Schmethics

The state Joint Commission on Public Ethics was, is and will always be a ridiculous waste of time masquerading as a serious government oversight agency. Enacted in 2011 under Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a bipartisan pair of future federal felons, JCOPE was designed intentionally by Albany bigshots to protect Albany bigshots who steal and corrupt on a massive scale while squashing any small fry who bend a minor rule. The panel should be put down.

Yesterday’s resignation of Chair Jim Dering was most welcome. He lasted almost all of three weeks on the job. Hopefully, the rest of the commissioners will also quit, and Gov. Hochul should give up on trying to find a new patsy to head up a toothless tiger that is also blind and deaf.

Today there’s a special JCOPE meeting (chaired by who knows) with but one item on the agenda: “Motion to enter into executive session pursuant to Executive Law § 94(19)(b)” Apparently the planned secret session is to discuss whether JCOPE should investigate JCOPE, specifically how it approved or didn’t approve Andrew Cuomo’s $5.1 million COVID book deal.

Perfect. Unable to do anything to police or prevent wrongdoing, JCOPE will embark on a journey of self-examination on how it failed. And why stop with the smelly Cuomo book, from which he never should have received a penny in advance payments? There’s plenty of actual crime that these jokers missed for years. How about if JCOPE went back and took another look? Maybe not. Better to close it down.

The agency’s regulatory functions, like publishing lobbying reports and personal financial disclosure forms, seem to work well enough. It’s when someone’s toes have to get stepped on, especially powerful toes, that JCOPE retreats into secrecy and ineptitude. When the Legislature returns in three months, ethics reform is unlikely to be on anyone’s to-do list, particularly in an election year. But until Albany cleans house of its housecleaners, the place will continue to reek.