Study: Ethical misconduct increasing as reason for leaving office
Ethical misconduct increasingly is the reason state lawmakers leave office, Citizens Union said in a report released today. Fourteen legislators have left office in the past 10 years because of ethical misconduct, criminal charges or similar issues. Five of them left in the 2007-08 session.
“We are facing not only a fiscal crisis here in New York state, but a rising crisis in ethical misconduct,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union. Citizens Union and other good-government groups—Common Cause/NY, the League of Women Voters and the New York Public Interest Research Group—said the report’s findings demonstrate there is a need for ethics reform. Citizens Union found that most investigations that resulted in turnover have been initiated by law enforcement and not existing ethics oversight bodies.
“It felt like things were getting worse, but now actually there is empirical data to prove it,” said Blair Horner, legislative director for NYPIRG.
The Assembly passed what the civic groups called a “modest ethics reform” bill earlier this year, and the Senate’s bill goes further than the Assembly. The two houses “appear to be working together to agree on final language,” according to the groups.
Any final bill should include the following, the organizations said:
—Safeguards that bar lobbyists, former officials and other interested parties from serving on ethics oversight bodies.
—An appointment process that fosters independent oversight.
—Reasonable, reliable and informative, and transparent financial disclosures.
—Significant investigative and enforcement powers, including in the area of campaign financing, and reasonable audit procedures.
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