13 October 2021: JCOPE Commissioner to Try Again to Claw Back JCOPE Staff Approval for Cuomo Book Deal

Cuomo book approval faces new challenge

A member of New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) will try again to rescind the approval Andrew M. Cuomo obtained from a lower level staff member of JCOPE for his $5.12 million pandemic "leadership" book deal. The following excerpt describes the new arguments that will be advanced before the commisson at its next meeting:

After failing by a vote do so at a September meeting, Commissioner Gary Lavine is planning a different tact: A motion arguing that JCOPE staff never had the authority to issue the approval.

In 2012, JCOPE commissioners passed a resolution allowing the executive director of the staff to take certain actions between monthly commissioner meetings. JCOPE staff argues this 2012 resolution granted it authority to approve Cuomo's book deal in July 2020.

But Lavine notes that JCOPE had no executive director in July 2020, when staff approved the Cuomo book deal.

In the absence of an executive director, JCOPE had passed another resolution in 2019, which granted power to exercise authority between meetings jointly to two people: General counsel Monica Stamm and deputy general counsel Martin Levine. Under the resolution, if the two top JCOPE staffers could not agree on a decision, then-JCOPE chairman Michael Rozen would be the tiebreaking vote.

But in the Cuomo book matter, Stamm had recused herself due to a possible conflict-of-interest. That meant that Levine, without Stamm's consent, issued the approval for Cuomo to write "American Crisis," which ended up netting a publishing deal of $5.1 million.

According to Lavine (the commissioner), Levine (the staffer) was not allowed to make the approval alone under the 2019 resolution, without the consent of Stamm.

We appreciate reporter Chris Bragg's extra work to distinguish the two men with very similar sounding names and to describe some of the obscure legalistic gymnastics that characterizes JCOPE as an entity.

Whether the new argument will carry weight with the other commissioners remains to be seen, but it will be interesting to learn which commissioners will try once again to sweep the Cuomo book deal approval under the rug and which will seek to initiate a proper review.