ALBANY COUNTY — Ethics complaints by an independent pharmacist regarding the relationship between Albany County and Genoa Healthcare have been found to have no merit, according to findings from the county’s ethics commission. 

Genoa was awarded a contract by the county to operate an in-house pharmacy in 2019, raising the ire of several local pharmacists. One of these pharmacists, Zarina Jalal, filed the complaints that the commission investigated.

The commission hired former county public defender Cynthia Preiser to handle the investigation, which assessed whether the county:

— Failed to adhere to its own requests-for-proposal policy while soliciting an in-house pharmacy;

— Tailored the proposal to Genoa;

— Violated ethics law by referring to Genoa the daughter of former Department of Mental Health Deputy Director Susan Daley as the preferred hire for the pharmacy manager position;

— Inappropriately advertised on behalf of Genoa by mailing out a letter on Albany County letterhead notifying patients of Genoa’s on-site location; and

— Attempted to funnel clients to Genoa through the use of prior authorizations. 

Altogether, the commission wrote, there were no ethical violations on any of the counts based on Preiser’s investigation, which included reviewing laws and meeting videos, and meetings with “members of the Commission and multiple witnesses.” 

The determination claimed that, with regard to the hiring of Daley’s daughter by Genoa, “the pharmacist hired had a background in working with the mental health community and was already working for Genoa in another location,”; and, with regard to the letter, that “none of the parties involved had a financial interest in Genoa.”

There was little explanation for the other determinations, stating simply that the county followed its own policies, and that “no violations were found” surrounding the use of prior authorizations. 

Despite these findings, it appears that, at the very least, Daley did not, as required by the county’s ethics law, file a transactional disclosure form with the commission after telling a Genoa executive that she had “recused myself from the interview process” when naming her daughter as the preferred pharmacist for the on-site location. 

Daley, who has since retired, could not be reached for comment. 

When The Enterprise tried to request that disclosure in April through a Freedom of Information Law request, the county’s FOIL officer responded that no such record was identified. 

The county ethics law states that county officers and employees are not allowed to “take or fail to take any official action, in a manner which he/she knows or has reason to know may result in a personal financial benefit, not shared with a substantial segment of the population of the County,” for a relative, “or the employer or the business of a relative.”

When officials recuse themselves for that reason, they must “promptly file with the Ethics Commission a signed statement disclosing the nature and extent of the prohibited action or, if a member of a board, shall state that information upon the public record of the board.”

Further, an email obtained through a FOIL request by Jalal shows that a candidate for the position who was not Daley’s daughter had thanked Daley for “taking the time to meet with me regarding the position of Genoa site manager,” going on to explain how they would be an asset to the county. 

Daley had told a Genoa contact in an email obtained through a FOIL request that she “excused myself from the interview process. Dr. Thomas Qualtere our medical director and Cindy Hoffman our Associate Director of Clinical services conducted the interviews.”

Ethics commission chairman Gerard Maney did not respond to an Enterprise inquiry. Hoffman and Qualtere also did not respond when asked whether Daley was present for any of the interviews. The candidate who sent the email could not be reached.

Jalal told The Enterprise this month that she’s unsatisfied with the committee’s report. 

Of the notice the county sent out to residents about Genoa’s on-site location, Jalal referred to a section of Albany County Ethics Law that says “A County officer or employee and any former County officer or employee shall not disclose any confidential information or use any such confidential information to further the personal or pecuniary interests of any person.”

Albany County Department of Mental Health Director Stephen Giordano told The Enterprise in April that the letter was intended to make residents aware of the option during the COVID-19 pandemic when they would be less likely to see it by chance in person, not to promote it. 

He also said that the people who put together the mailings were covered under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, so any confidential information like names and addresses stayed within the appropriate boundaries. 

The Enterprise’s inquiry to Maney included questions regarding Jalal’s grievances with the determination and requested an explanation for some of the findings.