December 26, 2006

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

Dennis Whalen, Spitzer's deputy secretary for health.

We're pretty much nonpartisan and suspicious in our perspective towards elected officials: we've seen plenty of good and bad folks in both major political parties. But we've been heartened by the quality of many of the new staff hired by incoming Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Two cases in point: Dennis Whalen and David Hansell were named to top Spitzer spots this week, and both have strong track records on HIV/AIDS and disability policy that make them good candidates to be AIDS champions in Albany.

Whalen has been in the number-two spot (Executive Deputy Commissioner) at NYSDOH for about a decade, and has fought hard on the inside for smart and compassionate HIV/AIDS policies and funding. He's known as a ninja-class bureaucrat, and those insider skills have made a real difference during the Pataki administration in governmental battles large and small.

Spitzer named Whalen to serve as deputy secretary for health. He'll have an office a few doors down from the Governor, and he'll be the go-to guy for promised initiatives on Medicaid reform, hospital restructuring, and universal health care.

Hansell will be the new Commissioner of the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA). He worked on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic at GMHC during some very hard years (88-94) and helped to establish important private and public systems of care as an advocate and adviser.

He's recently served as chief of staff at the New York City Human Resources Administration, working with Commissioner Verna Eggleston on a broad range of public benefit, job training, health care and disability policies and programs.

Advocates - including Housing Works - have certainly had disagreements and even hard-pitched battles with Hansell over the years. But the truth is that he's worked with poor people, with people with disabilities, and with thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS, and he's been shaped and driven by those experiences. We expect he'll probably have more experience on AIDS than any other welfare commissioner since the beginning of the epidemic, and that can only be a good thing.

Best of luck to Whalen, Hansell, and the rest of the incoming Spitzer team - if you'd like to join the Housing Works crew in Albany at the 6 A.M. run with the Governor on New Year's Day, the inauguration festivities later that day, or at Governor Spitzer's first State of the State speech on January 3, shoot an email to Charles Long (