Paterson proposes ethics reform overhaul
Elmira Star-Gazette
Elmira, NY
By Jay Gallagher
Albany Bureau Chief
ALBANY – In the wake of several scandals, including one involving the state ethics- oversight agency, Gov. David Paterson on Tuesday proposed setting up a new ethics panel that he said will be more independent than the one it would replace and would also oversee the Legislature.
“The time has come for a comprehensive overhaul of Albany’s existing ethics reforms,” Paterson said. “Today, I call on my colleagues in the Legislature to support my legislation to create a truly independent, efficient and comprehensive entity.”
But calls for similar changes in the past have failed to gain the approval of the Legislature, which has insisted for decades that lawmakers can police themselves, even though legislative ethics panels have never publicly criticized or disciplined a lawmaker. There was no immediate indication today that legislators’ stance has changed.
A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said the proposal would be reviewed. “We are open to changes,” said spokesman Dan Weiller.
Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, said, “we welcome the Governor’s submission of ethics-reform legislation,” but pointed out the Senate has its own ethics changes it is considering.
Paterson’s proposal follows a scathing report earlier this month by state Inspector General Joseph Fisch that slammed the two-year-old state Commission On Public Integrity for allegedly leaking confidential information about the panel’s probe of the administration of then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer to a top Spitzer aide.
Fisch called for the resignation of commission Executive Director Herbert Teitelbaum, who quit a few days later even though he denied any wrongdoing. Paterson then called for the resignation of the 12 holdover members of the commission, but they refused.
The new panel, according to Paterson, would:
* Enforce campaign-finance laws, now the responsibility of the state Board of Elections, as well as ethics laws for both executive- and legislative-branch officials and employees.
* Have independent enforcement power, as well as the ability to refer cases to the attorney general.
* Have its five members picked by a new 10-member “designating commission” for five-year terms. Four members of that panel would be picked by the governor, and one each by the four legislative leaders and one each by the attorney general and comptroller.
The current panel has 13 members, seven of whom were appointed by the governor. Its critics say that giving the governor the power to appoint a majority of the members compromised its independence.
Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, who has been pushing ethics changes for decades, said Paterson’s idea would be an improvement over the current setup.
“At the end of the day, what the public should expect is an independent body to oversee ethics,” he said.
Also Tuesday, Citizen Action of New York presented a report that said for-profit special interests outspent, by a 9-to-1 ratio or more, non-profit groups that lobbied on legislation relating to health care, the environment, rent regulation and ticket scalping.
The group wants the Legislature to adopt a public-financing program.
The Senate has drafts of three public-financing bills on its Web site and is holding public hearings on the issue in Rochester Thursday and Albany on June 3, when Paterson’s bill is also expected to be discussed.
Last year, the Assembly passed a bill that would give candidates $4 in public money for every dollar raised in contributions of $250 or less from state residents. The voluntary system would be similar to what New York City has.
The Assembly has introduced and passed public-financing legislation almost annually for three decades, the report said. But they have not been taken up by the Senate, which until this year was controlled by Republicans since 1966.