Cuomo’s counsel talks end-of-session ethics reform strategy

With two months left in the session, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s counsel signaled that the administration would accept less than the full package of ethics reform bills in front of the Legislature.

“The governor would like to see all of (the proposals) passing. That’s why we introduced them,” Counsel to the Governor Alphonso David on Wednesday. “We understand that the appetite in the Assembly might be greater for some pieces. Same in the Senate. And our job is to negotiate the best possible package. We’ll wait to see what happens and the middle of June is our deadline.”

Watch a clip of David’s comments here:

David was speaking at City & State Reports’ government ethics conference at Albany Law School. He spoke at length about the importance of ethics laws and outlined those currently in place, focusing especially on those enacted during Cuomo’s five years as executive, like the Public Integrity Reform Act which created the Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

To a room filled largely with government employees, David also gave a less-often-heard reason for ethics reform, saying that the perception of a corrupt Albany is keeping more good, honest players from joining government.

“The recent arrests and convictions and indictments have cast a cloud over those that serve in government,” David said, calling it a disincentive for potential public servants. “And it makes it difficult for people to stay because they’re not inclined to have their lives under a microscope in many cases, and they’re not interested in having their names aligned with others for conduct that they have nothing to do with.”

Calls for ethics legislation have been widespread after a year in which both the Assembly speaker and Senate majority leader were convicted on corruption charges. An April 5 Quinnipiac poll showed almost half of respondents in favor of replacing every single state legislator with ones who can revamp ethics in Albany. Cuomo had included ethics reform legislation in his executive budget released in January, including provisions to limit lawmakers’ outside income and to close the so-called LLC loophole, which allows individuals to exceed political donation limits by giving through limited liability companies. But by the time the budget passed on April 1, those reforms had been left out, with the governor blaming the Legislature for lacking a desire to see such changes.

That lack of desire was represented at Wednesday’s conference by former Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch’s presentation later in the day, during which the long-serving Albany figure insulted the main ethics proposals in short order. He called the idea of a full-time Legislature “silly,” a provision on limiting outside income “absolutely absurd” and the idea of term limits “equally absurd.” He did, however, agree with the Cuomo administration about closing the LLC loophole, a practice he described as “a disgrace.”

With many in the Assembly and Senate sharing Ravitch’s views, David looked ahead to the negotiations that will occur over the next two months.

“With the end of the legislative session in sight – which is the middle of June – the question has now become a strategic one,” he said. “What do we do? How do we get this done? How do we convince all, or a majority of elected officials to vote for laws that will directly affect them? In many instances, negatively affect them?”

The answers to those questions may lie with the voters, eager to see either change or a clean house.