Albany push to replace ethics panel

ALBANY — Good-government groups and lawmakers have no faith left in the state’s ethics watchdog.

Admitting that corruption has long been synonymous with the state Capitol, elected officials and advocates are launching a new effort to gain support for legislation that would do away with the state’s current ethics oversight committee, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, and replace it with an independent agency.

“Amazingly, JCOPE, which is meant to instill public confidence in government is managing to do just the opposite, to add to the public’s distrust of government,” said attorney Evan Davis, a former aide to the late Gov. Mario Cuomo.

Davis and others voiced support for a measure sponsored by Sen. Liz Krueger (DManhattan) and Assemblyman Robert Carroll (D-Brooklyn) that would amend the state Constitution by creating a new commission made up of members mostly appointed by the judiciary and would also replace the Legislative Ethics Commission.

The embattled panel has faced scrutiny recently over concerns about its independence and authority amid reports that someone on the commission illegally leaked information regarding a confidential vote to Gov. Cuomo. The commission was also criticized for a dropped lobbying probe into a rape survivor who paid for billboards in support of the Child Victims Act.

Currently, the ethics commission consists of 14 members, six appointed by the governor and the remaining eight by members of the Legislature.