May 15, 2015

Governor Cuomo
Executive Chamber
Capitol
Albany, NY 12224

Senate Majority Leader Flanagan

New York State Senate
Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12247

Senate Co-Leader Klein

Senate Minority Leader Stewart-Cousins
New York State Senate
New York State Senate
Legislative Office Building Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12224
Albany, NY 12247

Assembly Speaker Heastie

New York State Assembly
Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12248
Assembly Minority Leader Kolb
New York State Assembly
Legislative Office Building
Albany, NY 12248

Re: New Yorks unfinished ethics agenda

Dear Messrs. Cuomo, Flanagan, Klein, Heastie, Kolb and Ms. Stewart-Cousins:
In light of recent criminal charges against another prominent political leader, New Yorkers need
assurances that their elected leaders are appropriately and comprehensively responding to the ongoing
ethics scandals in Albany. As such, we urge you to enact further reforms prior to the end of the
legislative session in June. The Moreland Commissions Preliminary Report offers important measures
that should be part of any reform package. Specifically, we urge that ethics reforms be placed among the
top end-of-session legislative priorities. Such reforms should include:
1. strengthening the state ethics watchdogs to bolster their independence and public accountability;
2. considering limits on lawmakers outside employment; and
3. closing the LLC loophole created by the Board of Elections, and other critical campaign finance
reforms.
Reading the most recent complaint, one has a strange sense of dj vu:
1. The complaint identifies, once again, the problems that arise from the outside employment of
elected officials.
2. The complaint identifies, once again, how the states LLC loophole is used to funnel massive
amounts of money by magnifying NYs already generous campaign contributions in a way that
also masks the true identities of the donors.
3. The complaint identifies, once again, how some individuals apparently circumvent the states
lobbying disclosure requirements.
Of course, whether the alleged facts are true and laws have been broken is up to the legal system to
ultimately determine. However, there can be no doubt that the states ethics laws are currently
inadequate, as the Moreland Commissions report so aptly illustrated, and that the public strongly
supports the enactment of further reforms.

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As part of this years budget agreement, you agreed to a number of changes in the states ethics laws.
And as you know, our organizations felt that the agreement, while an improvement, was inadequate to
address the full scope of the problem. The new ethics agreement did not limit the amount of outside
income an elected official can earn, which most of our groups believe was and is an essential part of any
acceptable solution.1 The recent changes will, however, add useful information to what is publicly
disclosed about lawmakers outside income in at least some cases lawmakers will now have to disclose
the names of their clients a welcome measure we strongly sought when the Public Integrity Reform Act
(PIRA) was enacted in 2011, but were unable to secure at that time. Unfortunately, the agreement did
allow for blanket exemptions from disclosure, as well as a process to exempt disclosure of individual
clients under certain circumstances.
In addition, the agreement advanced but the legislature has not yet codified a measure to punish
convicted public officials with the possible loss of their pensions even if they were in office prior to
2012. Other changes included:
1.
2.
3.
4.

verification that lawmakers are in Albany in order to obtain per diems;

some restrictions on the personal use of campaign contributions;
new disclosures by those making independent expenditures in campaigns;
greater funding for the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) so it can be better equipped
to enforce the law;
5. the expansion of lobbying disclosure requirements to include advocacy before local governments
in which their jurisdictions had populations in excess of 5,000, an improvement over the old law
whose population cut-off was 50,000; and
6. a renewed call for the appointment of a commission to review the states ethics oversight entities,
which has since been appointed.
At that time, our organizations argued that these steps were simply insufficient to fully address the parade
of scandals that have engulfed Albany and will do little to restore the publics growing cynicism about its
own state government.
These improvements were reactive rather than comprehensive, and put nothing more than another dent in
the problem of public corruption.
Moreover, since passage of the budget, another high ranking official has been criminally charged
for ethical misconduct and another has pled guilty in federal court.
The ethical problems that have plagued Albany too often include controversies surrounding lawmakers
use of their public office for private gain and pay-to-play schemes at the highest levels of government.
Relying on added disclosure requirements alone to address such potential conflicts does not fix that
problem. Rather, the conflict of serving both the public interest while earning private income is best
solved by further limiting the conflict and putting a cap on outside income.
At the same time, we supported the creation of a quadrennial commission to examine compensation
issues, which was part of the final ethics agreement contained in the budget, but whose independence
must be secured. While some have argued that no other state has a cap on outside income, we respond
that until the Congress established it, no legislature had such a system. And the Congress established its
system for reasons that echo in Albany today.

The League does not have a position on whether or not the outside income of lawmakers should be limited.

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As the bipartisan task force that drafted the federal law observed, the limits and restrictions were designed
to ensure that:
. . . Members are not using their positions of influence for personal gain or being affected by the
prospects of outside income. . . .
Moreover, it remains to be seen whether New Yorks ethics agreement actually closes a large loophole in
outside income disclosure. This loophole has allowed lawyer-legislators who are of counsel or who
dont have particular clients to be paid by law firms with clients that do big business with the state to
shield the nature, details and source of income for their work from public disclosure.
Any ethics agreement is only as good as the agencies charged with its enforcement. New Yorks ethics
enforcement entitiesJCOPE and the Legislative Ethics Commissionrequire substantial improvement.
While we agree that the additional work will require supplemental resources and are pleased that
additional funding is provided in this budget, reforms must also be enacted to ensure that these oversight
agencies can adequately protect the publics interest. We are encouraged by the appointment of the
review commission, but believe there are clear changes that could be made prior to its development of
recommendations.
New Yorkers should have every expectation that this most recent rash of ethics scandals, coming on the
heels of the criticisms of the inadequate ethics deal in the budget, would have spurred another ethics
reform effort. Unfortunately, there have been some public statements that no such additional actions are
needed.
New Yorkers deserve a serious response before legislators go home to their constituents for the summer,
not after the next ethics scandal.
Inaction in the face of the continuing ethics scandals is unacceptable. We appreciate your consideration
of these ideas and we look forward to working with you to strengthen regulation, oversight and the
enforcement of the states ethics laws.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Norden, Deputy Director,
Democracy Program
Brennan Center for Justice

Dick Dadey, Executive Director

Citizens Union

Susan Lerner, Executive Director

Common Cause New York

Sally Robinson, President

League of Women Voters of New York State

Blair Horner, Legislative Director

NYPIRG

John Kaehny, Executive Director

Reinvent Albany

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