Good-government groups hail it as a major step forward, but the reforms offered in a 307-page report on the state’s ethics “watchdog” amount to little more than lipstick on a pig.
They’re fine — as far as they go. But they don’t come close to addressing the core reason the Joint Commission on Public Ethics has become a joke.
Simply put, JCOPE has no real independence. Its members are appointed by the very people it’s supposed to investigate — Gov. Cuomo and the Legislature.
Even the folks on the “reform” panel were chosen by those very same people — including a governor who doesn’t hesitate to insert his heavy hand on investigative bodies like the late Moreland Commission.
Consider: JCOPE’s first executive director, Ellen Biben, had been Cuomo’s inspector general and earlier a special deputy when he was attorney general.
Replacing her was Letizia Tagliafierro, another ex-Cuomo aide — who on the eve of her own exit last summer hired three former Cuomo staffers to top posts without the commissioners’ OK. One of the three now wants to be the next executive director.
How effective has JCOPE been? For all the legislators whose corruption has been exposed of late, it played a role in ousting just one of them: Assemblyman Vito Lopez.
The reform ideas aim to fix some of JCOPE’s inherent weaknesses — like the fact that a minority of members can block investigations of a political ally, and its secretive, closed-door mentality.
But they’re only recommendations — and some can’t go through unless the Legislature agrees. Good luck there.
Sorry: As things stand these days, there’s only one truly effective weapon against Albany’s culture of corruption — and his name is Preet Bharara.