Whither JCOPE?
Two articles over the weekend (in Newsday and the Times Union of Albany) note that none of the 14 commissioners have yet been named to the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE). The Governor has six appointees to the state’s newest ethics entity, while the Assembly and Senate each have four (three each by the Senate Majority Leader and Assembly Speaker, and one by each house’s minority leader).
Depending on how you count, JCOPE is supposed to be up-and-running by December 9th or December 12th (though LeBrun throws December 21 into the mix).
In a brief Newsday article (behind a paywall, unfortunately) titled “Ethics appointments: A less-than-swift process for Cuomo,” Yancey Roy writes:
“One report named insider Jeremy Creelan, an administration lawyer who helped draft the law, as likely to head the commission. But Cuomo officials have strongly rebuffed that possibility, citing a legal bar on appointing someone in his position.”
In a lengthy column from yesterday’s Times Union, columnist Fred Lebrun addresses the apparent lack of JCOPE progress in an article titled “Many Questions Linger about State Ethics Panel.”
Much of the article airs out the views of former Lobbying Commission Executive Director David Grandeau, whom LeBrun calls the “noisy watchdog of the ethical watchdogs.”
He quotes Grandeau’s view on the status of the JCOPE:
We are nowhere. Not one of the 14 commissioners has been named, nor the executive director. In two months they’re supposed to be staffed and operational. At the very least, they should have all been appointed by now.
But it’s not just about the lack of appointees Grandeau sees as a problem:
The danger we face is that the new commission will be just like the old commission…Only this time it’s the Cuomo commission, with a far more subtle and devious crowd involved.
LeBrun’s takeaway on it all:
It all comes down to the names we have yet to see for the commission, and what their ties are to the political power structure of either party. And how personally loyal they are likely to be to the governor, rather than the people.