JCOPE Rejects Requests for Exemptions from ‘Source of Funding’ Disclosure Mandate

At its meeting earlier today, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) rejected requests made by Family Planning Advocates, the New York Women’s Equality Coalition, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms and the New York Civil Liberties Union to keep the identity of their donors private. Commissioners also limited the one exemption that it had already granted – to NARAL Pro-Choice NY – by scheduling it to expire with the group’s July 15, 2014 client semi-annual filing.

The groups can appeal JCOPE’s decision to an independent judicial hearing officer, but there is no indication yet whether any of them plan to do so. (It seems likely that the at least one of the impacted groups will appeal the decision. JCOPE is required to provide a written denial, which it has not yet done. Once that is received, a group planning to appeal has 15 business days to file their appeal with JCOPE.)

By way of background — the state’s 2011 ethics reform law requires some lobbying organizations to disclose their large donors. But the law allowed JCOPE to grant an exemption of exempt some groups if a case could be made that disclosure would put the contributors at risk. The applicant seeking to avoid donor disclosure would have to demonstrate that the disclosure of their donors “may cause harm, threats harassment or reprisals.”

Read my 2011 overview of the donor disclosure provision, and a post from last fall, when JCOPE raised the bar for granting exemptions.

The exemption language, located in Legislative Law § 1-h(c)(4) and § 1-j(c)(4), reads:

This disclosure shall not require disclosure of the sources of funding whose disclosure, in the determination of the commission based upon a review of the relevant facts presented by the reporting lobbyist, may cause harm, threats, harassment, or reprisals to the source or to individuals or property affiliated with the source. The reporting lobbyist may appeal the commission’s determination and such appeal shall be heard by a judicial hearing officer who is independent and not affiliated with or employed by the commission, pursuant to regulations promulgated by the commission. The reporting lobbyist shall not be required to disclose the sources of funding that are the subject of such appeal pending final judgment on appeal.

Read news coverage of the issue from State of Politics, AP, WXXI, Capital NY and Albany Watch.