Put overhauling JCOPE on state’s ‘must-do’ list
Create institution that will help shape ethical governing
In her first speech addressing the state, Gov. Kathy Hochul committed to open, ethical governing, promising to overhaul New York State’s “ethics system.” Less than two months later, the governor and her team met with leaders of good government groups to discuss replacing the Joint Commission on Public Ethics with a new, nonpartisan ethics body, with members not selected by elected officials.
Hochul spoke forcefully, using dramatic language to describe JCOPE’s demise. She also conveyed urgency, saying that the constitutional amendment, carried by Sen. Liz Krueger, D -Manhattan, and Assemblymember Robert Carroll, D -Brooklyn, and supported by the groups, would take too much time.
Hochul followed up on this commitment in January, including in her budget an appropriation to a new entity replacing JCOPE and legislation creating that entity.
But since then, we’ve seldom heard more about the governor’s plan to replace JCOPE, and the Legislature is silent on the question of its support. It has us deeply concerned.
JCOPE is a failed institution. Rather than serving its purpose of building public confidence in state government as an independent enforcer of the state’s ethics laws, it is doing exactly the opposite.
A prime flaw is that JCOPE lacks any semblance of independence for the simple reason it was designed to be politically controlled by the top officials who appoint its members. Contrary to the fundamental principle that independence requires secure tenure, the all-important position of chair of JCOPE serves at the pleasure of the governor.
Evidence that JCOPE was designed to protect public officials rather than enforce the law is found in JCOPE’s voting system under which two of the governor’s appointees to a 14-member commission can block an investigation into the governor or their appointees. The same blocking power under the JCOPE law is given to three legislative appointees.
JCOPE’s lack of independence is compounded by its lack of transparency. The public has no idea of whether JCOPE is sweeping serious misconduct under the rug because it operates in strict secrecy.
It is a sad fact that several top state officials have crossed the ethical line against self-dealing and abuse of position and landed in prison for outright corruption. It is even sadder that people — staffers, and New Yorkers at large — were harmed because of their abuse of power. In this circumstance, the public cannot reasonably be asked to believe that an entity filled with appointees tasked with overseeing the very people who appointed them can function in the way the state needs. This means JCOPE cannot achieve its mission to build public confidence in our state institutions.
To be clear, the governor’s proposal is not perfect, and there is certainly room for improvement. For example, any new, independent ethics body must have the power to level disciplinary sanctions on those who violate the Code of Ethics. Transparency — a term foreign to JCOPE — must be improved by making the commissioner appointment process transparent, apart from deliberations, and any adjudicatory hearings open to the public after a finding of probable cause.
More so, if we’ve learned anything over the past year, the state must exclusively empower a new ethics body to field reports of misconduct from mandated reporters. The state must also empower any new ethics body to hold elected and appointed officials accountable under the state’s Human Rights Laws.
But if New York is going to finally overhaul JCOPE — if it is at long last going to create an institution that will help shape a new era of ethical governing — the public needs Hochul and the Legislature to put this on their “mustdo” list. Signaling as much means the governor, Assembly speaker and Senate majority leader will convene staff meetings to work on the bill, and may go so far as to make trades across various issues in the final negotiations of all budget bills.
And make no mistake, this needs to be a budget bill. Appropriating millions of dollars to a failed institution like JCOPE is a waste of the taxpayers’ money. Moreover, when an appropriation is and should be made to a new body, as is the case here, that body should be created so as to be able to receive that appropriation.
If the state leadership isn’t truly committed to ethics reform, all will have been in vain. JCOPE must be replaced.
▶ Laura Berman is the executive director of the New York League of Woman Voters. Evan Davis is manager of the Committee to Reform the State Constitution and served as counsel to Gov. Mario Cuomo. Betsy Gotbaum is the executive director of Citizens Union and the former New York City public advocate. Blair Horner is the executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group. John Kaehny is the executive director of Reinvent Albany. Susan Lerner is executive director of Common Cause New York. Erica Vladimer is a co-founder of the Sexual Harassment Working Group.