CRS_Government_Ethics

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

GOVERNMENT ETHICS CONFERENCE & TRAINING SEMINAR Presented by City & State Reports, Albany Law School and Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy

April 20, 2016

8:30am:

Breakfast, Networking & Check-In

9:00am:

Welcome Remarks – City & State Reports

9:05am:

Introductory Remarks – Albany Law School & Rockefeller College of

Public Affairs & Policy

9:10am:

“Practicing Professional Ethics in Everyday Life”

Jeffrey D. Straussman and Elizabeth A.M. Searing

Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University of Albany (SUNY)

10:00am:

Lecture: Alphonso David, Chief Counsel, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

10:50am:

Break

11:00am:

Lecture: Blair Horner, Executive Director, New York Public Interest

Research Group

11:50pm:

Lunch

12:40pm:

Lecture: Lawrence Norden, Deputy Director, Brennan Center for Justice

1:30pm:

“The Intersection of Legal and Government Ethics”

Jeremy M. Creelan, Partner, Jenner & Block

Robert J. Freeman, Executive Director,

New York State Committee on Open Government

Nicole A. Gordon Karl J. Sleight, Partner, Harris Beach PLLC

Moderator: Raymond Brescia, Director of the Government Law Center,

Albany Law School

2:30pm:

Break

2:40pm:

Lecture: Richard Ravitch, Former New York State Lieutenant Governor

3:30pm:

Lecture: Eleanor Randolph, Former Editorial Board Writer, The New York Times

4:30pm:

Day Concludes

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THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS

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CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

JEFFREY D. STRAUSSMAN Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy University of Albany (SUNY)

ELIZABETH A.M. SEARING Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Policy Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy University of Albany (SUNY)

Jeffrey D. Straussman has published widely in the areas of public finance and budgeting, and administrative reform in transitional countries his work appears in a variety of professional journals such as Public Budgeting & Finance, Administration & Society, Public Administration and Development and Public Administration Review.

His books include: The Limits of Technocratic Politics and Public Management Strategies and Public Administration (second edition).

Professor Straussman is a Fellow in the National Academy of Public Administration. In 1992, Straussman was a Fulbright Scholar at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences where he taught public management and policy analysis and assisted Hungarian faculty in the development of a public affairs department. He has returned to Hungary many times since.

Straussman’s international teaching and consulting on subjects including

managing for performance, leadership, public budgeting and public affairs education in general - particularly in developing and transitional countries has also taken him to Macedonia, Israel, Venezuela, The Czech Republic, the Peoples’ Republic of China, Bulgaria, Brazil, Portugal, Malaysia, India, Singapore, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. His interest in the political economy of transition has produced several publications including articles translated into Hungarian, Russian and Ukrainian.

Professor Straussman previously served as the Dean of Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy and as the Associate Dean at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Most recently he served as a professor and Vice Dean for Executive Education at the National University of Singapore.

Elizabeth A.M. Searing's primary research focus is in nonprofit and social enterprise ecology, but she also conducts work in f inancial management, the role of social and psychological factors in economic development and policy effectiveness, and applied ethics for the social sciences. In particular, her research on the roles of overhead costs and nonprofit financial management in organizational longevity have drawn attention from academia and practice alike. Her articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and Social Science & Medicine.

Professor Searing is also an editor on two books: Practicing Professional Ethics in Economics and Public Policy (with D. Searing, 2016) and The Social Enterprise Zoo: A Guide to Perplexed Entrepreneurs, Philanthropists,

Investors and Policymakers (with D. Young and C. Brewer, forthcoming).

She has taught classes on the nonprofit sector, financial management, program evaluation, and microeconomics.

In addition to leadership in several profession a l org a n iza t ion s, Dr. Searing is a founding member of the International Comparative Social Enterprise Models (ICSEM) Project headed by the EMES Social Enterprise Network, which seeks to classify and compare different organizational means of achieving social good worldwide.

Dr. Searing earned her Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, where she also earned a Master's degree in Economics. She earned her B.A. from Texas A&M University, majoring in Economics with a minor in Business Administration.

