ALBANY - New York's biggest political scandal in decades has prompted promises of reform by a Legislature that has long protected its power and perks.
Some of the changes proposed might lead to some head-scratching from New Yorkers outside the Capitol who pay for those perks.
Still other changes called for this week might help turn around a state government seen as stalled by the combative relationship between a new, headstrong Democratic governor and an entrenched Legislature, led by Senate Republicans fighting to cling to power.
“These are uncommon times,” said Republican Sen. George Winner of Elmira at the opening of Thursday's meeting to consider reforms in the wake of the scandal. “The governor's office must be beyond suspicion. Right now, that is not the case.” Winner called for “legislative remedies ... to government abuses.”
Most calls for reform in Albany, of course, end as just that: Calls.
But this scandal, so much hotter than others, may be one of those turning points in which Albany has historically reformed itself, even if partly for self-preservation. Think of the 1920s when Gov. Alfred E. Smith took on a state government in chaos, created the first executive budget and helped reform a Legislature run amok. More recently, lawmakers themselves enacted modest reforms to open up the process after a 2004 report called New York's the worst legislature in the nation.
In this scandal, the Democratic attorney general has said two aides to Gov. Eliot Spitzer plotted to embarrass Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno by using state police to compile records of Bruno's use of state aircraft and a state police driver.
Chief among this week's reform proposals is one that goes to the heart of the scandal. Republican senators are calling for a “bright line” in the use of state aircraft that says government officials could only use helicopters and planes for state business, not political events. It's a not-so-radical idea pushed by good-government groups - and ignored by legislators - for years.
Current law, called “porous” by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, allows the use of state aircraft for any reason, as long as some piece of each trip is considered state business. Cuomo's report on the Spitzer scandal determined Bruno spent less than an hour on state business one day this spring when he used the state helicopter to fly to Manhattan on the day of a Republican fundraiser. State business on other days, the probe found, included meetings with lobbyists, most of whom Bruno often meets with in Albany. Democrats call them “alibi meetings.”
“There should be a bright line standard,” said Blair Horner of Cuomo's public integrity section and former head of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “Aircraft should be used for public business ... not mixed use.”
Another reform would give the attorney general automatic subpoena power if the office of the inspector general, appointed by the governor, runs into a conflict of interest in an investigation of the administration. Right now, the Inspector General's Office needs to refer the case to the attorney general before his Public Integrity Unit can use subpoenas to compel testimony and records from the executive branch.
The lack of subpoena power for the state's best-staffed investigator of government misconduct is a glaring gap compared to other states, Cuomo's staff said during Thursday's Senate meeting.
Republican senators like the idea of an automatic referral. They are upset that Spitzer-appointed Inspector General Kristine Hamann said she didn't discover a potential conflict of interest in her probe of the Spitzer administration scandal until it was too late to transfer subpoena power to Cuomo.
The irony of the Republicans' call for reform wasn't lost on Senate Democrats. They said the inspector general's office wasn't much of a watchdog on the previous Republican administration of Gov. George Pataki, who frequently used state aircraft to mix business with politics.
Other reforms under discussion concern the public's right to see government documents. Proposals by the Senate Republicans would require that Freedom of Information Law requests be handled by the department or agency where the records are kept. They noted that if this were the case, the Spitzer administration aides who worked with state police to collect Bruno's records wouldn't have been involved.
There was no mention of another long-ignored call from the good-government groups - for the Legislature to finally make itself subject to FOIL.
As for Spitzer, he has insisted he knew nothing of the plot and would have stopped it. Last week, he promised perhaps the biggest change of all: He vowed to change himself.
The scandal hit him hard, those close to him say, damaging a reputation carefully cultivated over eight years as a reforming attorney general and prompting him to suspend his communications director, Darren Dopp, a friend who helped shape Spitzer's global image.
“Power must be used, but it must be tempered by soul-searching and the recognition of our human capacity for error,” Spitzer told The Chautauqua Institution symposium in Western New York. “That is why there is no place for self-righteousness in my administration. That's my renewed promise to New Yorkers. But, there's also no room to stand down in the face of a still-powerful status quo. That's the promise that sent me to Albany.”
Scandals and calls for reform are not new in Albany. But the polls show the difference this time, however, may be that many New Yorkers are watching.
