Want ethics in Albany? Just take a look south

To the editor:

(re: “New York state’s own watchdogs blow off critics,” Jan. 13)

The Riverdale Press has been doing a great public service in its coverage of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, the state ethics commission, and state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi’s efforts to reform it.

However, readers might not realize there is a robust anti-corruption and ethics system in New York City that the state would do well to emulate. I know that system well, having spent 16 years working as an investigative attorney for the Department of Investigation — the city’s anti-corruption agency — and later spending about a year working in Azerbaijan as an anti-corruption advisor, where I sought to teach that system to government officials in that former Soviet republic.

New York City’s anti-corruption system has numerous independently moving parts with overlapping jurisdictions, which must collaborate with each other in order to be successful. First there is DOI, with its cadre of investigators, auditors and attorneys divided into units with responsibilities for different portions of the government.

DOI has subpoena power. The ability to conduct warrantless administrative searches in city agencies. And city employees and contractors are required to cooperate with their investigations. There also is a strong whistleblower law that protects city employees who report corruption.

DOI frequently conducts joint investigations with other law enforcement agencies, and refers the results of its successful cases to the nine local state and federal prosecutor offices that have responsibility for enforcing the criminal laws in New York City.

The city’s counterpart to JCOPE is the Conflicts of Interest Board, the city’s ethics agency, which uses a combination of advice, education, financial disclosure and enforcement to keep city employees honest. The COIB understands that education is corruption prevention, and it uses humor to teach the dry ethics lessons that city employees must learn.

The COIB understands that transparency is corruption prevention, too, and the leaders and policymakers of every city agency must file not one, but two financial disclosure statements every year that describe their finances and outside interests, as well as the interests of their close family members — one with the COIB, and one with DOI.

The COIB also understands that prevention is nothing without enforcement, and the COIB works as closely with DOI as any prosecutor works with a great detective, often balancing civil and criminal remedies to root out corruption.

A violation of the city’s ethics rules is a misdemeanor. And if a crime is not charged, the annals of city government are filled with the tales of city officials being fined thousands of dollars for breaking the rules.

Two of my best cases at DOI were COIB cases. In one case, the commissioner of the city’s welfare department was fined $6,500 for using his staff to work on a private contract with Arizona government officials. And the first deputy commissioner was fined $8,500 for engaging in financial relationships with his subordinates — specifically renting them beds in his apartment.

In another case, the corrections department deputy commissioner who oversaw Rikers Island used two correction officers to renovate his home and perform numerous tasks for his wife and children. And he also used his position to compel hundreds of other corrections officers to act as drivers for poll watchers working on behalf of various candidates, including Gov. George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The Bronx District Attorney successfully prosecuted the deputy commissioner for a COIB misdemeanor. The U.S. Attorney’s Office simultaneously prosecuted him for tax fraud.

The former Rikers Island chief was sentenced to a year in federal prison, and had to pay $75,000 in restitution.

Finally, one of the most critical components of the city’s anti-corruption system is a free press. The Rikers Island story was first reported by television news reporter Sarah Wallace, and we followed her lead over a series of stories that she broke.

In the United States, we honor reporters who break corruption stories — watch “All the President’s Men” about how Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate story, if you want inspiration. But in places like Azerbaijan, journalists who write about corruption are imprisoned, and sometimes murdered.

The anti-corruption system is not perfect, and there are indeed problems. There are prosecutors who sometimes do not actively pursue corruption cases because they are too small, there are staffing shortages in the anti-corruption agencies, and they suffer the same budget cuts as the rest of the government.

They have subpoena authority, but search warrant authority would make them more independent. And they are ultimately dependent on the executive branches that appoint their commissioners, and can terminate them at will.

So, what can Sen. Biaggi and other reformers learn from the New York City’s anti-corruption system? First, it is impossible to completely eliminate corruption. As long as greed is part of human nature, there will be corruption in government. DOI has operated since 1873, and corruption continues to plague New York City.

However, it is possible to control corruption, through constant vigilance by multiple government agencies — assisted by the public and the press, who have the courage to speak truth to power. Where one part of the system fails, another part can step in to act. If JCOPE fails, the state inspector general must act. And if the inspector general fails, the attorney general or other prosecutors must act.

But most importantly of all, we need not only systems, but individuals working within these systems who are passionate about combatting corruption, and who have the tools to be effective.

Give the anti-corruption agencies search warrant authority. Give them independence in their oversight by giving their leaders terms of office. Protect their budgets from cuts. Let them act as prosecutors when they need to.

And you will have a powerful weapon to combat corruption and protect the dream of democracy.

Rob Eisman

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