New York State Explainers

In Brief: Why Can’t New York Build an Effective Ethics Agency?

In a state known for scandals, Albany’s ethics enforcement has long been criticized.

Chris Bragg · November 22, 2024

The interior of the New York State Capitol.

Inside the New York State Capitol in Albany. | Image via Flickr, Johannes Thiel + Illustration by NY Focus

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In Brief articles are short explanations of important topics, agencies, and questions affecting the Empire State and its citizens. Do you have a question we can answer? Ask it here.

New York has faced the same conundrum for decades: how to build an effective ethics watchdog agency.

The tension is structural: The state legislature and the governor are responsible for passing any law that creates an ethics agency, yet those are the very same people the agency will scrutinize — and potentially penalize.

Good-government groups have long argued that the laws creating New York’s ethics agencies have led to bodies that lack true independence from those regulated.

Over the decades, criticism of the ethics agency has intermittently spurred lawmakers to replace it with a new one — which has then come under fire itself. One constant throughout the cycle: The commissioners of these various iterations have always been appointed by the state politicians they oversee.

That criticism most recently came to a head during the governorship of Andrew Cuomo, who created the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) through a 2011 ethics reform law.

Cuomo earned a reputation for resisting independent scrutiny, and the body came to be viewed at times as a tool for the governor. That culminated with a 2019 controversy over the apparent leak of confidential information to Cuomo concerning a commission vote over whether to investigate one of his top aides.

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After Cuomo resigned in 2021, many of his JCOPE appointees were replaced, and the agency began more aggressively pursuing investigations into Cuomo, including his use of government staff to complete a book that netted him $5 million.

Governor Kathy Hochul pledged to do away with JCOPE, and initially proposed a new body with commissioners who’d be various New York law school deans. But the Democratic-controlled legislature balked at relinquishing any control of the ethics panel.

In a compromise, lawmakers eventually approved a plan whereby statewide elected officials and the legislature would still appoint the 11 commissioners, but the appointments would be approved by a panel composed of law school deans.

Since its inception in July 2022, the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (COELIG) has been relatively quiet, and has not successfully completed any enforcement case against a current or former elected official. But after more than two years of existence, the body did announce in October that it had reached four settlements totaling $338,000 — though they all involved state agency employees or lobbyists, not elected officials.

COELIG hears cases concerning the misuse of government resources, potential violations of “revolving door” laws, alleged sexual harassment, illegal gifts given to public officials, and more.

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After its formation, the body continued an enforcement case against Cuomo over his potential misuse of taxpayer resources to write his book. The ex-governor then filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the commission, arguing it was unconstitutional. Cuomo argued that a commission that exercises executive authority cannot cede appointment power to the legislature and that the creation of an unelected panel with the power to veto appointments is illegal.

Cuomo’s argument won in state Supreme Court, and that ruling was upheld in a mid-level appellate court. Now, the state Court of Appeals will make the final decision about whether COELIG will be dissolved.

In the meantime, the Cuomo rulings have hindered the commission’s ability to pursue other enforcement cases.

In a May lawsuit, for instance, former senator Jeffrey Klein echoed Cuomo’s argument that the body is unconstitutional and lacks the legal authority to conduct investigations. A state Supreme Court justice sided with Klein, ordering the commission to halt a planned hearing to consider evidence that Klein once forcibly kissed a female staffer. (Klein denies the staffer’s allegation.)

If Cuomo is successful, it will also become even more difficult for lawmakers to pass any state law making the ethics commission independent of the governor.

One recourse — which a majority of state lawmakers have declined to support — would be to pass a proposed constitutional amendment enshrining an ethics commission with fewer appointees with ties to state lawmakers.

COELIG also enforces the state lobbying law and is responsible for maintaining a website containing thousands of filings disclosing the activities of state lobbyists and their clients. In addition, the agency collects financial disclosure statements from state elected officials, executive branch employees, and others; conducts training on lobbying and ethics laws, including a mandatory training for more than 300,000 executive branch employees; and issues guidance to public officials and lobbyists seeking advice about how to follow those laws.

This year’s budget agreement appropriated about $8 million to fund COELIG. The body’s main office is in downtown Albany, and it has a second office in Manhattan.

Currently, three of the commissioners are appointed by the governor; two each by Senate and Assembly Democrats, the parties that hold the majority in those chambers; one each by the minority Assembly and Senate Republicans; one by the state comptroller; and one by the attorney general. Unlike the prior ethics agency, COELIG members can receive substantial per diem payments for their work on the commission.