Regarding his firing of Christoper Neuwirth, assistant New Jersey Commissioner of Health for Public Health Infrastructure, Governor Phil Murphy brushed it off today at his press briefing in the War Memorial.

“I have no comment,” Murphy said.

He did note, regarding Neuwirth’s side work for national emergency management consulting firm Margolis Healy & Associates:

“Folks are not…it’s par for the course you’re not supposed to have another source of income,” the governor added of the fired assistant commish.

Conversely, Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-11) had plenty to say about the sacked regular at Murphy’s

COVID press briefings, who oversaw EMS and the Office of Disaster Resilience.

“Vacancies and firings have plagued the department for three years, and it’s catching up to them. This firing may be very well justified and long overdue, but it begs the questions, who is the replacement to this extremely important position? Does this explain why the department hampered efforts at reform?

“Failure to disclose a conflict like that stinks of corruption,” the Monmouth-based senator added. “This needs to be investigated further and Neuwirth and the Department need to explain this. This chaos comes at a time when our Health Department is most needed – as we are managing a pandemic and headed into hurricane season.”

NJ.com reporter Brent Johnson pressed the governor on Neuwirth.

But Murphy dug in against reflecting publicly on the story.

“We don’t comment on personnel matters and we still don’t,” the governor said.