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RAYMOND BRESCIA Associate Professor of Law Director of the Government Law Center Albany Law School

ALPHONSO DAVID Chief Counsel, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

Professor Brescia combines his experience as a public interest attorney in New York City with his scholarly interests to address economic and social inequality, the legal and policy implications of financial crises, how innovative legal and regulatory approaches can improve economic and community development efforts, and the need to expand access to justice for people of low- and moderateincome. As Director of Albany Law School’s Government Law Center, Professor Brescia helps promote student and faculty engagement in the community in the areas of economic development, social innovation and social entrepreneurship, and public service.

Before coming to Albany Law, he was the Associate Director of the Urban Justice Center in New York, N.Y., where he coordinated legal representation for community-based institutions in areas such as housing, economic justice, workers' rights, civil

rights and environmental justice. He also served as an adjunct professor at New York Law School from 1997 through 2006. Prior to his work at the Urban Justice Center, he was a staff attorney at New Haven Legal Assistance and the Legal Aid Society of New York, where he was a recipient of a Skadden Fellowship after graduation from law school.

Professor Brescia also served as Law Clerk to the pathbreaking Civil Rights attorney-turned-federal judge, the Honorable Constance Baker Motley, Senior U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York. While a student Yale Law School, Professor Brescia was corecipient of the Charles Albom Prize for Appellate Advocacy; was a student director of several clinics, including the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Law Clinic and the Homelessness Clinic; and was Visiting Lecturer in Yale College.

Alphonso David is a civil rights attorney, law professor and policy advisor with significant litigation and management experience in the public, private and nonprofit sectors.

In January 2011, he was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo as Deputy Secretary and Counsel for Civil Rights, the first position of its kind in New York State. In this role, he works on a full range of legal, policy, legislative and operational matters affecting civil rights and labor throughout the State.

He previously served as Special Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights for the Office of the New York State Attorney General, where he managed Assistant Attorneys General on a variety of statewide anti-discrimination cases, including employment and housing discrimination, fair lending, reproductive rights and anti-bias claims. He was also

responsible for strategic planning, case development and policy analysis.

Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office, David served as Deputy Commissioner for Operations and Special Counselor to the Commissioner for the New York State Division of Human Rights. He also previously served as a Staff Attorney at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund where he litigated cases relating to marriage, parenting rights, discrimination in schools and access to health care.

Prior to working in public and nonprofit sectors, he served as Corporate Counsel for Canyon at Peace Park; and a Litigation Associate at the law firm, Blank Rome LLP. David began his legal career as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Clifford Scott Green in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

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BLAIR HORNER

Executive Director New York Public Interest Research Group Blair Horner is currently Executive Director of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG). In his more than 30 years of work with NYPIRG, he has overseen community organizing activities and directed statewide issue campaigns. He has lobbied on a wide range of issues, including energy policy, political reform, government openness

LAWRENCE NORDEN Deputy Director Brennan Center for Justice Lawrence Norden is Deputy Director of the Brennan Center's Democracy Program. He works on a variety of issues, from money in politics to voting to government dysfunction. During his time at the Brennan Center, he has authored several nationally recognized

and accountability, tobacco control, health care, and financial services. He has written scores of reports examining issues including redistricting, campaign finance, political ethics, bank fees, auto insurance, health care, tobacco use, lead poisoning and higher education funding.

From 2007 through early 2008, Horner was a Special Advisor on Policy and Public Integrity to the New York State Attorney General. Among his responsibilities was the creation of the “Project Sunlight” website, which allows New Yorkers to simultaneously search governmental databases for information on campaign contributions, lobbying, contracts and legislation, among other topics. Starting in early 2008, he returned to NYPIRG as its Legislative Director. From 2011 until late 2013, Horner was the Vice President for Advocacy for the American Cancer Society, a non-partisan, national health organization. In that capacity, he oversaw the lobbying, community organizing and

statewide issue campaigns in New Jersey and New York, as well as its federal advocacy efforts. Horner’s comments have been widely reported by the media.

He has been interviewed on The Today Show, World News Tonight, Al Jazeera America, on A&E’s Investigative Reports, and profiled in the New York Times. Horner’s opinion pieces have been published in the Albany Times Union, Buffalo News, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, New York Daily News, Newsday and other New York dailies.

