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He stands by his Brann.
Mayor de Blasio on Monday said Correction Department Commissioner Cynthia Brann has been working behind the scenes during the coronavirus pandemic despite concerns raised by the correction officers’ union and City Council insiders who all say she has been visibly absent during the COVID-19 outbreak at Rikers Island.
“She’s been in the middle of all this and leading through all this. So, whether she is, you know, a public face all the time or not — I just don’t know how and when she addresses the press — but I can see her work and (I am) very, very sure it’s effective,” Hizzoner said during a Monday press briefing.
“(I) certainly want to make sure if she’s got something that she wants to say publicly she gets the opportunity to do it,” he added. “But that’s why … I’m convinced, having watched what’s happened, that the work that we need done is being done.”
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, Public Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Dr. Oxiris Barbot and the heads of other city agencies have all taken part in the mayor’s press briefings.
The Daily News has sent multiple emails to the Correction Department requesting interviews with Brann, who has yet to respond.
Twenty-seven City Council members called de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo last week to identify a point person that can coordinate a multi-agency response to COVID-19 at Rikers Island. As of Monday, 587 Correction Department staffers and 323 inmates had tested positive for coronavirus. So far, nine staffers have died from the disease.
Over the weekend, a “Missing Person” poster featuring a photo of Brann circulated on correction officer Facebook forums with the words, “If you have any information call a New York City Department of Correction officer.”
“Given the leadership void we’re dealing with in the DOC … it’s imperative that the DOC immediately establish a COVID-19 Task Force to address the daily issues arising from this pandemic and to communicate, more effectively, a coordinated response,” said Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association President Elias Husamudeen.
“The city, the state, the federal government all have COVID-19 Task Forces. We are an agency with a $1 billion budget. Why don’t we have one?”
In a statement, DOC spokesman Peter Thorne said Brann was “working tirelessly to keep all those in our facilities safe throughout this unprecedented health crisis. Under her leadership, the department has enacted a robust COVID-19 response plan to fully enforce social distancing measures and heighten sanitization in all of our facilities. She is doing everything she can to support all members of this department who are doing an heroic job under extraordinary circumstances, and any claim otherwise is false.”
Latest coronavirus updates: Click here for our roundup of the most important developments from NYC and around the world.