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Ethics
Robocall Stands Down As Koch Lauds ‘Prodigal Son’ Hanna
Apr 13th - 3:32 pm
A hero-turned-enemy is back to being a hero.
Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch is celebrating the return of Republican Assemblyman Sean Hanna to his list of “heroes” of reform after the Rochester-area lawmaker signed onto an Assembly bill that would create an independent panel to redraw legislative districts.
From Koch:
“I congratulate Assemblyman Sean Hanna for his decision to co-sponsor this bill,” Mayor Koch said. “I have always said that we hold no grudges, and that anyone who supports the reforms we seek is a “Hero of Reform.” As of today, Assemblyman Hanna remains a “Hero” in my eyes. The robo-calls into his district will be halted immediately.I am especially gratified to know our efforts are working. I hope others will follow Hanna’s lead, whether motivated by our robo-calls or other factors.”"
Hanna, along with more than 40 other legislators from both parties, was the target of a robocall campaign by Koch, which started this week.
The campaign was launched because the former mayor believes the lawmakers are reneging on their promise to enacted reforms in Albany.
Hanna this morning disputed the claim that he was an “enemy” of reform because he did indeed sign onto a independent redistricting bill, just not the one Koch supported.
As Liz reported earlier, Hanna signed onto the bill sponsored by Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, but the correct paperwork was yet to be delivered to the Brooklyn lawmaker’s office at the time of Koch’s robocall announcement.
Senate Dems: Ethics Matters (Updated X2)
Apr 13th - 12:35 pm
Senate Democrats are trying to push the Republican majority into supporting a host of ethics reform measures and are attempting to force the issue by using a Senate rule to get a hearing on the matter.
Senate Democrats used the same trick — albeit unsuccessfully — to get Republicans to have a hearing on creating an independent commission to redraw legislative districts.
But with an economy still struggling to recover, rent control laws due to expire in New York City and a tax cap wanted by a large portion of the public, Senate Democrats may be trying to swim against the tide on the issue.
Senate Democrats disagree, pointing to a Siena College poll earlier this week that showed broad support for an ethics bill.
“Siena released a poll earlier this week showing 60 percent of New Yorkers want ethics reform, specifically transparency,” said Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan. “The public has caught on. There is reason why there is such distrust in the state government in New York.”
Update: Here’s the Republican response, from Senate GOP spokesman Mark Hansen: “The Senate Democrats didn’t pass any of these bills when they were in the majority, but they did violate a few of them. Discussions with the governor and Assembly on ethics reform are ongoing and we are confident we will reach an agreement.”
Updated X2: Senate Democratic spokesman Austin Shafran says, “We passed ethics reform last year that contained many similar components to this year’s ethics package. Like independent redistricting, Republicans supported it and then backed off their promise. This is a clear pattern of broken promises by the Senate GOP.”
Then-Gov. David Paterson vetoed the ethics bill approved by the Legislature when the Democrats held a Senate majority on the grounds it was not strong enough.
Senate Dems Try To Force The Ethics Issue
Apr 13th - 9:39 am
The Senate Democrats are again trying to use a 2009 chamber rule change to their advantage in hopes of forcing a public hearing on their reform agenda, which is contained in five ethics and campaign finance-related bills.
The minority will deliver to the GOP a petition signed by one-third of the Rules Committee members seeking a hearing on these bills. According to the ’09 change, a hearing must be held within two weeks unless the majority of Rules members (read: Republicans) vote not to do so.
The Democrats tried this with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s redistricting bill and got nowhere, although they did receive media attention, which is half the battle. The point, of course, is to force the opposition onto the record with “no” votes and then try to paint them as anti-reform.
The five bills in question are:
- Establishing an independent commission on governmental ethics (S31/Squadron).
- Stripping elected officials convicted of misusing office of pensions (S2333/Krueger).
- Increasing financial and client disclosure requirements (S382/Rivera).
- Restricting the personal use of campaign funds (S3053/Krueger).
- Eliminating Pay to Play (S1565/Addabbo).
Cuomo has been negotiating behind closed doors with legislative leaders over an ethics bill for weeks now (much to the chargin of the NY Times editorial page, which called over the weekend for these talks to go public).
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver insists his chamber has a two-way deal with the governor and the Senate Republicans are balking, but the GOP rejects that allegation.
NOTE: Cuomo said during a press conference last week that there is “no final agreement” on ethics with either house, although “conversations have proceeded further with the Assembly.” (At about the 1:20-minute mark in the video in this link).
Either way, we’ve yet to see any bill language.
A New Indictment For Kruger, Boyland Et Al
Apr 7th - 6:12 pm
Federal officials today released an 11-count superseding indictment of Sen. Carl Kruger and Assemblyman William Boyland, along with those in what law enforcement has described as “broad-based bribery ring.”
