Democrats: Ethics Bill Would Stop Alleged Bruno Offenses

November

Senate Democrats have failed to pass an ethics reform package, in part because when it came to the floor of over the summer, Long Island Democratic Sen. Brian Foley wasn’t there because his father passed away.

But Democrats are again pushing their reform package, saying it could thwart future offenses. And they say it would be prevent the type of ethical misconduct that former Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno is alleged of. His trial started Monday.

Here’s some of the examples they used this morning from the bill, which is sponsored by Sen. Daniel Squadron, D-Brooklyn.

From their news release:

—New reporting requirements for consulting services: The indictment charges that Senator Bruno received millions in “consulting fees” from various clients. The Squadron/Sampson package requires public officials to report annually the names of consulting clients, and include the value of compensation received and a description of the services provided. The current ethics law contains no such requirement for public officials;
—Increased transparency of public officials’ business dealings with lobbyists: requires both public officers and lobbyists to provide detailed reports of their business dealings, including retention and employment, to the relevant ethics commission, creating a real “belt and suspenders” approach to reporting that does not exist under current ethics laws;
—Increased financial disclosure: makes public categories of value (including value of outside income) and adds an additional category of value ($1,000,000 or over, up from $250,000 or over), making it much easier to ascertain if and when lawmakers are being enriched from outside employment;
—Independent investigations: creates an independent investigatory body, with subpoena power, within the legislature to fully investigate any questionable or suspicious business relationships.
—Random reviews of disclosure forms: creates a program of random reviews of annual statements of financial disclosure to ensure full and accurate reporting.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 11:35 am by Joseph Spector.
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One Response to “Democrats: Ethics Bill Would Stop Alleged Bruno Offenses”

ed1 November 3rd, 2009 at 11:47 am
Lotsa luck getting EVEN THIS still watered-down, self-policing pap past Shel Silver and the Assembly.

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