursing Home
Outbreak” and strengthen the anemic leadership by Hamilton’s inexperienced
Health Director and his supervisor, the Hamilton Council.

“Martin needs to be held accountable for punting leadership responsibility to the
state and allowing Hamilton’s Council to ignore the needs of our nursing home
residents and staff while Mayor Martin handed out masks to local pizza parlors,”
stated Maher.