New indictments for lobbyist Richard Lipsky, real estate developer Aaron Malinsky, health care consultant Solomon Kalish, former Chief Executive Officer of Parkway Hospital, Robert Aquino, and Michael Turano, a Manhattan-based gynecologist were also issued.
Kruger, Boyland and the others were charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office last month in a bribery scheme that involved allegedly accepting illicit payments in exchange for favors. Kruger himself was accused of accepting cash in exchange for streamlining hospital mergers that allowed him to live a lavish, if not somewhat bizarre, lifestyle.
Those allegedly involved in what U.S. Attorney Preet Bhara said was a wake-up call for Albany on the need for ethics reform were initially charged under a three-county indictment. Under the indictment issued today all eight defendants are now charged in a single indictment.
Kruger and Boyland, both Brooklyn Democrats, are yet to resign their seats. All are due in federal court for an arraignment on April 11. More on the indictment after the jump.
Libous: We’ll Do Ethics, No Timetable
Apr 4th - 4:30 pm
Deputy Senate Majority Leader Tom Libous said the Republican conference would take up an ethics package later this session, but he said it’s unclear what the final bill would look like.
“I have said all along that our conference under Sen. Skelos, we believe in passing the ethics bill, we believe in doing some very strict ethics reform. I think we’re going to get there. I don’t know if there has to be some sort of set time table on getting there. We still have until the end of June and I’m confident that we can get there.”
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, has said an agreement between his chamber and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office on an ethics measure has been made, but Cuomo’s office said nothing has been finalized.
Asked if, as Silver suggested to The Daily News, that the bill should expand the powers of the Commission on Public Integrity to include oversight of the Legislature, Libous said he wasn’t sure.
“I’m not so sure that’s a good thing, but that’s just me. I think that’s up to the negotiators,” he said.
Good Government Groups: Where’s The Ethics Bill? (Updated)
Apr 4th - 12:57 pm
They’ll believe it when they see it.
That’s the reaction from good-government advocates today after Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, told The Daily News that an ethics bill had been agreed to with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos was holding out.
“What’s going to happen, we don’t know yet,” said Blair Horner, the legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “There’s no bill language out, we’ve not seen any. And the discussions seem like a moving target. Certainly we’re hoping for independent oversight and adequate disclosure.”
The Daily News reported today that Silver and the governor have agreed to an ethics package could give the Public Integrity Commission, which oversees the executive branch, the power to investigate the Legislature as well.
The move is most likely an attempt to prod Skelos on passing some sort of ethics measure. Skelos maintained during the budget season that focus should remain on passing a spending plan. The 2011-12 fiscal year budget passed last week.
Reform advocates also want greater disclosure of lawmakers’ outside income and more information on legislators’ whose law firms have clients that do business with the state.
The fact that both houses of the Legislature is home to lawmakers who moonlight as private-practice attorneys (including Silver) could be problematic for a robust ethics law.
“I think that’s going to be the hurdle they have to get over,” said Barbara Bartoletti of the New York League of Women Voters.
In the governor’s back pocket is the power to initiate a Moreland Commission to investigate the Legislature. The move is seen as one similar to Cuomo’s threat to use budget extenders if lawmakers had failed to agree on a spending plan.
“I think that’s his hammer during the ethics discussions,” Bartoletti said. “If the Legislature doesn’t come out with an ethics bill, I think this governor, because he had the experience as an attorney general, I think he would very willing to use it.”
Update — Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto notes in a statement that a formal agreement has not been reached:
“We have had productive conversations with both Assembly and the Senate but this isn’t horseshoes: close doesn’t count. We are focusing on closure one way or the other over the next few weeks.”
Cox Echoes Resignation Call (Updated)
Mar 11th - 12:43 pm
State GOP Chairman Ed Cox is now calling for Sen. Carl Kruger and Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. to resign “immediately,” insisting the federal corruption charges they’re facing “make it impossible for either to execute their responsibilities.”
Cox is not the first person to call on the Democratic duo to step down. I believe that honor belongs to Brooklyn Democratic District Leader Lincoln Restler.
Cox deemed this latest scandal “another new low for the Democrats,” and sought – yet again – to drag former Senator-turned-AG Eric Schneiderman and DSCC Chairman Mike Gianaris into the mix as well.
“After several years of one sensational Democrat scandal after another, one can only wonder how deep the rabbit hole goes here,” Cox said in a lengthy statement.
“…The Senate Democrat Conference, which until recently also included close Kruger associate Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, has been a sad commentary highlighting dysfunction and corruption. We now add yet another name to the list of others including Espada, Sampson and Smith whose ethics and values are at best out of step with New Yorkers starving for leadership and at worst downright criminal.”
