{"id":992,"date":"2014-03-11T15:28:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T19:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=992"},"modified":"2015-05-12T06:46:04","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T10:46:04","slug":"ethics-reform-is-still-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/ethics-reform-is-still-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics Reform is Still Needed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

The failure of Albany to clean up its ongoing \u2013 and seemingly unending \u2013 ethics scandals was again in the news last week.<\/p>\n

The most recent conviction was that of now-former Assemblyman William Boyland, Jr.\u00a0 Mr. Boyland has been in hot water with federal authorities for the past few years.\u00a0 He was first arrested in 2011 as part of an investigation into a bribing scandal in which a hospital executive paid several legislators for political favors. The executive was convicted\u00a0of bribing Boyland and others, but Boyland escaped conviction when prosecutors could not show that Boyland had done anything illegal, even though he had been a well-paid consultant for the hospital.<\/p>\n

Three weeks after the acquittal, prosecutors revealed evidence showing Boyland asking for money. \u00a0In that revelation, undercover agents with the FBI released evidence in which Boyland discussed how influential he was in making deals happen in Brooklyn.\u00a0 In one video, Boyland accepted $7,000 in cash.<\/p>\n

In other evidence Boyland was shown asking for money in exchange for political favors, including a request for $250,000 to pay for his legal fees resulting from the first court case in which he was found not guilty.<\/p>\n

The former Assemblyman is now facing up to 30 years in prison as a result of his conviction.<\/p>\n

On another front, Albany\u2019s ethics were being brought into the public debate.<\/p>\n

In announcing his bid to oust Governor Cuomo, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino sought to tie the governor to Albany\u2019s ethics shortfalls. In his announcement,Astorino referenced a report from the University of Illinois at Chicago.\u00a0 In that 2012 report,states were ranked by the total federal corruption convictions between the years 1976 through 2010.<\/p>\n

The state at the top of the ranking?\u00a0 New York State.<\/p>\n

Astorino blasted the governor for the recent spate of scandals and referenced that report to buttress his argument that New York\u2019s ethics are too weak.<\/p>\n

He is, of course, correct.\u00a0 While he ignores that fact that these convictions punished both Democrats and Republicans and that governors of both parties have failed to adequate address this ethics crime wave, he is right to point to the state\u2019s ethical failures.<\/p>\n

It has been a long standing pledge by gubernatorial candidates that they will clean up Albany.\u00a0 In 2010, then Attorney General Andrew Cuomo promised to reform New York\u2019s campaign finance, redistricting, and ethics, laws.\u00a0 In his campaign book “Clean Up Albany” Mr. Cuomo wrote,<\/p>\n

The “State government\u2019s ethics laws are policed by several separate entities, each without the independence necessary to ensure that violations are fully and fairly investigated and prosecuted. .. To restore public confidence and address this potential and actual conflict of interest, Andrew Cuomo will \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 establish an independent State ethics commission with robust enforcement powers to investigate and punish violations of law by members of both the executive and legislative branches.”<\/p>\n

And his diagnosis was correct: the key to real reform \u2013 and success in ending Albany\u2019s ethical weaknesses \u2013 was, and is, the establishment of an independent ethics enforcement agency that would enforce New York law without fear or favor.<\/p>\n

Just like the rest of us, public officials behave differently if they think they could get caught if they don\u2019t.\u00a0 Most of us drive slower on the Thruway, for example, if we see speed traps.<\/p>\n

But in Albany, there are few ethical “speed traps.”\u00a0 In the Boyland case, for example, his father (and a former Assemblyman) was stated on a wiretap, “All right, just legally, you know, you know this is against the law, right?”<\/p>\n

Do you think he would say that if he thought he could get caught?<\/p>\n

In 2011, Governor Cuomo did hammer out a deal with state lawmakers to establish what he hoped would be a new system of ethics oversight.\u00a0 But the new system has been widely panned as ineffective.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s failure to “establish an independent State ethics commission with robust enforcement powers” will leave him open to the attacks from County Executive Astorino, and other possible candidates, that he hasn\u2019t adequately dealt with Albany\u2019s ethical woes.<\/p>\n

The governor must act by overhauling the state\u2019s ethics oversight this session.\u00a0 He can ensure enforcement by a truly independent ethics watchdog with the resources necessary to identify and prosecute those who violate state laws.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all for now.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be keeping an eye on the Capitol and will talk to you again next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen The failure of Albany to clean up its ongoing \u2013 and seemingly unending \u2013 ethics scandals was again in the news last week. The most recent conviction was that of now-former Assemblyman William Boyland, Jr.\u00a0 Mr. Boyland has been in hot water with federal authorities for the past few years.\u00a0 He was first arrested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[67,5],"class_list":["post-992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bribery","tag-ethics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=992"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1479,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions\/1479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}