News from Today’s JCOPE Meeting

JCOPE held its August meeting this morning (read the agenda here), meeting for just over 20 minutes in public session, and then adopting a motion to enter into executive session.

Some news from the public portion of the meeting:

New Hires. Executive Director Ellen Biben announced the hiring of two new staffers.  Letizia Tagliafierro has been hired as JCOPE’s Director of Investigations and Enforcement.  Most recently, she was with Gov. Cuomo’s intergovernmental affairs office.  Barry Fenner (I hope I spelled Barry’s name correctly) has been hired as a forensic auditor.

Revision of Reportable Business Relationship Guidelines. In response to comments received on its proposed guidelines regarding “reportable business relationships,” JCOPE made some revisions to its guidelines.  Ms. Biben explained the changes that were made, and the revised guidelines were approved by the Commissioners.  JCOPE staff will finalizing their forms to reflect the final guidelines, and will be sending an e-blast out to the regulated community.  Both steps are expected to occur before the end of the week.

I have not yet had a chance to closely analyze the revised guidelines, but my initial reading is that JCOPE has done a good job of narrowing the reporting mandate to something that will be workable both for JCOPE staff and for the regulated community.

The guidelines now exclude from the reporting mandate “medical, dental and mental health services and treatment,” as well as “legal services with respect to investigation or prosecution by law enforcement authorities, bankruptcy or domestic relations matters.”

The guidelines also state that certain transactions need not be reported, so long as they are conducted on the same terms as with the general public — commercial and business loans, the provision of goods and services, and dividends or payments related to securities.

I hope to take a closer look at these guidelines in the near future.

Finally, Ms. Biben reminded the Commissioners of JCOPE’s responsibility to obtain financial disclosure statements from state legislative candidates.  She said that later this week JCOPE will begin posting the name of those candidates, who have not filed their financial disclosures with JCOPE.