He is a regular commentator on WAMC public radio and its affiliates. Horner has received numerous awards, including awards from the AARP, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, the New York Attorney General, the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, and the New York City Asthma Partnership. In fall of 1999, Empire State Reports magazine named Horner as one of the 25 most influential New Yorkers in the previous 25 years.

reports and articles related to law and democracy, including Better Design, Better Elections (July 2012) and Voting Law Changes in 2012 (October 2011). His work has been featured in media outlets across the country, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and National Public Radio.

He has testified before Congress and several state legislatures on numerous occasions.

In 2009, Mr. Norden served as Chair of the Ohio Secretary of State's bipartisan Election Summit and Conference, authoring a report to the State of Ohio for the purpose of improving that state’s election laws. The report was endorsed by the bipartisan Ohio Association of Election Officials and the Columbus Dispatch, which praised him for “following an independent

path” in developing the report and recommendations.

Mr. Norden was the Keynote Speaker at the Sixth Annual Votobit International Conference on Electronic Voting (Buenos Aires, 2008), and the 2009 Electronic Voting Technology Workshop/Workshop on Trustworthy Elections (Montreal, 2009). In June 2009, he received the Usability Professional Association's Usability In Civic Life Award for his “pioneering work to improve elections.” Mr. Norden is the lead author of the book The Machinery of Democracy: Protecting Elections in an Electronic World (Academy Chicago Press) and a contributor to the Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties (Routledge 2007). For the last several years, Mr. Norden has managed and written for the Brennan Center’s blog on New York State, ReformNY.

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CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

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RICHARD RAVITCH Former New York State Lieutenant Governor

Richard Ravitch, a former New York State Lieutenant Governor, is a lawyer, businessman, author, and public official who has been engaged in the private and public sectors for more than 50 years.

He b e g a n h i s c a r e e r i n t h e construction business as a principal of the HRH Construction Corporation, where he was responsible, among other things, for supervising the development, financing and building of over 45,000 units of affordable housing in New York, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and other locations. In 1975, he was appointed

ELEANOR R. RANDOLPH Editorial Board Writer The New York Times At present, Eleanor R. Randolph is working on a biography of Michael Bloomberg for Simon & Schuster for publication in 2017.

by Governor Hugh Carey to serve as Chairman of the New York State Urban Development Corporation a financing and development agency with 30,000 dwelling units under construction, which had become insolvent and faced the first municipal bankruptcy since the 1930s.

Later in 1975 and during the following year Mr. Ravitch assisted New York City and State officials in resolving the City’s defaults.

In 1979, Mr. Ravitch was appointed Chairman and CEO of the Metropolitan Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n Au t h o r i t y, Ne w York’s regional urban and suburban transportation system whose responsibilities include operation of the New York City subways and buses, the Long Island Rail Road, MetroNorth commuter lines, and the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. Mr. Ravitch completely reorganized the MTA, developed a long-term capital plan and budget for a system-wide upgrading of operating equipment, roadbed and signal capabilities, and designed the financing plan for such improvements.

Following his MTA service, Mr. Ravitch led an effort to recapitalize The

Bowery Savings Bank, once the nation’s largest mutual savings bank, involving its acquisition from FDIC by an investor group and his serving as Chairman and CEO. Subsequently, Mr. Ravitch was retained by the owners of the Major League Baseball clubs to serve as President of the Player Relations Committee to advise them on the creation of a revenue-sharing plan and proposal to the players.

The author of So Much to Do: A Full Life of Business, Politics, and Confronting Fiscal Crises (Public Affairs, 2014), Mr. Ravitch recently served as an advisor in the Detroit bankruptcy and also co-chaired the State Budget Crisis Task Force with former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul A. Volcker. He is a director of the Volcker Alliance, a nonprofit founded in 2013 by Mr. Volcker to address the challenge of effective execution of public policy and help rebuild public trust in government.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Columbia College, Mr. Ravitch also received his LLB from Yale University School of Law.

For almost 18 years, Randolph was member of the editorial board of The New York Times. She has written primarily about the city, state and region, although she has also done editorials on Russia and Ireland. As part of the job, Randolph covered the Bloomberg years in City Hall, and has been a regular commentator on NY1’s Close-Up program to discuss city and state issues. She has been nominated twice by The Times for Pulitzers—in both cases for work on corruption in Albany. In 2016, Randolph was a contributing writer for the editorial board, working mostly on endorsements of state and congressional candidates.

