Head Of Embattled Panel Resigns
-
- January
- 12
The chairman of the state’s troubled ethics-watchdog panel announced today he was resigning for health reasons.
Fordham University Dean John Feerick, 72, said he is stepping down from the unpaid post as chairman of the Commission on Public Integrity effective Feb. 12, about 22 months after he took over the top job at the newly created commission.
“It is very difficult for me to make this decision but my health and energy have declined and I no longer believe that I can give my responsibilities the attention they require,’’ Feerick said in a letter to Gov. David Paterson.
His resignation comes in the middle of an investigation by the state Inspector General into whether staff of the commission was improperly passing along information to officials of the Spitzer administration about a commission probe into the so-called “Troopergate’’ matter.
Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned in disgrace last March after his involvement with a prostitution ring became public, was under investigation by multiple agencies for misuse of State Police to gather potentially harmful information on his chief political rival, former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, Rensselaer County. Bruno quit the Senate last summer.
A report from Inspector General Joseph Fisch, who started the probe last September, is expected within the next two months.
This entry was posted
on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 12:35 pm by Joseph Spector.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
| 
Email This
So, the ethics-watchdog chairman is gone. Wonder if anyone will notice. Here’s a job for Caroline Kennedy where she can actually accomplish something.