28 November 2021: Editorial - How the NY Assembly Should Seek Truth on Cuomo

Editorial: Seek the truth on Mr. Cuomo

The editors of the Albany Times-Union have a suggestion for how New York's state legislature can pursue the need to expose Andrew M. Cuomo's misconduct in office without getting into the weeds of pursuing a costly impeachment process that is unlikely to succeed against the resigned-in-disgrace former governor under current law.

If the work of investigating the former governor doesn’t feel complete, what’s to be done?

Certainly the Legislature should seek clarity on the constitutional question of impeachment. But it has an unquestioned power that doesn’t require it to wait for the outcome of a potentially lengthy court battle: the power of a legislative body and its various committees to investigate all the questions raised in the various reports that have been done to date. It can, and should, hold public hearings to hear testimony from Mr. Cuomo and his accusers and, even more importantly, all his enablers and the subordinates who did his bidding, willingly or not.

There are real questions to be explored here. What safeguards are needed to keep executive power from running out of control, and to keep agencies like the Department of Health from becoming so politicized? What ethics rules need strengthening to keep public employees from being misused for the private benefit of top officials? What gaps might there be in the state’s sexual harassment training, laws and rules? And what about the matters that weren’t investigated yet, like the Cuomo administration’s handling of safety concerns regarding the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge?

While the Assembly and attorney general’s reports don’t provide closure, they do point a possible way there. Let the truth come out, indeed.

If New York's elected legislators are serious about preventing Cuomo's documented abuses of power from being repeated in the future, they have serious options to pursue them. How serious are they?