Non-fond farewell, JCOPE
The nicest thing I can say about the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics is that whenever I walked from my former office in the state Capitol to attend one of its dispiriting monthly meetings at its warren of offices on Broadway, I got a vigorous workout on the walk back uphill.
“Uphill” is, of course, the best adjective to define the future course of New York’s battle with public corruption, as evidenced last week by the speedy resignation of Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin. The federal indictment unsealed Tuesday morning describes a quid pro quo scheme so transparent that it could have involved the exchange of two burlap bags each printed with a dollar sign.
After no doubt breathing a sigh of relief at Benjamin’s hasty exit, Gov. Kathy Hochul defended herself by noting that he had allegedly lied during the vetting process that ended with his appointment last summer as the next in the line of succession to significant executive power — a gig that has given us two of the last three governors (David Paterson and Hochul), and is therefore rather important.
New Yorkers deserve to know more about whether Hochul’s administration robustly questioned Benjamin after his benefactor, real estate baron Gerald Migdol, was indicted in November on felony charges of making fraudulent campaign contributions to the former state senator’s campaign for New York City comptroller. As recently as two weeks ago, Hochul was expressing “utmost confidence” in her lieutenant even after the Daily News reported he had failed to let her know he had been subpoenaed in the Migdol matter. Loyalty is a wonderful thing in politics as in life, but her failure to extract as much as a public mea culpa from Benjamin was telling.
The case against Benjamin was brought by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, continuing that office’s neartotal dominance in the field of state corruption prosecutions. Once again sitting on the sidelines was the Northern District (which hasn’t brought a notable or even banal corruption case since its pursuit of Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno in 2009), the Albany County district attorney’s office and JCOPE.
The deathwatch has begun for that panel, which according to legislation passed in the state budget has less than three months left in its misbegotten existence before it’s replaced by the state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government. The first problem with that name is that “ethics and lobbying” go together about as well as “fresh air and cigarettes.” The second problem: No one is going to be able to say “CELG” as anything but the cough-like
“kelgh” — though good-government advocate Blair Horner told me there’s a movement afoot to pronounce it with a soft C as “selig,” suggestive of the Woody Allen movie “Zelig,” about a chameleon-like character who is endlessly deceiving those around him.
However you say it, CELG will operate under more open rules — both in terms of public transparency and its ability to approve investigations — than JCOPE did, but the bar for improvement here is lower than a snake’s bellybutton.
At the risk of sounding immodest: While there was a lot of very good reporting on JCOPE over the past decade, no outlet paid more attention than the Times Union did. This is largely due to the good work of investigative reporter Chris Bragg, who made it a central part of his beat, and investigations editor Brendan Lyons, who in November 2019 cracked open what was surely the most egregious example of JCOPE’s decrepitude: the revelation that details of a supposedly confidential vote by the panel had been leaked to then- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, after which the whole matter was whitewashed by the state inspector general’s office.
This paper’s editorial board hammered JCOPE (November 2021: “Worst. Ethics. Watchdog.”); this column rarely missed a chance to kick it in the slats, and I regret nothing.
It is very hard to make readers care about ethics enforcement. It’s a lot easier to enjoy the adrenaline rush when politicians like Benjamin get arrested — but by that point, of course, the system has failed to prevent corruption. The Times Union, for as long as I’ve worked here, made a conscious decision to pay close attention to the operation of JCOPE and its predecessor watchdogs, as well as the inspector general’s office and the other often lackluster elements of the state’s ethics immune system.
As good government groups have pointed out, corruption is a tax New Yorkers might never know they’re paying. Consider the $50,000 Senate grant that Benjamin funneled to an education nonprofit led by Migdol — so-called “bullet aid” funds that Benjamin requested only after he allegedly realized he needed a way to grease his benefactor. That’s $50,000 that could have gone to help communities in ways that might not have been associated with graft.
Advocates and elected officials — and our editorial board — have noted that CELG will preserve too many of the worst elements of JCOPE. It will, for example, still be led by commissioners appointed by the same elected officials it is supposed to police. A crew of law school deans will get to vet the list of nominees, but still.
Which means that our reporters will stay on the case, watchdogs on the watchdog.