Good start for New York State ethics panel
New York State Inspector General Ellen N. Biben will change jobs to become executive director of New York State's new Joint Commission on Public Ethics Credit: New York State
State Inspector General Ellen Biben is a fine choice to police the ethics of our politicians in Albany, a job she accepted last week when she agreed to become the executive director of the state's newly formed Joint Commission on Public Ethics.
Aggressive, polished and dogged, Biben is coming off a successful run as inspector general that produced a detailed and scathing report on the ineptitude at the Nassau County police crime laboratory, and a post heading Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's public integrity unit when he was attorney general. There, Biben led a successful corruption case against former State Comptroller Alan Hevesi and the investigation into former state Sen. Pedro Espada's health clinics, where the Bronx Democrat allegedly misappropriated millions of dollars.
The 2011 ethics law that created this 14-member commission is an improvement over the largely impotent Legislative Ethics Commission that came before, but lacks the teeth many good government groups, and Cuomo himself, would have preferred. The new rules give this commission oversight of all lobbyists and elected state officials, and their employees. They also increase disclosure requirements on outside income for legislators, and transparency as far as who is lobbying or representing any interests in front of the state.
But the new ethics code, while an improvement in what it requires, does too little to impose actual penalties on those who break the rules.
The fact that the law lacks teeth means it desperately needs a determined leader like Biben. There has been muttering in Albany that she is in Cuomo's inner circle and will have oversight of behavior in the executive branch, but she's given no sign that she'll cast a blind eye if they misstep. In truth, it's more likely that the grumbling stems from the fact that she won't go easy on anyone.
Her appointment, along with Cuomo's choice of Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore to chair the commission, creates an organization that's clearly serious about finding and exposing wrongdoing in government.
Now Cuomo must find someone as good as Biben to take over the inspector general's office, because in New York politics, the more watchdogs with sharp teeth, the better.
