Passing a Legislative Ethics bill would bode well with the public.

Unfortunately, the current bill is lacking in several aspects of necessary reform.

 

On February 1, Governor Paterson vetoed the Legislative Ethics Bill A9544 / S6457, citing many deficiencies that fail to improve current law.

 

“It is time to try a better approach: to dispense one and for all with the deck chair-rearranging on New York’s ethical Titanic.” – Gov. Paterson

 

“A Band-aid on a bullet wound.” – Assemblyman Jack Quinn

 

Paterson’s veto memo discusses several key rules and structures that bill A9544 / S6457 is lacking. Such as:

 

  • The new Legislative Office of Ethics Investigations will not be comprised of members of the Legislature, but members of the Legislature will appoint them.   Under this proposed bill, there will continue to be a lack of separation between members and their appointees. “There is simply nothing in this bill that would alter that astounding level of coziness between enforcer and legislator, including the making of political contributions.”

 

  • Under this bill, the Joint Legislative Commission on Ethics Standards would have an increase in the influence of legislative members.  The new commission would be split evenly, 4-4, between legislative members and non-legislative members.  The current Legislative Ethics Commission is required to have a non-legislator majority of 5-4.

 

  • The bill fails to require full disclosure of legislators’ clients.   According to the memo, “a legislator could earn hundreds of thousands of dollars from a client with a direct interest in legislation, yet not have to disclose that fact.”

 

  • Hinders the ability to remove executive directors guilty of misconduct by providing fixed term limits to the positions.  Moreover, providing a fixed term creates an excessive risk of a director ignoring the commissioners’ express wishes.

 

Every member of the Senate and Assembly with the exception of Senator Diaz, Assemblyman Quinn, and Assemblyman Vito Lopez approved this unsound bill.  Responsible New York supports any effort toward ethics reform but understands the importance of creating a truly independent ethics reform body, separated from its appointing-authority and the need for true transparency that does not hide legislators’ supplemental sources of income.