Randolph was also a national correspondent for the Los Angeles

Times in the New York bureau where she covered city and national politics.

As media writer and media columnist for The Washington Post, Randolph created what became the media beat at the paper. When her husband was transferred to Moscow as a correspondent for the London Independent, Randolph became a parttime correspondent in Russia from 19911993, and then in New York City until 1995.

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Publications: Book: “Waking the Tempests: Ordinary Life in the New Russia” (Simon & Schuster) New York, 1996.

Magazines: Vogue, Esquire, New Republic, Washington Monthly

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

Government Ethics

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

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JEREMY M. CREELAN Partner Jenner & Block

Jeremy M. Creelan is a highly experienced litigator who re-joined Jenner & Block as a partner in 2014 after serving for three years in the administration of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, first as Special Counsel for Public Integrity and Ethics Reform and then as Special Counsel to the Governor.

Mr. Creelan is a partner in the firm’s Litigation Department and a member of the Complex Commercial Litigation and Government Controversies and Public Policy Litigation Practices.

He has broad experience in class action consumer fraud defense and investigations; complex insurance and reinsurance disputes; federal and state election law matters; and intellectual property matters related to technology, including IT outsourcing disputes.

He has represented clients in trials, domestic and international arbitrations, and appeals, including in the United

States Supreme Court.

Mr. Creelan joined Jenner & Block in 2006, after serving as Deputy Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. At the Brennan Center, he developed and prosecuted numerous highprofile election law cases to protect voters’ rights. He also co-authored a landmark, comprehensive study of New York State's legislative process and, as an adjunct professor at the NYU School of Law from 2005 to 2007, Mr. Creelan taught an election law seminar.

Most recently, in 2014, Mr. Creelan was appointed by Governor Cuomo as Co-Chair of the Commission on Youth, Public Safety & Justice. In that role, he is tasked with developing recommendations and plans to raise the age of criminal responsibility in New York State and implementing additional reforms to the juvenile justice system.

ROBERT J. FREEMAN is Executive Director of the New York State Committee on Open Government. Mr. Freeman has worked for the Committee since its creation in 1974. He has a law degree from NYU and a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown. Mr. Freeman has spoken before government-related organizations, bar associations, media

groups and at various colleges and universities. He has discussed open government concepts in Canada, the Far East, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Mr. Freeman is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Lifetime Achievement Award conferred by the New York State Associated Press Association.

ROBERT J. FREEMAN Executive Director New York State Committee on Open Government

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CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

KARL J. SLEIGHT Partner Harris Beach PLLC Mr. Sleight is a partner at Harris Beach, coleader and a founder of the Harris Beach Government Compliance and Investigations Practice Group. Selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America, his practice focuses on providing legal counsel and strategic advice to clients that operate in highly regulated environments having an active government oversight component. Mr. Sleight regularly assists clients along a broad spectrum of sectors, including in the fields of gaming, college athletics, government ethics and lobbying compliance, and health

care. In his practice, Mr. Sleight represents individuals, businesses and institutions in civil litigation, government and oversight body administrative investigations, lobbying and ethics compliance, and white collar criminal defense matters. Mr. Sleight represents individuals and institutions in high profile matters containing a public or political element, and has represented numerous Fortune 100 companies involved in government inquiries.

Mr. Sleight regularly serves as counsel in high profile government inquiries. By illustration, he was engaged as counsel in both of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Moreland Commission investigations. An experienced trial lawyer, Mr. Sleight represents selected individuals and businesses in white collar criminal defense matters. Since returning to private practice in 2007, he was lead counsel in the jury trial of a corporate executive who was acquitted of all larceny and tax charges.

Most recently, he forged a negotiated plea disposition in a multi-million dollar larceny case whereby the president of the company was able to avoid incarceration.

Mr. Sleight served as the Executive Director of the New York State Ethics Commission from March 2001 through

March 2007. During his tenure, he was responsible for conducting investigations of high ranking government officials and private sector entities that interact with government officials.

Mr. Sleight previously served in the Office of the Attorney General under former Attorneys General Dennis Vacco and Eliot Spitzer, and served as Deputy Inspector General with the Office of the State Inspector General (OSIG), where he was responsible for overseeing investigations into corruption, fraud and criminal activity.

