Governor Cuomo: JCOPE Fine Tuning “To be Expected”

Gov. Cuomo appeared on “The Capitol Press Room” this morning and discussed, among other things, the recent controversy facing the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) with respect to a possible information leak about JCOPE pursuing an investigation.

Click here to listen to the interview. (The JCOPE discussion begins at the 1:00 of the interview, and runs for about 10 minutes.)

Gov. Cuomo said the laws and procedures governing the state’s new ethics agency may need to be improved, but said it is not certain that there was an illegal information leak about an investigation of Senator Tom Libous (R-Binghamton).

The Governor said:  “You can’t have these government agencies being used for political campaigns,” and he noted that it is somewhat common for political candidates to try to besmirch their opponents with allegations of corruption.

The issue arose after Democratic Binghamton Mayor Matthew Ryan filed a sworn complaint with JCOPE asking them to investigate testimony given by an admitted felon in a Yonkers corruption trial.  The individual testified that Senator Libous use his office to have a law firm hire his son.

Gov. Cuomo said that JCOPE is something of a work on progress:

“Whether through JCOPE or through legislation, we’ll fine tune it this year.  And my guess is this will continually be fine-tuned as we go along.”

Over the weekend, an article in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle asked whether the Senate’s GOP Majority will do what they did in 2007 and pursue a legislative investigation into the potential leak.