4 October 2021: Hochul Tries Again to Break Cuomo Influence at JCOPE

Seeking break from Cuomo, Hochul announces new ethics chair

As we speculated earlier today, Hochul has indeed identified new people to appoint to JCOPE. The following excerpt from this report identifies who they are and who they're replacing:

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the appointment of two new state ethics commissioners on Monday, including a new chairman to lead the embattled panel that she's pledged to reform.

The new chair of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics is Jose Nieves, a criminal defense attorney from Queens, who formerly worked in the state attorney general's office as deputy chief in the special investigations and prosecutions unit. Nieves also has worked for the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration.

Hochul also appointed Sharon Stern Gerstman, an attorney with a Buffalo law firm, Magavern Magavern Grimm. Her areas of practice have focused on mediation and arbitration, litigation and appellate practice. Gerstman was president of the New York State Bar Association in 2017.

The two appointees are filling the seats formerly held by commissioners Robert Cohen and James Dering, who are resigning. Both had been appointed by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, and had largely defended the governor's interests before the panel. Hochul has sought to distance herself from the former governor, especially after there was pushback following her first round of JCOPE appointments in September.

We'll soon see if these picks pan out any better for her than the last ones did. JCOPE will meet on Tuesday, 5 October 2021 to consider whether the JCOPE commissioners should investigate the JCOPE commission's staff for their role in approving Andrew M. Cuomo's $5.12 million pandemic "leadership" book deal.