Since leaving government service, Mr. Sleight has testified before the New York State Legislature on the topic of ethics reform, and at the request of the New York State Bar Association president, chaired the Due Process and Investigations subcommittee for the Association’s 2011 Task Force on Government Ethics. The subcommittee’s recommendations have been credited with influencing important aspects of the groundbreaking Public Integrity Reform Act of 2011. Mr. Sleight also served as Special Counsel to the New York State Legislative Ethics Commission and is a frequent commentator on issues involving ethics and compliance in the media.

Accountability, which was created to integrate evidence-based policy and practice in New York's eight public safety (primarily criminal justice) agencies. She served as Executive Director of the Marshall Project, a notfor-profit, non-partisan news organization dedicated to covering America’s criminal justice system, and now serves on its Board.

She currently teaches Law and Public Policy at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Before joining the Campaign Finance Board, Ms. Gordon served as Counsel to the Chairman of the New York State Commission on Government Integrity, as an Assistant Corporation Counsel in New York City's Law Department, and as a litigator

at Debevoise & Plimpton. She is a past president of the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL) and has served on numerous committees of the New York City and New York State Bar Associations. Ms. Gordon's public service has been recognized with awards from COGEL, the Columbia University School of Law, New York State Common Cause, and the New York County Lawyers' Association. She was a Harvard University School of Law Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow. She has taught at the Fordham University School of Law and Cardozo Law School and has written law review and political science articles on subjects relating

NICOLE A. GORDON Nicole A. Gordon has served for more than 25 years in government and not-for-profit leadership positions. She was the founding Executive Director of New York City's pioneer Campaign Finance Board, building this reform agency into a nationally and internationally recognized model. The Board disburses public matching funds to candidates for New York City elective offices to diminish candidates’ reliance on private contributions.

After serving for 18 years at the Campaign Finance Board, she was the Vice President of the JEHT Foundation, which focused on criminal justice, international justice, elections, and juvenile justice. She later was Chair of New York State's Task Force on Public Safety

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CORRUPTION, POLITICS AND DEMOCRACY

By Richard Ravitch

Former New York State Lieutenant Governor

Like most every citizen, I am revolted by how many public officials are convicted for violating the criminal laws of our State. But I’m not sure there is the same unanimity about how to make government and politics more honest. Let me first say what I believe will not work. Term limits has nothing to do with the integrity of the people who run for office; in fact, I could argue that the pressure to find employment in the private sector is more likely to induce conflicts of interest than if someone could make a career of public service. Prohibiting outside earned income, which by the way does not apply to inherited income, violates the principle our founding fathers established clearly: we want our legislative bodies to be composed of farmers, lawyers, businessmen, teachers. If the real problem is getting

honest capable people to run for office, it will be compounded by limiting the pool of candidates to only those who have no other profession or occupation and therefore have limited experience and exposure so essential to be able to legislate wisely. Last, some suggest that a full-time legislature would avoid potential conflicts and that better compensation would attract better people to politics. There is nothing in the history of our country or in any known comparable context to support that argument and I believe in what Will Rogers said over 75 years ago: if the Congress were around all the time God knows what trouble they would get us into.

I believe the conflict of interest laws can be improved but that the fundamental problem is twofold: 1) our culture treats politics too often

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as a dirty word and doesn’t encourage young people to pursue political careers. There is not the dignity that once was associated with holding public office; and 2) the seductiveness of private careers, both financially and in terms of family compatibility, compete with the satisfactions of public service.

The most important change that will affect the integrity of politics is to inaugurate the public financing of legislative elections. Nothing can eliminate a corrupt person from trying to steal; but the dependency on increasing amounts of political contributions create pressures that are enormous and inevitably lead to temptations to violate the ethical norms as well as perhaps the law itself.

Democracy is an imperfect system but there’s never been a better one.

Politics is what makes democracy work.

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

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ETHICS REFORM: FACT AND FICTION By: Karl J. Sleight

Partner Harris Beach PLLC

Nine years ago, with much fanfare, then Governor Spitzer and Legislative leaders announced passage of the Public Employee Ethics Reform Act (PEERA). Equipped with a new ethics enforcement agency, the Commission on Public Integrity (CPI), and a host of new statutes New Yorkers were led to believe that that these reforms would change the culture and restore faith in government. Since then, many public officials have been arrested and forced from their government positions.

