11 October 2021: Editorial - JCOPE's Sad Progress

Editorial: This is progress, sadly

In its ten years of existence, New York's Joint Committee on Public Ethics (JCOPE) cannot point to many examples of competence in pursuing ethics investigations against corrupt New York state government officials. That is the context behind the Albany Times-Union's editorial, excerpted below:

In this week’s episode of “News that sounds like a punchline,” the Joint Commission on Public Ethics has called for an investigation … of itself. It comes despite hesitancy from the panel’s executive director, who reportedly fretted that an inquiry could hurt morale at JCOPE.

The ineffectual state watchdog is bringing in outside counsel to look into its staff’s approval of Andrew Cuomo’s book deal last year. “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” is the subject of a criminal investigation by the state attorney general’s office because the then-governor used state workers to help him with the book.

The $5.1 million book project got a quick approval from JCOPE staff in July 2020, a month in which the body had no scheduled meeting. It was justified under a resolution that lets staff take certain actions between meetings, though some contend commissioners should have vetted a deal that big.

It’s encouraging to see a measure of accountability coming to JCOPE at last. New Yorkers deserve to know just how dysfunctional its ethics watchdogs are. And as for morale? Sorry, no sympathy here. If anyone should feel down about the quality and value of their work, it’s the folks at JCOPE.

JCOPE seems to have been designed by Andrew M. Cuomo and his supporters in the legislature to reduce the burdens of having to comply with laws and ethical requirements on appointed state government officials.