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Michael Gormley is the capitol editor for The Associated Press. He can be reached by e-mail at mgormley(at)ap.org.
AP-ES-08-11-07 1209EDT
Still other changes called for this week might help turn around a state government seen as stalled by the combative relationship between a new, headstrong Democratic governor and an entrenched Legislature, led by Senate Republicans fighting to cling to power.
“These are uncommon times,” said Republican Sen. George Winner of Elmira at the opening of Thursday's meeting to consider reforms in the wake of the scandal. “The governor's office must be beyond suspicion. Right now, that is not the case.” Winner called for “legislative remedies ... to government abuses.”
Most calls for reform in Albany, of course, end as just that: Calls.
But this scandal, so much hotter than others, may be one of those turning points in which Albany has historically reformed itself, even if partly for self-preservation. Think of the 1920s when Gov. Alfred E. Smith took on a state government in chaos, created the first executive budget and helped reform a Legislature run amok. More recently, lawmakers themselves enacted modest reforms to open up the process after a 2004 report called New York's the worst legislature in the nation.
In this scandal, the Democratic attorney general has said two aides to Gov. Eliot Spitzer plotted to embarrass Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno by using state police to compile records of Bruno's use of state aircraft and a state police driver.
Chief among this week's reform proposals is one that goes to the heart of the scandal. Republican senators are calling for a “bright line” in the use of state aircraft that says government officials could only use helicopters and planes for state business, not political events. It's a not-so-radical idea pushed by good-government groups - and ignored by legislators - for years.
Current law, called “porous” by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, allows the use of state aircraft for any reason, as long as some piece of each trip is considered state business. Cuomo's report on the Spitzer scandal determined Bruno spent less than an hour on state business one day this spring when he used the state helicopter to fly to Manhattan on the day of a Republican fundraiser. State business on other days, the probe found, included meetings with lobbyists, most of whom Bruno often meets with in Albany. Democrats call them “alibi meetings.”
“There should be a bright line standard,” said Blair Horner of Cuomo's public integrity section and former head of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “Aircraft should be used for public business ... not mixed use.”
Another reform would give the attorney general automatic subpoena power if the office of the inspector general, appointed by the governor, runs into a conflict of interest in an investigation of the administration. Right now, the Inspector General's Office needs to refer the case to the attorney general before his Public Integrity Unit can use subpoenas to compel testimony and records from the executive branch.
The lack of subpoena power for the state's best-staffed investigator of government misconduct is a glaring gap compared to other states, Cuomo's staff said during Thursday's Senate meeting.
Republican senators like the idea of an automatic referral. They are upset that Spitzer-appointed Inspector General Kristine Hamann said she didn't discover a potential conflict of interest in her probe of the Spitzer administration scandal until it was too late to transfer subpoena power to Cuomo.
The irony of the Republicans' call for reform wasn't lost on Senate Democrats. They said the inspector general's office wasn't much of a watchdog on the previous Republican administration of Gov. George Pataki, who frequently used state aircraft to mix business with politics.
Other reforms under discussion concern the public's right to see government documents. Proposals by the Senate Republicans would require that Freedom of Information Law requests be handled by the department or agency where the records are kept. They noted that if this were the case, the Spitzer administration aides who worked with state police to collect Bruno's records wouldn't have been involved.
There was no mention of another long-ignored call from the good-government groups - for the Legislature to finally make itself subject to FOIL.
As for Spitzer, he has insisted he knew nothing of the plot and would have stopped it. Last week, he promised perhaps the biggest change of all: He vowed to change himself.
The scandal hit him hard, those close to him say, damaging a reputation carefully cultivated over eight years as a reforming attorney general and prompting him to suspend his communications director, Darren Dopp, a friend who helped shape Spitzer's global image.
“Power must be used, but it must be tempered by soul-searching and the recognition of our human capacity for error,” Spitzer told The Chautauqua Institution symposium in Western New York. “That is why there is no place for self-righteousness in my administration. That's my renewed promise to New Yorkers. But, there's also no room to stand down in the face of a still-powerful status quo. That's the promise that sent me to Albany.”
Scandals and calls for reform are not new in Albany. But the polls show the difference this time, however, may be that many New Yorkers are watching.
---
Michael Gormley is the capitol editor for The Associated Press. He can be reached by e-mail at mgormley(at)ap.org.
AP-ES-08-11-07 1209EDT