Five years ago, with equal fanfare, Governor Cuomo and Legislative leaders announced passage of the Public Integrity Reform Act (PIRA). Sound familiar? This edition of “sweeping reform” also created a new ethics agency, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), and again tweaked the law.

By this time the expectations of the public were numb.

Sadly, within the next month, both the former Speaker of the Assembly and the former Senate Majority Leader

will be sentenced in federal court based on public corruption convictions.

Like a cruel joke, the cycle begins anew with editorial boards and self-described “good government” groups all clamoring for more reform. Government leaders promise responsiveness. The public snores.

Please stop the madness.

If history has taught us anything about the notion of adequately “fixing the problem” by passing “sweeping ethics reforms” it is this: While hope springs eternal, the goal is illusory. Ethics laws do not make people more ethical, just as the passage of Prohibition did not make the nation more sober and moral. Ethics laws are important guides for the honest public servant.

Today, the balm of proposed ethics laws to heal the state has become a convenient foil for a corrosion that was allowed to slowly build upon our state’s government.

To improve the situation, political leaders should acknowledge the practical limitations of ethics, lobbying and campaign finance agencies, and accordingly channel their efforts. Compliance agencies are

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not the same as the US Attorney or the State Police, nor should they act like it. The confidence in public ethics enforcement further diminishes when these regulatory agencies stray from their statutory mandate and seek to impose new rules, such as JCOPE’s recent opinion governing communications between public relations firms and media editorial boards.

If not more painfully unremarkable laws, then what to do given this sad state of affairs? Let’s start with a serious conversation on the real and present danger to our democracy. We have a crisis of participation in our republic at all levels of government. By any metric, from voter turnout to sound and plentiful candidates for local elections, our democracy is suffering from advanced atrophy.

Let’s start a candid conversation on fundamental problems, question bedrock policy and political norms, and think outside the box. It might even be fun.

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

We salute City & State Reports, Albany Law School, and Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy for hosting the Government Ethics Conference & Training Seminar Thank you to today’s panelists and participants

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THE ETHICS OF DISCRETION IN PUBLIC SERVICE

By Jeffrey D. Straussman

Professor of Public Administration and Policy Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and PolicyUniversity at Albany State University of New York Several think tanks and international non-governmental organizations such as Transparency International measure corruption on an annual basis. Countries at the top of the list (least corrupt) include Denmark, New Zealand, Sweden and Singapore. Some of the most corrupt in the world, according to Transparency International, are Somalia and Afghanistan. Transparency International does not measure corruption of subnational governments but if it did, one wonders if New York State would be closer to Denmark or Somalia. I’ll let the reader choose.

Since I have travelled to many different countries over the years I have seen or heard about various kinds of petty corruption—the policeman in Moscow who pulled over drivers for bogus driving infractions and then demanded payments in lieu of a traffic ticket, doctors in Budapest who received “gifts” as gratitude for treatment that they should have been provided without the gifts.

While going through a passport check in Cambodia a government official liked my Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy pen and declared, “Gift for me” and took it without my offering it to him.

The funniest incident was the suggestion from a Hungarian colleague that I put a large salami on the top of packages that I was bringing to a relative in Romania so that when my rental car was inspected at

the border the Romanian border guard would know that the salami was for him.

He would take it and wave me on without further incident. (I did not follow my colleague’s advice.)

Maybe you do not have to bribe a Canadian border official with a salami when you are driving to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, but government employees in their daily work routines often confront ethical choices. Think about the times you were stopped by a police officer for speeding and were given a verbal warning but no ticket.

Think about a supervisor who decides that her subordinates need some “down time” and does not enforce punctuality.

International students who are in an American university for the first time sometimes do not understand why a professor refuses a small gift that is not meant to be a bribe but rather a small token of respect and appreciation. Should the professor take the gift or not?

Sometimes the ethics of discretion can be the difference between life and death.

