Study: JCOPE Should Be Smaller, More Transparent
New York Law Journal, November 4, 2015
Study: JCOPE Should Be Smaller, More Transparent
A panel conducting a legislatively mandated review of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) has recommended that the panel be smaller and its operations more transparent to the public. The review panel said the 14-member makeup of the current commission makes it difficult to schedule meetings and suggested JCOPE could function “more nimbly and effectively” with five to nine commissioners. The review panel also said JCOPE should scrap so-called “special” voting rules which allow a small number of members to block an investigation of an elected official from their own party. Though not routinely used, the review said the provision undermines public confidence in the impartiality of the commission….Some of the recommendations parallel those JCOPE made earlier this year in a study it conducted of its own operations. The new recommendations echo changes in JCOPE urged by the New York City Bar Association and Common Cause-New York in a 2014 report.
