Biben appointed to head ethics commission

ALBANY -- State Inspector General Ellen Biben, who has served in several posts for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, was appointed yesterday to police ethics in his administration and the Legislature and to regulate lobbying.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics announced that it chose Biben for the $148,000-a-year job as its director.

"I am honored to accept the position of executive director of JCOPE, and I look forward to assisting the commission in its critical mission of restoring ethics and public trust in government," Biben said in a statement.

She will resign as inspector general, to which Cuomo appointed her last year. She also headed his public integrity unit when he was attorney general, where she led the probe of the pay-to-play scandal under then-Comptroller Alan Hevesi, a Democrat.

She also spent more than 10 years as an assistant Manhattan district attorney.

"I think it's a superb appointment," said David Grandeau, the state's former lobbying enforcer, who has been critical of the ethics board and its predecessor, the Commission on Public Integrity. "She's talented, competent, aggressive and fair."

The ethics board announced the decision in a news release, not saying when the "overwhelming" vote of the commission was taken or if there were votes against Biben. The board chooses not to follow the state Open Meetings Law.

"She's a great pick," said Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters. "We have been concerned that the Joint Commission on Public Ethics has not been able to move forward and they have all these cases that languished . . . she certainly made a name for herself during the Hevesi investigation."

Hevesi is serving a prison sentence for a scheme that involved payments to politically connected intermediaries for companies seeking investments from the massive pension fund for state and local government employees.

Bartoletti said the League of Women Voters discussed Biben's history of appointments by Cuomo, but "at this point we're willing to give her the benefit of a doubt. She's been independent as inspector general."

Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto dismissed any concern about a potential conflict of interest. He called Biben "the most successful public integrity prosecutor in modern political history."