Ethics refers to a system of moral standards or values. That”™s how Webster”™s defines it and we agree with that definition.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has put forth what has been called a “sweeping ethics-reform package” and proposed a Joint Commission on Public Ethics with “robust enforcement powers.”
It sounds impressive and powerful.
If only it were so cut and dry. As we know well, anything germinating from the political realm never is.
No doubt, the body politic needs a refresher course in ethics. However tempting, we shall resist Weiner analogies here. That topic has more than its share of tweeters and twits ready to pounce. Besides, our concerns are more rooted in corruption and the like at the state level.
The fact that ethics has emerged as the reform du jour comes as little surprise. It”™s all about marketing and timing is everything.
The governor and the Legislature reached an agreement June 3 on an ethics bills, aka the “Clean Up Albany Act of 2011.”
Among its contents, the measure would require part-time lawmakers to disclose their outside incomes and name names of clients and customers they represent in doing business with the state. It also creates a 14-member Joint Commission on Public Ethics to monitor all elected state officials and their employees as well as the activities of lobbyists.
Again, this sounds like a real move toward reform. But the devil does lurk in those details.
The commission would comprise six members appointed by the governor ”“ with at least three from each major political party ”“ and eight appointed by the legislative leaders ”“ with four each from the two parties.
According to the bill, “no individual will be eligible to serve ”¦ who has within the last three years been a registered lobbyist, a statewide office holder, a legislator, a state commissioner or a political party chairman.”
That sounds like it would promote independent investigations but we”™re not convinced.
Here”™s why: Under the bill, “A majority (eight members) of the board must consent to the initiation of the investigation, and at least two of whom are of the same party and branch as the subject of the investigation.”
So what would stop them, then, from simply heading off the investigation at the pass? Or even mentioning, publicly, any charges at all?
The bill also calls for reducing or denying state pensions for office-holders convicted of job-related crimes. It”™s a plan long overdue. Unfortunately, it only applies to future public officials and not those currently in the state retirement system. That leaves open the door for exemption for sitting legislators, whose number exceeds 200. How can these legislators go back to voters and say this “reform” is important but then exclude themselves?
Another caveat and another missed opportunity for real reform.
We asked Lt. Gov. Bob Duffy to comment. We were interviewing him last week on economic matters, but given the timing asked him to weigh in on the pension matter.
“It is a huge step forward,” Duffy said, and added that since state government is not a “unilateral” process and the governor needed the support of the Senate and the Assembly, he had to do a lot of negotiating.
“The governor, the speaker and the senate majority leader, they didn”™t get exactly what they wanted, but in the end they got probably 95 percent of what had to happen. I think that”™s where the victory is,” Duffy said.
“There may be changes, adjustments down the road ”¦ (but) this is a huge first step for Albany. While the public may want more, and I understand that, part of this is getting government to work together.”
In his “salute” to the governor for ethics reform, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said the agreement “will strengthen our citizens”™ faith in their government.”
We”™re not sure whether to be perturbed or peeved by that statement.
Does the old-hand Dem take the people for such fools or has hubris reached so high a level that he doesn”™t care?
Our collective faith has been seriously shaken by the misdeeds and malfeasance within the state capital. Talking the talk does little to assuage that, let alone right the ship.
The fact is the ethics bill does indeed appear to contain the seeds to grow real reform measures, to change business as usual and stem the cagey and corrupt environment in Albany.
But the caveats dilute its potency.
Perhaps it is not the ethics system that needs reform. Perhaps it is the people working it that do.
“Perhaps it is not the ethics system that needs reform. Perhaps it is the people working it that do”.
You can’t have insiders policing their own contingency, enforcing ethics policies, and have jurisdiction over government policy.
Only private citizens with no associations to political parties, agenda, not beholden to the political machine can truthfully serve justice and fairness on an “Ethics Committee”
Reform is accomplished by the private citizen, not government.
Carl Albanese
White Plains