Cuomo vaccine czar Larry Schwartz steps down a day after losing waiver

ALBANY — Larry Schwartz, one of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s most trusted advisers, stepped down Thursday from his role as New York’s "vaccine czar" a day after state lawmakers acted to make him subject to financial disclosure, a lobbying ban and other provisions of the state’s public officers’ law.

The Cuomo administration said Schwartz had planned to leave in May, with supplies of the coronavirus vaccine becoming widely available.

A former secretary to the governor, Schwartz returned to the administration in a voluntary capacity 13 months ago to help Cuomo manage the pandemic.

During his tenure in the pandemic post, Schwartz received praise from Cuomo for organizing hospital capacity and the vaccine rollout.

But he was criticized by local government officials for a top-down style that they said ignored county vaccination plans and threatened counties with fines.

Also, an official complaint was filed about Schwartz serving in the vaccine role while also making calls to gauge political support for an embattled governor who is facing multiple investigations. The complaint remains under investigation.

Some Democrats said they viewed the calls as an implicit threat that their local vaccine supplies might be cut off if they didn't support the administration.

Schwartz has said that he did nothing wrong and that his calls about political support had no link to vaccine distribution.

"My plan was always to step down in my volunteer capacity over the next few weeks as we achieved certain milestones. As a lifelong resident, I take pride in helping my fellow New Yorkers," Schwartz said in a statement distributed by the Cuomo administration.

Cuomo aide Rich Azzopardi said Schwartz "volunteered and worked 16-hour days to help manage New York's pandemic response, from creating our hospital surge and flex program to securing lifesaving PPE and medical supplies to launching our contact tracing program to the vaccine roll out. And now that our vaccine distribution network is fully established he had been planning to leave in the next few weeks."

The New York Times first reported Schwartz's departure.

Schwartz currently is an executive for an airport concession company, a job he took after leaving the Cuomo administration in 2015.

Schwartz also serves as a Cuomo appointee to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board.

Schwartz returned to the administration when the pandemic hit last spring.

Cuomo had waived a requirement that would have made Schwartz subject to the state public officers’ law.

The State Legislature repealed that waiver Wednesday, effective immediately.

Earlier this year, leading Democrats from around the state called for Cuomo to resign amid separate investigations of sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo and his administration's handling of nursing homes and the coronavirus.