“Additionally, it is an outrage that Senate Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman Senator Michael Gianaris is refusing to return almost half a million dollars in dirty campaign contributions from Senator Kruger to the committee. Gianaris’ response that it’s too late because the money was spent, rings hollow with every New Yorker who is repulsed by Kruger’s allegedly illegal fund raising tactics.”
Cox said yesterday during an LCA press room Q-&-A with reporters that corruption at the Capitol is a “Democratic problem.” He walked that back a bit when reminded that the last former lawmaker to go down in a ball of corruption flames was ex-Sen. Vincent Leibell, but apparently he’s had a change of heart yet again on whether to try to use this mess as a political dart.
The chairman never called for Leibell to step down, although at the time the Hudson Valley Republican was in transition from the Senate to the Putnam County executive’s office – a post he never assumed.
UPDATE: A (Republican) reader notes that Cox never had the opportunity to call on Leibell to step down because Leibell resigned his Senate seat before the US Attorney publicly announced the charges…and was on his way out the door anyway. Fair enough. But I don’t recall Cox issuing any statements lamenting the corruption crisis in Albany at that time, either.
Those In Glass Houses…
Mar 11th - 12:35 pm
A reader could not help but noting the irony of this statement from state Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs in response to former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s conviction on federal corruption charges back in May 2010:
“For years, Albany has been described as dysfunctional but the case of Joe Bruno makes it clear that something else has taken firm root in our state’s capitol: corruption.”
“The fact that the state’s highest ranking Republican has been sentenced to prison for abusing the public trust is a loud wake-up call for New York – for the elected officials in Albany AND for the voters who send them there.”
“Something must be done to drain the venality from the swamp of corruption that is consuming Albany and Democrats are committed to using the lessons of the Bruno affair to implement real ethics reforms that are needed to make government work again.”
In other words, state GOP Chairman Ed Cox doesn’t quite have the market cornered on bombastic and misguided finger-pointing.
Less than six months later, of course, the IG released his scathing report on the AEG mess that implicated a number of Senate Democratic leaders, including now-Minority Leader John Sampson, then-Senate President Malcolm Smith and several rank-and-file lawmakers.
The Democrats went on to lose control of the chamber to the Republicans, and now they’re in the crosshairs yet again after their former Finance Committee chairman, Sen. Carl Kruger, has been hit with federal corruption charges in a complaint that makes it clear he tried hard to influence key members of the conference – including “Senate Leader No. 1″ – whoever that might be.
Silver Decries ‘Deplorable’ Actions Of ‘A Few Bad Apples’
Mar 10th - 12:51 pm
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver called the allegations against his conference member, Brooklyn Assemblyman William Boyland Jr., “totally, totally unacceptable” and “deplorable,” adding: “I hope that the criminal justice system will deal with them to the fullest extent of the law.”
Asked if he might seek to punish Boyland internally (according to the assemblyman’s bio, he’s serving as chair of the Subcommittee on Senior Outreach and Activities, which I’m not sure carries a lulu), Silver replied:
“I think the criminal justice system right now is dealing with the issue and let’s see what comes from that.”
Silver reiterated that the Assembly and the governor are in “virtual agreement” on an ethics reform bill and he’s still holding out hope on a three-way agreement in which the Senate would participate.
As for what this latest round of charges does to further deteriorate the image of the Legislature (although how much lower it could sink in the court of public opinion, I’m not so sure), the speaker said:
“I would just say to you that the state Legislature, both sides of the aisle, are made up of hardworking men and women who represent their constituents.”
“As in any field, there are a few bad apples, OK? And I think, not only I think, ultimately they get caught, violate the law and there is full prosecution and that’s what should take place here, and the fullest extent of the law should be nothing but that in these cases.”
Rep. King To Vote ‘No’ On Rangel Censure (UPDATED)
Dec 2nd - 4:48 pm
Republican Congressman Pete King has been silent on whether Rep. Charlie Rangel deserves to be censured… that is until now.
Speaking on the floor of the House just prior to the vote, King said he plans to vote against censure.
“Censure is an extremely severe penalty. In the more than 200 year history of this body, only 22 members have been subjected to censure. None in more than a quarter century,” King said.
“If expulsion is the equivalent of the death penalty, censure is life imprisonment.
“I have found no case where charges similar or analogous to those against Congressman Rangel resulted in censure — a penalty thusfar reserved for such serious violations as supporting armed insurrection against the United States and the sexual abuse of minors.”
UPDATE: Here is video of King’s remarks:
King’s full remarks appear after the jump.
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