Citizens Union, a leading good government group committed to fostering accountability, accessibility, and transparency in our government issues the following statement from Executive Director Betsy Gotbaum:
New York voters put their faith in Ed Mangano, and he betrayed them by using the office of the County Executive for personal financial gain. We cannot allow powerful interests to use their wealth to influence government contracts that should be steered toward providing the best possible government service and administration. Simple but significant methods could prevent nefarious public and private sector actors from using backdoor channels to influence our government. New York needs, and New Yorkers deserve, reforms to create a statewide database of business subsidies and real oversight of government procurement. This is yet another reminder that it’s time to get serious about ethics reform, like the Database of Deals and Clean Contracting, which puts the public interest ahead of special interests and prevents individuals from having undue influence over government decisions.