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Seiler: JCOPE s got 99 problems
But, contrary to Cuomo s opinion, the inability to sanction legislators directly isn t one
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Logo at the entrance to the NYS Joint Commission on Public Ethics offices in Albany, NY, Tuesday May 28, 2013. (John Carl D Annibale / Times Union)John Carl D Annibale, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER / Albany Times Union
At no point in the sad decade-long history of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics has anyone ever said that the major flaw in its structure was the fact that it can t directly sanction misbehaving members of the state Legislature.
Until last week, that is, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo was asked if he supported a bill that would reform JCOPE s goofy appointment system, which grants state Senate Republicans the power to name three commissioners to the panel while the chamber s supermajority Democrats only get one appointee, and voting requirements that can stand in the way of investigations even when they re supported by a majority
PUBLISHED 1:37 PM ET May. 26, 2021 PUBLISHED 1:37 PM EDT May. 26, 2021
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the stateâs watchdog ethics panel âmeaninglessâ on Wednesday, following an attempt by the State Senate to pass legislation overhauling the agency.
The Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or JCOPE, was created by Cuomo in his first term in office but has long been criticized by both sides of the aisle for its lack of transparency and its close ties to the governor.
The dam broke just a few weeks ago, when it was revealed that JCOPE staffers were the ones to secretly give Cuomo approval for his controversial $5.1 million book deal, as first reported by the New York Post.
Accuser speaks out in CBS interview
One of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s harshest critics blasted the governor again Sunday, implying he was a hypocrite for refusing to resign after facing more accusations of sexual harassment that brought Cuomo’s list of accusers to at least five women.
Republican U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis noted in a Twitter post that Cuomo referred to calls for his departure anti-democratic, despite having called for other New York officials to step down following their own alleged transgressions.
The sexual harassment scandals Malliotakis cited in her tweet involved the following officials: Vito Lopez, who resigned from the New York state Assembly in 2013; Dennis Gabryszak, who resigned from the state Assembly in January 2014; and Micah Kellner, a New York state Assembly member and onetime aide to U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer who declined to seek reelection in 2014 after allegations against him.