New York Times Editorial: Senator Bruno’s Legacy

New York Times Editorial: Senator Bruno’s Legacy
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: December 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/opinion/09wed1.html?th&emc=th


The conviction of Joseph Bruno, the former state senator who once was one of the most powerful state leaders in the country, is an indictment of the entire New York State Legislature. Mr. Bruno was convicted on two felony counts of “theft of honest services” after a trial that showed how he mingled taxpayers’ business with his own — and made it clear to one and all why state leaders have taken care not to clean up their legislative pigpen.

There’s just way too much money to be made.

Mr. Bruno, who freely used his office and his staff for private business, earned more than $3 million in fees by getting unions and others with business before the state (and who wanted his help with that business) to invest in one of his private profit-making concerns.

It was the federal government that rooted out this shameful behavior, not the state attorney general or the Albany district attorney or the feeble Legislative Ethics Commission.

It was bad enough that these people did not, or would not, see what was happening around them. But the testimony eliminates any last feeble excuse for lawmakers to explain their failure to enact real ethics reform.

Here is how they should fill the Bruno loopholes:

• State law should explicitly forbid lawmakers’ use of government services for their private businesses. That includes staff, copying machines and office space. Senator Daniel Squadron, a Manhattan Democrat working on an ethics bill, said Mr. Bruno “looked like he hung a shingle outside the majority leader’s office.”

• Disclosure of outside income needs to get real. The annual disclosure reports for the Legislative Ethics Commission reveal almost nothing. The amounts earned are in ranges from Category A, which is under $5,000, to Category F, which is $250,000 and above. The exact amounts should be public; now even the letter categories are deleted when an ethics report is released. Also, the reports must be computerized. As it is, the New York Public Interest Research Group scanned all 212 reports and posted them on their Web site — with blank spaces where the income levels should be.

All details are kept secret from the public. Consultants don’t have to reveal their clients, a fact that made it easier for former Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio to create a mock consulting firm that collected payments from hospitals and others who wanted his help in Albany. Mr. Seminerio pleaded guilty in June to corruption.

The 50 or so lawyers in the Legislature, including the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, and the Republican Senate leader, Dean Skelos, are not required to reveal their clients. What if those clients have business with the state, which certainly means that their business crosses the desks of these lawmakers? The public is kept in the dark. That needs to be changed.

Mr. Silver, one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, is listed as being “of counsel” to Weitz & Luxenberg, one of the state’s most prominent personal-injury law firms. His annual income from that firm is widely estimated to be about double his state salary. The public has to guess because, of course, that income from the law firm is not made public.

The clients of Mr. Skelos, a lawyer with Ruskin, Moscou & Faltischek, a prominent Long Island law firm, are also not available for public scrutiny. The same goes for about 48 other lawyers. Attorney-client privilege should not be used as a way to hide conflicts of interest. There are ways of making that work — like telling clients in advance that the relationship will be made public.

• The ethics process needs actual oversight and enforcement. As bad as these disclosure forms are, the ethics commission apparently fails to figure out whether they are accurate. And there is no enforcement when lawmakers abuse what few rules exist. It is, in short, an invitation to corruption.

What is needed, at a minimum, is a random review. An ethics commission with clout could do such an audit, and if a legislator broke the law the file should go to the attorney general or other law enforcement officials.

• The state law must be clearer on what constitutes an unwarranted abuse of office. State law is full of warnings about a lawmaker making “unauthorized exercise” of “official functions” or using the public job and public resources “to secure unwarranted privileges.” That’s not been strong enough or clear enough to stop the rampant influence-peddling. New York City’s laws are more precise, and they could serve as a model in Albany.

The only good news is that almost half of New York’s legislators do not have outside businesses — at least 28 of 62 senators and 70 of 150 assembly members. They should form a noisy army to demand support for ethics reform from their colleagues who should be nervous about Mr. Bruno’s conviction.

Over his decades in the Legislature and his 14 years as leader, Mr. Bruno had structures named for him — a stadium, a school, a highway. It is time for another monument: the Joseph Bruno Ethics Loophole Closing Law.

This article is part of a series examining the political and structural crisis in the New York State government.