Name: Lawmakers seek to bypass Cuomo, overhaul state ethics panel
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Lawmakers seek to bypass Cuomo, overhaul state ethics panel

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateALBANY — An increasing number of state legislators are seeking to bypass Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo by pursuing a constitutional amendment, leaving it to New York's voters to replace a state ethics panel that has been accused of brushing aside wrongdoing — including allegations of sexual harassment and government corruption.The latest push to dismantle the Joint Commission on Public Ethics comes after that Cuomo was allegedly briefed on the details of the commission's closed-door deliberations early last year, around the time the panel voted whether to investigate the misuse of government resources by Joseph Percoco, a former top aide to the governor who is in federal prison for a bribery conviction.JCOPE was formed in 2011 under an agreement by Cuomo and two former legislative leaders — Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos — who were both subsequently pushed out of office due to their unrelated convictions on federal corruption charges. Although it had been touted as an independent enforcement body that would restore the public's confidence in state government, JCOPE has for years been mired in criticism that its politically appointed members are not independent.Following the Times Union's report last November, which revealed the inspector general's office had for nine months investigated the leak allegation but closed the case as unable to be substantiated, lawmakers in Albany have cited the alleged meddling and revived their calls for breaking apart JCOPE.Sen. Liz Krueger, D-New York, was flanked by more than a dozen lawmakers and good-government advocates at the Capitol on Wednesday as she explained why she believes pursuing&nbsp;a constitutional amendment is better than passing legislation that would require the governor's signature."I actually think Gov. Cuomo is the one person who might like the way it's working now, and he doesn't get a vote in a constitutional amendment," Krueger said. "The people get the vote, and we have to listen to them."The path proposed by Krueger, which is being sponsored by Brooklyn Assemblyman Robert C. Carroll in that chamber, would require two consecutively elected Legislatures to pass the resolution for a constitutional change — presumably the current houses and the ones that will be elected in November — before it could be presented to voters on the ballot. The earliest that could happen is next year.Krueger's proposal, co-sponsored in that chamber by four other Democratic senators — Allesandra Biaggi, James Gaughran, Robert Jackson and Jen Metzger — would abolish JCOPE and the Legislative Ethics Commission, which went years without meeting, and replace them with the state Government Integrity Commission, a panel that would have a majority of its members appointed by judges.A few hours after Krueger and the supporters of her bill spoke, Cuomo sidestepped questions about the legislative push during a Capitol news conference. “I haven’t heard it, so I’ll see what they put forth,” he said.Several hours after Cuomo was asked about the issue, his spokesman, Richard Azzopardi, cast doubt on the prospects of Krueger's bill gaining traction."Sen. Krueger has proposed this bill for three years and it has never even passed the state Senate," Azzopardi said. "There are thousands of individual legislative opinions, but a basic test of credibility is whether it passes their own house and the test of relevance is whether it passes both."A day earlier, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said she has to fill a vacancy on JCOPE's panel, in part, because of the stigma associated with its alleged lack of independence.Krueger said Stewart-Cousins' position is understandable. She and other lawmakers noted that JCOPE doesn't disclose whether it has opened an investigation — even to a victim of sexual harassment. Its deliberations take place in secret, its records are not subject to the state's Freedom of Information Law, and someone who files a complaint is often never informed of what happened to their case."If I was her, I wouldn't want to be associated with this group in any way, shape or form," Krueger said of the majority leader. "I'm not sure that I think that she is wrong to just step away from this."JCOPE has 14 commissioners: three appointed by the temporary president of the Senate, three by the Assembly speaker, one each by the Senate and Assembly minority leaders, and six by the governor. But the governor appoints the chair of JCOPE, and two of his appointees can block an investigation."Transparency and democracy are important. JCOPE has neither," Carroll said. "This constitutional amendment would bring transparency, it would bring democracy to our ethics. ... It will actually make our government run better, and it will make it more just."

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateALBANY — An increasing number of state legislators are seeking to bypass Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo by pursuing a constitutional amendment, leaving it to New York's voters to replace a state ethics panel that has been accused of brushing aside wrongdoing — including allegations of sexual harassment and government corruption.The latest push to dismantle the Joint Commission on Public Ethics comes after that Cuomo was allegedly briefed on the details of the commission's closed-door deliberations early last year, around the time the panel...

Lawmakers seek to bypass Cuomo, overhaul state ethics panel

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