31 March 2021: Stonewalling Within NY's Ethics Commission to Protect Governor Cuomo

Cuomo book details elusive, even for ethics commissioner

This report suggests Governor Cuomo's book deal is avoiding scrutiny by members of New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) through the stonewalling of its new chair, Cuomo-appointee Camille Joseph Varlack, who has not made information used by the ethics watchdog's staff to approve Governor Cuomo's pandemic book deal available to other commission appointees or the public.

It’s not just the general public that’s in the dark on details of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s book deal: Even some members of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics are having trouble getting information.

For the past six weeks, JCOPE Commissioner Gary Lavine has been trying to get JCOPE’s new chair, Camille Joseph Varlack, to provide commissioners with additional information about the publication of the book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.” JCOPE commissioners are supposed to have oversight of New York public officials' requests to earn outside income.

Lavine, an appointee of state Senate Republicans, told the Times Union that Varlack's response has been that she’s still getting up to speed in her new role — and has not provided anything yet.

“It’s a gigantic taffy pull – just stretch out everything,” Lavine said. “And that’s what Varlack is doing.”

JCOPE commissioners never voted to approve Cuomo’s book deal. Instead, last summer, the governor's request was approved solely by the commission’s staff....

“They have a cohort of ‘super-commissioners’ that are getting information that should be disseminated to all of us,” Lavine said. “We have no information about the book other than the request and the granting of permission.”

The 'super-commissioners' refers to Democratic party members of the commission who were appointed by Governor Cuomo, who would appear to get information that is not shared with other commissioners.

Regardless, the stonewalling in providing data to commissioners that is already in its staff's possession by the commission's chair suggests Governor Cuomo's abuse of power extends even into the state's official ethics watchdog.