Cuomo proposes watchdog agency for disabled

ALBANY -- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo yesterday proposed the creation of a new state agency to better protect about a million New Yorkers with disabilities and special needs under state-funded care.

The administration offered legislation that would establish a new special prosecutor and inspector general, with more than 400 staff, to oversee six state agencies and their contractors.

The bill would create a single point for reporting and screening abuse allegations for those in residential care and day programs. It would have a hotline, statewide incident database and a list of employees banned from working with the disabled because of abusive behavior.

"As a starting point, what every person who is in a human service facility in this state deserves, while we're striving for the best, is a threshold," Cuomo told a room packed with disabled people and advocates who gave him a standing ovation. "They deserve to be safe. They deserve human dignity," he said.

There were more than 10,000 alleged abuse reports last year, according to the governor's office.

Assemb. Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) spoke at the news conference about the abuse his child suffered at a facility for the developmentally disabled.

"My special child almost was starved to death, was scalded in a hot tub," Weisenberg said. "When my special child was abused I went through the system like everybody else."

Weisenberg held up a heavily redacted copy of a report about an incident three years ago involving his child Ricky, now 54.

"You can't see anything other than the fact my child was abused," he said. He said he told police and the district attorney's office but, "Nothing happened." With Ted Phillips