With the markets in the doldrums and consumers holding tightly onto the money in their wallets, it seems all we need to get the economy flowing again, is to bring back the former state health commissioner, Antonia Novello. Novello, according to a just-released report from the state inspector general’s office, was not only the health commissioner during the Pataki administration and the U.S. Surgeon General under Pres. George H. W. Bush, she may as well have held the title state “Commissioner of Shopping.”

 

As Inspector general Joseph Fisch noted in the report, which he forwarded to the Albany County District Attorney, Novello spent much of her time in office shopping, ordering underlings to go shopping for her during work hours, or thinking about shopping. 

“Novello’s fondness for shopping was so well known that employees in the office would give her sales fliers or coupons to encourage her to leave the office so that they would not have to work late,” the report said. 

According to the report, Novello went beyond the rudimentary abuse of employees’ time, sending them to shop for groceries and pick up dry cleaning and such. When Novello traveled from Albany to Manhattan, she’d routinely make her driver stop and wait at the Woodbury Commons outlet center while she perused the bargains. She even had a medicaid fraud investigator in her department drive her to Macy’s and Saks—(Hello? He’s a FRAUD investigator.)  

The report says that Novello had state employees work more than 2,500 hours in overtime in order to perform personal services for her (not all were shopping related, she had them drive for her and her family, too.) Those overtime hours cost the state $48,000.

It is unclear why the information in the report is coming to light now, two years after Novella left office. But If the information in the inspector general’s report is confirmed in a courtroom, perhaps we should bring Novello back to Albany from Florida, where she works at the Disney Children’s Hospital in Orlando, and let her spend (on her own time, of course). That would give the New York economy the stimulus it needs.

Photo of Former state health commission Antonia Novello, by Adam Houston/Journal News