JCOPE

Former Governor Cuomo scored a victory last week in his legal fight to keep $5 million for a book about how he handled the COVID pandemic. A state judge ruled that the agency looking into whether the former governor violated the state’s ethics code by using government resources to write his book was unconstitutionally constructed. In doing so, the judge shut down – at least in the short term – the ethics agency’s investigation and may have blown up ethics oversight in New York.

It’s easy to tell when elected officials focus on a policy priority. They mobilize public attention, frame the problem in terms that the public can understand – and in ways that point to the solution they want – and then marshal the resources necessary for a successful implementation.

New York’s oversight of its ethics and lobbying laws was back in the news last week. The state’s oversight entity, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), closed its doors on Friday and will be replaced by a new agency: the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying (CELIG).

In its last order of business before disbanding, the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics has voted to release an internal report that details its approval of then-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s $5.1 million book deal about his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new state budget replaces New York’s troubled ethics commission with a new entity aimed at lowering the number of scandals in state government. But critics of the plan laid out by Governor Kathy Hochul say the measure doesn’t go far enough and could replicate some of the same problems the current commission created.

Ethics watchdogs say they are dismayed with a plan developing between Governor Kathy Hochul and New York state lawmakers that would replace the troubled state ethics commission with a new entity.

Government watchdog groups are making a push to include ethics reform in the New York state budget. Governor Kathy Hochul promised to overhaul the state’s troubled ethics oversight commission, but so far, the proposal has not been agreed to by the Legislature.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul made good on her promise to overhaul the state’s troubled ethics commission when she proposed a new structure in her State of the State message this week. But the idea is getting mixed reviews.

New York’s latest ethics crisis centers on former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s controversial memoir on how he handled the COVID-19 pandemic. An effort by the state’s ethics commission to force Cuomo to repay $5 million he earned for the book highlights the weaknesses of the body that’s supposed to serve as New York’s ethics police. The current governor, Kathy Hochul, is among those demanding changes in 2022.

The New York state ethics panel voted Tuesday to open an independent investigation into how the panel approved a $5 million book deal for former Governor Andrew Cuomo.