After the collapse of East Germany, some East German border guards were prosecuted for shooting East Germans who tried to escape to the west. Their defense was that they were only following orders and had no choice. Recently, Israel unveiled Adolf Eichmann’s pardon plea that he hand wrote to then Israeli President Yitzak Ben-Zvi claiming that

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the death sentence imposed on him was unjust because, in his words, “I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty.” Eichmann claimed that he had no discretion despite historical evidence to the contrary.

Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1940, used his discretion differently. He signed dubious transit visas for Jewish refugees so that they could leave Lithuania and thereby escape the coming holocaust. Siguhara continued to grant these bogus transit visas even when his superiors in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo ordered him to stop doing so. Sugihara exercised discretion at great personal and professional cost to himself.

Only a few of us will ever face an ethical challenge like the one faced by Chiune Sugihara. Think of my examples as a continuum. At one end is the police officer who stopped you for speeding and had a decision to make, whether to give you a ticket or not. At the other end are Eichmann and Siguhara. If you are a public servant who exercises discretion— almost everyone one does at some point—you will be confronted with ethical choices. Governments may enact laws and regulations to posit what you may or may not do in a myriad of situations. But no amount of legislation will eliminate the discretion the police officer has when she stops you for speeding.

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

IN NEW YORK, CAMPAIGN FINANCE AND ETHICS ARE INSEPARABLE

By Lawrence Norden

Deputy Director Brennan Center for Justice Yet again, a pivotal moment for ethics and campaign finance reform in New York is being lost – thanks to characteristic inaction by New York’s political leaders.

A few months ago, the convictions on corruption-related charges of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos seemed an indictment of Albany’s toxic pay-to-play system so glaring that even our famously dysfunctional legislature would be spurred to act.

Gov. Cuomo’s January budget proposal was an encouraging sign: it included provisions necessary for restoring clean, effective democracy to New York, including closure of the infamous “LLC Loophole” and a limit on outside income for legislators. Most importantly, it supported the adoption of a statewide public campaign finance system, modeled on New York City’s, to elevate the voices of average New Yorkers while reducing elected officials’ dependence on big contributors.

But on April 1, state leaders rolled out their final budget with no mention of campaign finance and ethics reform. It’s a disappointing indication that the legislature still doesn’t recognize that changing the role of money in our political system is

the only way to restore clean, effective government to New York.

There is sometimes debate over whether comprehensive campaign finance reform is really an “ethics” issue. After all, merely taking large contributions doesn’t force politicians to commit illegal acts, even if, as many argue, it’s become a critical part of Albany’s “show me the money” culture.

Certainly, it’s no coincidence that LLCs, permitted to play an outsize role in State elections through the related loophole, played such a large role in the Silver and Skelos trials.

But there is a stronger case to be made about the relationship between our broken campaign finance system and ethics than the argument that our porous regulations lead to illegal activity.

As the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption noted, what is most disturbing about New York’s system is what is legal.

That system is so riddled with loopholes and permeated with special interest money that it remains “unethical” in the broadest sense of that word, technical illegality aside. In a representative democracy, our elected officials have an ethical and fiduciary duty to serve the best interests of their constituents, without exception. The current system

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interferes with that duty by requiring candidates and officeholders to rely disproportionately on the donations of a tiny few, giving them outsized influence over policy decisions that impact all New Yorkers.

Small donor public financing can shift this equation, and therefore must be the linchpin of comprehensive reform. In New York City, donations under $250 are matched with public funds at a 6:1 ratio. Expanding this program statewide would cost each New Yorker less than a penny a day.

It would allow candidates for office to run competitive campaigns relying largely on small contributions from their constituents, and provide voters the option of selecting candidates who aren’t spending much of their time soliciting and taking huge checks from a few special interests.

Combined with lower limits, closed loopholes, better enforcement and other related reforms, public financing is the best path forward to giving average citizens more of a say in the political process. For those who want an ethical system, where the interests of constituents come first, nothing less should do.

[leh/u/me]

CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

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CITY & STATE REPORTS - APRIL 2016

Government Ethics

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Greenberg Traurig’s Ethics, Lobbying, and Campaign Finance group provides compliance advice relating to ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance laws in New York State. Our team of lawyers and compliance specialists is led by the former chief ethics counsel for the Assembly who was also the principal draftsman of the 1987 Ethics in Government Act.

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