Illinois Valley Times

State Rep. Dan Swanson doesn’t mince words when talking about what he sees as the failure at the LaSalle Veterans' Home last fall that left 36 residents dead.

"At the beginning of this week, I joined several colleagues to call for immediate hearings into gross negligences at LaSalle Vets' Home that led to the death of 36 of our heroes," Swanson said at a recent press conference posted to YouTube. "Caring for our vets is one of the most important charges we have in public service. The executive branch utterly abdicated their responsibility in how they handled the COVID outbreak as evidenced by the Inspector General report."

Released Friday, the Illinois Department of Human Services Inspector General report charged the lack of a COVID plan and failures in leadership contributed toward the outbreak. Among the findings were that after the first four cases were reported Nov. 1, the virus spread to 60 residents and 43 employees as confused staff operated in an environment that was "inefficient, reactive and chaotic.”

Swanson said residents now deserve answers.

“The governor, Director (Linda) Chapa LaVia and the entire chain of command failed our veterans and their families,” he said. “IDVA, IDPH and the governor’s office must testify before the Veterans’ Affairs Committee so the full scope of these failures can be determined.

Swanson said he plans to keep the pressure on.

"We cannot wait another week for action,” he said. “Inaction does not solve problems. Actions need to be taken to get to the bottom of this grossly negative failure and insure that it does not happen again. Our heroes and their families deserve nothing less.”

Meanwhile, Gov. Pritzker is defending his hiring of Chapa La Via  based on her handling of the Quincy Veterans Home Legionnaires outbreak from a few years ago.

"She seemed like an ideal person to be able to root out the problems in our veterans' homes, but I have to admit, if I knew then what I know now I would not have hired her," he said.

Pritzker’s office has now hired Navy veteran Terry Prince as the acting VA director to replace Chapa LaVia.