Originally Published: July 23, 2014
Statement By Dick Dadey, Citizens Union Executive Director
Citizens Union calls upon the Governor to hold news conference to explain administration’s reported interference with Moreland commission whose members were appointed deputy state attorneys general and told to investigate all matters of corruption.
Commission was formed to fight corruption and restore public trust, but NY Times account helps Erode the Public’s Trust in government.
The bombshell article in the New York Times today confirms what Citizens Union has long suspected – the Moreland Commission formed by Governor Cuomo and charged with combating corruption was prevented from doing its job freely and independently. While news that the executive chamber interfered with the Commission’s work is not surprising, it is nevertheless disturbing to read about it such abhorrent detail.
Its promise that it would be “totally independent” was a false one. That its license to investigate and uncover misconduct in state government no matter who was the target – not just the legislature – was revoked shows the fallacy of its charge.
The Moreland Commission was formed to address the rise in public corruption – something Citizens Union has tracked through its Corruption Tracker – and the Commission, which was intent on following the governor’s specific assignment to expose all levels of undue influence and corruption, was doing just that until it was told it couldn’t.
Governor Cuomo has a lot of explaining to do. He came into office promising “to make state government the most transparent and accountable in state history.” He pledged to “restore the public trust and clean up Albany.” The progress the governor made on reform in enacting legislation that increased disclosure of public officials outside income, strengthened ethics oversight, increased penalties for bribery and corruption and may result in redistricting reform, has been stepped on with these specific revelations. His staff’s interference with the Moreland Commission’s work and his own decision to shut it down fuels the public’s cynicism of government – and of those who pledge to reform and then don’t.
That the Moreland Commission members were appointed as deputy state attorney generals who were blocked from pursuing corruption in spite of their broad mandate raises legal questions about the use of their authority and whether they were free to exercise it as they saw fit.
The Governor needs to try and reclaim his leadership on reform, and he can start by holding a news conference to answer needed questions in light of the NY Times reporting.
The public thirst for ethics in government is very much in need of quenching. Governor Cuomo needs to provide us with a very tall glass of water on this hot summer day.
