Is it possible that there might be a \u201cperfect storm\u201d which will break Albany\u2019s ethics reform logjam?\u00a0 New Yorkers should hope so.<\/p>\n
Here is some evidence of the growing pressure:<\/p>\n
In November, in separate trials, both the former Assembly Speaker and the former Senate Majority Leader face court dates for alleged corruption.\u00a0 The ongoing legal proceedings should continue to keep Albany\u2019s ethics under the spotlight and may well build up even more pressure for Governor Cuomo to convene a special session devoted to ethics.<\/p>\n
In addition, for almost three months the state\u2019s ethics watchdog, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, has been without an executive director.\u00a0 Having a rudderless ethics watchdog while two of the state\u2019s leading political figures are on trial for corruption will be, at best, lousy optics. And to make it worse, until recently the agency hadn\u2019t posted a job opening announcement for the position.\u00a0 But last week, they did.\u00a0 Now the search is on.<\/p>\n
A formidable candidate has thrown his hat into the ring:\u00a0 the former head of the state\u2019s now-defunct lobbying regulator, David Grandeau.\u00a0 Grandeau was a feared and respected head of the lobbying commission and was dumped as part of the ethics reform package approved in 2007.\u00a0 Apparently, Grandeau had accumulated far too many enemies, including then-Governor Eliot Spitzer.<\/p>\n
But Grandeau has said he will apply for the job,and that should set the standard by which any candidate is judged.\u00a0 Unless the JCOPE commissioners choose him as the new replacement, they will have a hard time justifying any other choice.\u00a0 But having Grandeau in the pool should hold JCOPE\u2019s feet to the fire in hiring a new executive director, with the easiest option of just choosing him.<\/p>\n
Related to that development, last week a panel reviewing the state\u2019s ethics enforcement held its first, and probably only, public hearing.\u00a0 The governor and the legislature were supposed to have chosen this commission in 2014 and the group should have reported on their findings by the end of last year.<\/p>\n
Despite this legal requirement, in 2014 the governor and the legislative leaders blew off their responsibility, but were forced to act when that glaring failure came to light right after the arrests of the then-Assembly Speaker and Senate Majority Leader.<\/p>\n
The members of the commission were chosen last Spring and are supposed to wrap up their work this November.\u00a0 As part of the law that set up the state\u2019s current ethics regime, a review panel was required to \u201creview and evaluate the activities and performance\u201d of the state\u2019s ethics watchdogs and make \u201cany administrative and legislative recommendations on strengthening the administration and enforcement of the ethics law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reviewing the state\u2019s ethics law changes is important, and that importance is not an academic one.\u00a0 Over the past years, New York has been plagued by an unending series of investigation, controversies, and scandals concerning state public officials.\u00a0 Yet, the state\u2019s leading ethics watchdogs have been largely on the sidelines.\u00a0 And while there may be explanations for this apparent inactivity, the public deserves to know why.\u00a0 And if the ethics watchdogs have been paralyzed by weaknesses in state law, or lack of resources, or political paralysis, the public deserves to know that too.<\/p>\n
The public\u2019s deepening cynicism and growing anger has been well-documented.\u00a0 In a recent poll, 90 percent of New Yorkers think corruption is a serious problem in state government and that it has gotten worse over the past few years.<\/p>\n
It also appears that New York\u2019s ethics laws are weak when compared to the nation.\u00a0 While it is always difficult to compare states, New York performs badly in such comparisons.\u00a0 In a recent comparison of state ethics laws, New York\u2019s ethics enforcement received a grade of \u201cF.\u201d<\/p>\n
When reformers first called on Governor Cuomo to call a special session devoted to ethics, he said no.\u00a0 Now, however, there have been media reports that the governor and legislative leaders are considering a special session devoted to phasing-in $15 minimum wage in exchange for a possible tax cut aimed at businesses.<\/p>\n
If that special session happens, New Yorkers should demand action on ethics.\u00a0 If that happens, Albany\u2019s logjam could be broken.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is it possible that there might be a \u201cperfect storm\u201d which will break Albany\u2019s ethics reform logjam?\u00a0 New Yorkers should hope so. Here is some evidence of the growing pressure: In November, in separate trials, both the former Assembly Speaker and the former Senate Majority Leader face court dates for alleged corruption.\u00a0 The ongoing legal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-1551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ethics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1551"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1553,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551\/revisions\/1553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}