Name: Cuomo staff 'volunteered' for work on his book, in apparent violation of ethics rule
Brand: timesunion.com
SKU: timesunion-com-45
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Cuomo staff 'volunteered' for work on his book, in apparent violation of ethics rule

preview

ALBANY – When Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo sought to publish a last July, his government counsel wrote a letter to New York’s ethics oversight agency. In that letter, Cuomo’s special counsel, Judith Mogul, noted past state ethics opinions laying out “guardrails” a state employee must follow when seeking to earn outside income from writing a book.Among the nine longstanding rules cited by Mogul: No “state property, personnel or other resources may be utilized.”"The governor will abide by all nine of the established requirements discussed above," Mogul wrote to the on July 10. "Specifically, he will write the book entirely on his own time, without the use of state resources or personnel."On &nbsp;Wednesday evening, however, the that Cuomo did use a number of state personnel to work on the book, "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” which was published in October 2020.Cuomo reportedly used more junior aides for duties like helping with the manuscript. Also involved were more seniors aides including Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa, who was involved in pitching and editing the book, the Times reported.State ethics watchdog no stranger to controversy, criticismInspector general probed ethics panel's alleged leak to Cuomo: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was on the details of a closed-door JCOPE vote around the time the panel voted on whether to investigate Joseph Percoco, a former top aide to the governor.Uncertain future for JCOPE reform push: Cuomo in offering proposals to fix ethics watchdog.Editorial: The no-bite watchdog: The state ethics watchdog shows yet again that it's not up to its assignment,With forced vote on Percoco probe looming, JCOPE files appeal: Ethics panel that mandated a vote on whether to investigate the activities of Joe Percoco, a former top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.Ethics panel under fire: A scandal involving lawmaker Vito Lopez and the Assembly's handling of sexual harassment allegations against him appears to be on the verge ofEthics overhaul nearing reality: Cuomo prepares to sign , &nbsp;starting a 120-day clock for the creation of the new Joint Commission on Public Ethics.In her July letter to the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics, Mogul had noted that dating back to 1989, five "critical” ethics opinions have defined a “nine-factor test that JCOPE deploys to analyze situations where a state employee wishes to write a book."Among those is the provision that state personnel cannot be used. And in his letter approving Cuomo's book deal on July 17, JCOPE deputy general counsel Martin Levine himself noted the rule, writing that no state "property, personnel or other resources may be utilized for activities associated with the book."A Cuomo senior advisor, Richard Azzopardi, said state employees could work on Cuomo's book because they were volunteering their time. In a brief call on Wednesday evening, Azzopardi compared the situation to rules allowing state employees to volunteer for political campaigns.“As is permissible and consistent with ethical requirements, people who volunteered on this project did so on their own time,” Azzopardi said in a statement.More for youOn Thursday, Azzopardi added that&nbsp;there is "nothing in law or regulation that speaks to a ban on state workers volunteering for a for-profit venture — this simply is not legally a 'thing.'"“While state workers need outside activity approval for several specified compensated and uncompensated outside activities (such as board service), there is nothing in any of the laws or regulations that requires approval for, or in any way limits, how a public officer spends his or her free time," he said in a statement. "In fact, many public officers do engage in for profit activities for themselves or others, and it is entirely OK to volunteer to do work for a for-profit project."It’s not clear what legal precedent the Cuomo administration’s position is based upon. Five past state ethics opinions concerning book royalties, dating back to 1989, never mention anything about volunteering for one's boss. But the opinions do list the prohibition against utilizing state personnel.All of the opinions were written by the New York State Ethics Commission, a predecessor agency to JCOPE. In 1989, when the Ethics Commission published an initial opinion allowing a state employee to earn book royalties, the commission noted in making the approval that staff at the employee’s agency “was not involved in any way in the writing or production of the book.”The rules laid out in the 1989 opinion, including the prohibition against using state personnel, were repeated in subsequent opinions in 1995, 1996, and 1998.Details in the New York Times story also raise the question of whether more junior aides were "volunteering." One&nbsp;aide to Cuomo told the Times that she and others were asked to assist in typing or transferring notes for Cuomo’s book, which the governor composed in part by dictating into a cellphone.“Sorry lady can u print this too and put in a binder,” Stephanie Benton, Director of the Governor's Offices, wrote to another female staffer on Sunday, July 5, the Times reported. “And drop at mansion.”Mogul’s letter, obtained through an open records request Wednesday evening after a five-month delay — and arriving shortly before the Times story was posted online — also does not address the schedule Cuomo planned to keep working on the book, which was written amidst the rigors of managing the COVID-19 pandemic.Here's Mogul's letter:by on ScribdAnd here's the response from JCOPE's Levine:by on ScribdAccording to JCOPE’s website, any state employee seeking to earn outside income must submit information about the "number of hours of work per week" they will spend on the outside activity and "the times and days when the work will be performed." Although quantifying the hours spent crafting a book can be tricky — Cuomo's latest work was largely the product of a diary — there is precedent in the prior opinions for the information to be listed.&nbsp; And JCOPE’s website says that the “additional information MUST be included” when a state employee seeks to earn outside income.Azzopardi told the Times Union in February that before the publication of "American Crisis," all information "required and requested was provided and approval was granted.”When Cuomo sought approval for a first book in 2012, Cuomo’s counsel also did not submit any information concerning Cuomo’s work hours on the project. Nonetheless, in both 2012 and 2020, JCOPE&nbsp;quickly approved Cuomo’s requests.In both instances, the decisions were made by JCOPE staff alone and without a vote by JCOPE’s commissioners. Some of those commissioners, appointed by the state Legislature, since the publication of Cuomo’s book that staff illegally assumed the authority to approve high-level state officials’ income requests.

ALBANY – When Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo sought to publish a last July, his government counsel wrote a letter to New York’s ethics oversight agency. In that letter, Cuomo’s special counsel, Judith Mogul, noted past state ethics opinions laying out “guardrails” a state employee must follow when seeking to earn outside income from writing a book.Among the nine longstanding rules cited by Mogul: No “state property, personnel or other resources may be utilized.”"The governor will abide by all nine of the established requirements discussed above," Mogul wrote to the on July 10. "Specifically, he will...

Cuomo staff 'volunteered' for work on his book, in apparent violation of ethics rule

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS