17 April 2022: Opinion - A Non-Fond Farewell to JCOPE

Seiler: A non-fond farewell to JCOPE

Casey Seiler is the editor of the Albany Times-Union. In the following excerpt from his editorial marking the coming end of New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), he underscores the absence of effective ethics oversight, investigations, and prosecutions among the people serving the bodies that are supposed to be watchdogs for the public's interests:

"Uphill" is, of course, the best adjective to define the future course of New York's battle with public corruption, as evidenced last week by the speedy resignation of Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin. The federal indictment unsealed Tuesday morning describes a quid pro quo scheme so transparent that it could have involved the exchange of two burlap bags each printed with a dollar sign.

After no doubt breathing a sigh of relief at Benjamin's hasty exit, Gov. Kathy Hochul defended herself by noting that he had allegedly lied during the vetting process that ended with his appointment last summer as the next in the line of succession to significant executive power — a gig that has given us two of the last three governors (David Paterson and Hochul), and is therefore rather important.

New Yorkers deserve to know more about whether Hochul's administration robustly questioned Benjamin after his benefactor, real estate baron Gerald Migdol, was indicted in November on felony charges of making fraudulent campaign contributions to the former state senator's campaign for New York City comptroller. As recently as two weeks ago, Hochul was expressing "utmost confidence" in her lieutenant even after the Daily News reported he had failed to let her know he had been subpoenaed in the Migdol matter. Loyalty is a wonderful thing in politics as in life, but her failure to extract as much as a public mea culpa from Benjamin was telling.

The case against Benjamin was brought by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, continuing that office's near-total dominance in the field of state corruption prosecutions. Once again sitting on the sidelines was the Northern District (which hasn't brought a notable or even banal corruption case since its pursuit of Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno in 2009), the Albany County district attorney's office, and JCOPE.

The absence of corruption prosecutions in these places, despite multiple federal convictions involving New York state government officials, is an indication that Albany's top politicos have too much influence and control over the legal system in these jurisdictions.

For his part, Seiler rightfully recognizes the Albany Times-Union's coverage of Albany's continuing series of corruption cases involving state and local government figures. Along with the New York Post, the newspaper has done much to break many of the stories the timeline has featured involving Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals and other ethical failures.