Albany’s ever productive drapery factory seems to be working overtime and adding new shifts to grind out curtains with more opacity to keep out the sunlight.
Sunlight, after all, is a very powerful disinfectant; allowing too much in might harm even the prolific mold spores that flourish in the sunless spaces of the state Capitol building.
So, what’s a governor to do when the sun gets too bright? Order the drapery factory to work overtime so that the cloakery can continue.
I’m talking about the rumored early disbanding of Gov. Cuomo’s much-heralded Moreland Act Commission — which appeared, at least for a brief shining moment, to actually be going for the jugular.
The commission prepared subpoenas and even issued some — but those were contested by the Legislature, while others have not been issued, reportedly at the governor’s behest.
It seems the threat of too much sunlight alerted our self-preserving leaders to the need to balance it with more darkness.
If, as reported, subpoenas to the state Democratic Party have been blocked, that robs the commission of any shred of credibility it may have left.
The confrontation with the Legislature over the need to disclose outside incomes and clients of lawyer/legislators was the true moment the commission began to threaten the status quo. When the lawmakers resisted, the question became: Would the governor support his commission?
After all, the governor created the commission in a fit of pique at the failure of the Legislature to address reform issues this past session. But then the commission suggested that nothing was off the table, even the governor’s own fund-raising records.
And suddenly we are now hearing about an early exit strategy, with a switch from the effort to actually confront corruption to a far-less-threatening (and protracted) push for public financing of campaigns: Just have the commission recommend amending the state Constitution to allow taxpayer funding of campaigns, and then disband.
Is there any way to achieve real reform?
Some suggest taking the reforming out of the hands of the protectors of the status quo, our elected officials, and giving the power to the people in the form of a freely elected, nonpolitically bound, constitutional convention. But would the forces of the status quo still manage to pull those strings?
This latest effort to close the drapes on Albany’s culture of corruption should be a clarion call for those of us left outside these inner Albany circles to try mightily to turn on the light.
It will take more than a few bright and shiny chandeliers to achieve that goal, but we can start one light bulb at a time. Calling for a constitutional convention might start to flip that switch.
That’s just one potential tool; there are other switches that need to be flipped. We need legislative or judicial fixes to uncloak the communication systems now being used to circumvent the Sunshine Law. The need for a vigilant, on-line Albany press corps has never been greater.
And of course the use of the subpoena by legally authorized special prosecutors has proven to be a powerful weapon in the past, and federal prosecutors have done some fine work in recent months.
We need to inventory the resources to unmask and unfurl Albany’s dense and dark draperies, and start to pull the curtains back to insure that the sunlight begins to pour in. The more, the better.
John Sullivan is a former mayor of Oswego, NY, and former co-chair of the state Democratic Party (1995-’98).