Originally Published: August 24, 2012
Good Government Group supports guidelines that prioritize transparency
Citizens Union, a New York City nonpartisan good government watchdog group, today publicly released its comments on the newly released draft guidelines by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) on the disclosure requirements of business relationships between lobbyists and clients and elected and appointed officials and state employees. Citizens Union submitted its recommendations as part of its continued monitoring of the implementation of the state ethics bill, the Public Integrity Reform Act of 2011 (PIRA). JCOPE’s receipt of comments on reportable business relationships follows a hearing it held in July on the topic along with the disclosure of donors to lobbying organizations.
“While much of the attention has been on donors to lobbying organizations, most notably the Committee to Save New York, it’s important that similar focus is paid to guidelines regarding business relationships between lobbyists and those who work in government,” said Dick Dadey, Executive Director of Citizens Union. “With greater transparency, proper and public disclosure of these relationships will go a long way towards making known potential conflicts of interest or eliminating them altogether.”
“Citizens Union commends JCOPE for drafting guidelines that provide substantial transparency in relationships between lobbyists and clients and the elected officials, agency heads, and state employees they do business with,” said Alex Camarda, Director of Public Policy & Advocacy. “Shining a light on these relationships will ultimately generate greater public confidence in government.”
Citizens Union generally supports the draft guidelines JCOPE recently released, believing they are well crafted and are intended to maximize transparency in numerous instances. For instance, the guidelines require that a business relationship between lobbyists and State Persons must be reported if the State Person was significantlyinvolved in providing the goods or services rather than exclusively or primarily involved in the transaction, a proposal Citizens Union recommended. This will require disclosure of transactions in which a lobbyist obtains a referral from a lawmaker to a legal firm at which a lawmaker works even if the lawmaker does not perform the work.
Citizens Union believes that fairness and privacy should limit disclosure only in a few rare instances. Because PIRA broadly defines reportable business relationships, a literal interpretation could require lobbyists and clients to report unwarranted personal transactions with all state employees. To the extent that the law provides such flexibility, Citizens Union believes exemptions should be granted for matters of personal privacy, particularly as it relates to transactions for health services between lobbyists and clients and State Persons. Citizens Union urged JCOPE to make explicit the date of reporting of business relationships and to make such reporting prospective (going forward), beginning with the semi-annual client report and lobbyist registration that are submitted in January 2013 after the JCOPE regulations are approved. This will ensure that both parties enter a business relationship knowing it will be made public.
Read Citizens Union’s full comment to the JCOPE draft regulation.