Assemblyman Heastie Announces Reform Plans

As he continues to seek support from his Assembly colleagues in the race for Assembly Speaker, Assemblyman Carl Heastie announced the following “necessary first-steps” toward reform as part of a “broader examination of [the Assembly’s] ethics rules and operations”:

• Creating an Office of Ethics and Compliance, which would “provide guidance to members on ethics issues and ensure compliance with new and existing ethics rules”;
• New accountability and transparency measures of the legislative per diem system (including tougher reporting requirements and oversight of per diem reimbursements); and
• Not accepting an outside income himself, seeking to cap legislators’ outside income, and requiring greater disclosure of outside income.

Assemblyman Heastie said:

“I believe we must seize this opportunity for reform, and enact the type of lasting change that will make the Assembly more open, transparent and accountable to the voters. I look forward to working with my colleagues to develop and implement reforms like these, and others, so that the Assembly can regain the voters trust and start a new chapter.”

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