{"id":1743,"date":"2016-09-26T10:02:35","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T14:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=1743"},"modified":"2016-09-26T11:34:07","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T15:34:07","slug":"another-scandal-rocks-the-capitol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/another-scandal-rocks-the-capitol\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Scandal Rocks the Capitol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another week, another scandal.\u00a0 Once again, it was U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara who brought the charges.\u00a0 What\u2019s different is that the focus of the investigation was the governor\u2019s office, not the legislature. According to the U.S. Attorney, \u201cIt turns out the state Legislature does not have any kind of monopoly on crass corruption in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the nine individuals charged were a former top aide and close confidante to Governor Cuomo, as well as the head of the State University of New York\u2019s efforts to expand technologies.\u00a0 Eight of the nine have said that they are not guilty; the ninth has admitted guilt and is cooperating in the ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n

Bharara\u2019s described his investigation as shining \u201ca light on yet another sordid side of the show-me-the-money culture that has so plagued government in Albany.\u201d\u00a0 According to the U.S. Attorney, a former top aide to the governor accepted more than $315,000 in bribes and other perks, including a Hamptons fishing trip, in exchange for using his official position to perform valuable favors for an energy company, and $35,000 more in bribes from a Syracuse-based developer.<\/p>\n

Also\u00a0among those charged was the former <\/a>president of the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute, who has been suspended without pay.\u00a0 According to the allegations in the complaint, the now-former head of the Institute and a lobbyist with close ties to the governor conspired with executives at two companies to rig the bidding process for a massive state-financed redevelopment project known as the Buffalo Billion.<\/p>\n

In addition, the governor\u2019s former aide and the lobbyist allegedly shook down companies seeking government contracts for large campaign contributions to the governor as part of their scheme to get contracts for the contributors.<\/p>\n

Governor Cuomo has stated that he was unaware of these activities.<\/p>\n

Yet, the charges brought by the U.S. Attorney are\u00a0devastating political blows for the governor<\/a>.\u00a0 It was Governor Cuomo who ran for office in 2010 vowing to clean up Albany and now, according to the allegations, appears to have surrounded himself with allies who were exploiting his Administration for their own personal gain.<\/p>\n

Of course, these are only allegations, but even if half of them turn out to be true, actions must be taken by the governor in order to begin to restore the public\u2019s trust.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Attorney\u2019s complaint should offer a roadmap to the governor and the legislature on how to proceed.<\/p>\n

First, end the secrecy surrounding the state\u2019s economic development plans.\u00a0 What is clear from the complaint is that the governor\u2019s management style of surrounding himself with a handful of trusted aides, and then making decisions largely in secret, is flawed.\u00a0 Such an approach relies on the trustworthiness of those aides.\u00a0 Apparently in these cases, that trust was misplaced.<\/p>\n

As U.S. Justice Brandeis once remarked, \u201cIf the broad light of day could be let in upon men\u2019s actions, it would purify them as the sun disinfects.\u201d\u00a0 While openness can make decisions harder to implement, it makes it far less likely that people get away with dishonesty.<\/p>\n

Second, empower the state\u2019s fiscal watchdog, the state Comptroller, to examine contracts more closely.\u00a0 Early in his term, the governor approved a law that removed state comptroller oversight of contracts through the state SUNY system.\u00a0 Removing such oversight made it less likely that contracts would get the independent scrutiny they deserve.\u00a0 It\u2019s clear from the complaint that independent oversight may have deterred wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Third, advance campaign finance reforms.\u00a0 Through the U.S. Attorney\u2019s complaint there are allegations that the schemers were using the state contracting process as a way to shake down bidders for government contracts in order to obtain huge campaign contributions for the governor\u2019s reelection effort.\u00a0 New York\u2019s campaign finance system should eliminate campaign contributions from those seeking \u2013 or receiving \u2013 government contracts, the campaign finance limits should be much lower, and a voluntary system of public financing should be established.\u00a0 Such a voluntary system would help electoral challengers mount serious efforts, thus helping to hold incumbent elected officials more publicly accountable.<\/p>\n

As the governor said in his first inaugural, \u201cYou have nothing without trust.\u00a0 And we are not going to back it up until we clean up Albany and there\u2019s real transparency and real disclosure and real accountability and real ethics and real ethics enforcement. That\u2019s what the people have voted for. That\u2019s what the people deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadly, what has become increasingly clear is that the governor has failed in his pledge to clean up state government and to ensure that it operates openly.\u00a0 But he still has time.\u00a0 The governor must fulfill his pledge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another week, another scandal.\u00a0 Once again, it was U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara who brought the charges.\u00a0 What\u2019s different is that the focus of the investigation was the governor\u2019s office, not the legislature. According to the U.S. Attorney, \u201cIt turns out the state Legislature does not have any kind of monopoly on crass corruption in New […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-1743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743","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=1743"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1746,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions\/1746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}