30 September 2021: Pressure on Hochul to Oust Cuomo Loyalist Heading State's Open Government Committee

Coalition urges Gov. Hochul to overhaul Open Government Committee

Pressure is being put on replacement Governor Kathy Hochul to remove the Andrew M. Cuomo-appointee heading New York's Committee on Open Government, Shoshanah Bewlay.

A good government group charged Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday to change the head of the state Committee on Open Government — an appointee of disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s — and reconstruct the agency’s structure to keep her promise of running a transparent administration.

The state Coalition for Open Government sent a letter to Hochul urging her to make significant changes within the agency as she has vowed to operate a more open and trustworthy state government since she became the state’s 57th governor Aug. 24.

“In order for you to achieve a new era of transparency, you must rid yourself of appointees selected through Cuomo’s flawed way of doing public business,” Coalition for Open Government President Paul Wolf wrote in Wednesday’s letter. “Several Cuomo appointees have recently resigned from their positions. The same house cleaning needs to occur at the Committee on Open Government.”

Committee on Open Government Executive Director Shoshanah Bewlay assumed the role in 2020 after longtime director Bob Freeman resigned in June 2019 over accusations of sexual misconduct involving female reporters.

Wolf sharply criticized Bewlay’s appointment, which took place behind closed doors, and highlighted her past record of denying each of 10 appeals of FOIL requests denied to the Albany Times Union when she worked as an attorney.

The same housecleaning needs to be applied through every department of New York's state government.