Resignation tied to veterans’ infections

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The chairman of the Missouri Veterans Commission resigned after releasing an investigative report that criticized the commission for its response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 140 lives at seven veteran nursing homes since September.

Tim Noonan said Thursday that he was resigning, citing comments Gov. Mike Parson made this week about the veterans and the commission.

Since September, at least 142 veterans housed in the facilities have died after contracting covid-19, the commission reported Dec. 8. More recent death figures were not immediately available.

A summary of the investigation was released earlier in December, but Noonan, the commission chairman since 2017, had resisted an open-records request from the Post-Dispatch to release the full report.

Officials inside Parsons administration and state Sen. Jill Schupp, a Democrat, had urged Noonan to release the full report, and he did so after Attorney General Eric Schmitt directed him to, Noonan said.

The 415-page report concluded that Paul Kirchhoff, executive director of the commission, and Deputy Director Ryon Richmond, “should have appreciated the presence of a covid-19 outbreak by Sept. 2, 2020, and acted immediately to attempt to isolate and contain the spread of covid-19.”

Among other things, the report cited failures to quarantine staff members and patients awaiting test results, a lack of formal infection-control policies and failure by top staff members at the veterans commission to prepare for a prolonged outbreak.