Ex-Gov. resigns from hospital board amid questions about friend's 'low-show' job

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• Susan K. Livio | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco said Sunday he will step down at the end of the month as board chairman of New Jersey's only public acute-care hospital, amid revelations he had promoted a friend to serve as his assistant in a "low-show" six-figure job.

Gov. Chris Christie accepted DiFrancesco's resignation as chairman of University Hospital in Newark, Christie's spokesman Brian Murray said.

NJ Advance Media on Monday reported that DiFrancesco had recommended attorney Jill Cooperman for a legal position at the hospital in 2013, shortly after he became chairman.

Cooperman was hired as a $94,000-a-year staff attorney in the general counsel's office. DiFrancesco quickly repurposed her job as his assistant to help him create a foundation for the cash-starved Newark hospital, according to an investigator hired by the board in 2016 in response to a whistleblower's complaint. The investigation deemed Cooperman held an inappropriately managed "no-show" or "low-show" job. She left in April 2016.

The episode cost the the financially struggling hospital more than $500,000: $266,100 for Cooperman's salary from January 2014 through April 2016; $60,000 for her severance package, $175,000 in severance for the whistleblower, and $12,000 for the law firm - Porzio Bromberg & Newman of Morristown -- that investigated the claim, according to the hospital.

On Friday, Linda Schwimmer, president of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, a consumer watchdog group, called on Gov. Christie to remove DiFrancesco over the controversy.

University Hospital, a 519-bed teaching facility, north Jersey's only top level trauma center and the largest provider of charity care in the state, operates on a $674 million budget with a $6 million deficit.

With his term on the board expiring in June, and a new governor, Democrat Phil Murphy, taking control in mid-January, DiFrancesco on Sunday offered to leave. But he made no mention of the controversy in his letter.

"Thank you for the honor to serve as the first Chairman of Board of University Hospital. When you appointed me, the challenge was clear: help build a new hospital essentially from scratch to care for some of the most vulnerable New Jersey residents and create a teaching institution to train future generations of New Jersey physicians and nurses," according to DiFrancesco's letter to Christie and provided to NJ Advance Media by the former governor's spokesman.

"When I first joined the University Hospital Board in July, 2013, we were tested right from the start to build an effective structure. We have succeeded to a considerable degree in creating a strong operation that serves our community," according to DiFrancesco's letter.

"I've dedicated significant effort to helping University Hospital achieve its goals and am proud of what we have achieved," according to DiFrancesco's letter to the governor. "I want nothing more than to see the Institution be successful. Although I have only six months remaining on my term, I believe this is the right time for me to step aside. As such, I will leave the Board on December 31."

Christie appointed DiFrancesco in 2013, just as the state dissolved the hospital's parent entity, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and required University Hospital to operate independently.

Murray, Christie's spokesman, said the governor "appreciated Governor DiFrancesco's decades of public service and all of his hard work in creating the new University Hospital. The Governor and the First Lady wish Don and Diane all the best and thank them for their years of friendship."

Hospital spokesman Rick Remington also released a statement thanking DiFrancesco for his service.

"University Hospital has received Governor DiFrancesco's letter stepping down as Chairman of the Board, effective December 31, 2017.  We thank him for his years of dedicated service helping to establish University Hospital, and the Board's Vice-Chair will serve as Chairman until a successor has been named."

James Orsini III, an oncologist, is the vice chairman of the hospital's board of directors.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.