Group Issues Report Critical of JCOPE’s Lobbying Reporting System

Reinvent Albany logoReinvent Albany, a good government group, issued a report today which finds that “lobbying activity is not nearly as transparent” because the Joint Commission on Public Ethics’ (JCOPE’s)  online lobbying filing system is “antiquated and outdated.”

(Read the group’s press release and the full report.)

The group looked at 52,703 client semi-annual lobbying reports filed between 2007 and January 2017 with JOCPE and its predecessor agencies.  It found that while the 2011 Public Integrity Reform Act “positioned New York as a national leader in disclosure and transparency of lobbying activity in law, the changes in statute have not been as fully realized in practice.”

The group’s recommendations include:

  • updating JCOPE’s filing system so that lobbyists and clients can enter their lobbying data in a standardized form through web forms and drop down menus;
  • providing examples of best practices in reporting to compliance officers and include it as part of JCOPE training programs; and
  • having JCOPE “examine data reported to ensure its integrity and conformance with the law,” and checking with lobbyists and clients to ensure reporting accurately reflects their lobbying activity.

A JCOPE spokesperson responded by noting that JCOPE is “currently involved in a major IT project to update and improve the lobbying filing system and upgrade the technology behind it…which will address many of the concerns raised in the report. He also said that JCOPE’s proposed lobbying regulations will address other issues with inconsistent reporting.

Read news coverage from the Capitol Confidential blog and the State of Politics blog.