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Conviction spotlights weak state ethics

“More people leave the New York State Legislature through the criminal justice system than the ballot box,” State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. of Sag Harbor was saying last week.


He was referring to the conviction for corruption of a man who for nearly 14 years had been one of the three most powerful people in state government: former State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.


“The only thing about Joe,” said Mr. Thiele, “is that he got out before the criminal proceedings.” Mr. Bruno departed the Senate in 2008 before the federal charges were brought.


That federal charges took down 80-year-old Bruno, not violations of state law, says a lot about state laws, noted Mr. Thiele. “The ethics laws in the State of New York are among the weakest in the country,” he commented.


Mr. Bruno was convicted in a jury trial of his illegal (and wanton) combining of official duties and private interests. He got rich in the process, collecting more than $3 million for private “consulting” services. Much of the private work was done out of his Senate office with his staff participating. Indeed, as a consultant he needed no employees because he had his state workers doing the private tasks. The trial especially focused on Mr. Bruno getting paid by clients who then were given state contracts and other business.


The New York State Legislature has been called dysfunctional. The conviction of Mr. Bruno shows that if it’s dysfunctional or crazy, Mr. Bruno, at least, has been crazy like a fox.


Mr. Thiele, a member of the State Assembly since 1995 (before that he was Southampton Town supervisor and a Suffolk County legislator) cites several issues contributing to the ethical problems of the State Legislature.


The first is the job of state legislator not being full-time while, in recent years, the position of a member of the U.S. Congress has been made full-time and outside income limited.


The New York Times’ Albany correspondent Danny Hakim last week also made this point writing in a piece on the Bruno case: “If nothing else, Mr. Bruno’s trial has highlighted fundamental flaws in state law. Lawmakers are allowed to have second jobs in what has long been considered a citizen legislature, but are required to disclose very little of their private interests.”


“These [ethics] problems,” said Mr. Thiele, “relate to legislators’ outside positions. I think a state like New York has to look at what the U.S. Congress did.”


Then, there’s how much a New York State legislator makes, $79,500, which encourages outside activities. “County legislators make more than that,” noted Mr. Thiele. The $79,500 is the salary of members of both the Assembly and the Senate, and has been unchanged for 15 years. 


“I’m not lobbying for an increase in salary,” emphasized Mr. Thiele. But making the job of state representative full time and increasing salaries as was done in Congress would help “clean up the system,” he believes.


Then there are the ethics laws, which need to be substantially strengthened, said Mr. Thiele, an attorney. “The state ethics laws are so garbled and so weak. They weren’t strong enough to make a case against Bruno — which is why he was charged on the federal level.”


And there’s the administration of ethics laws. “Albany lacks a truly independent ethics commission,” he said. “Each house [of the State Legislature] has its own ethics committee. Good luck with that! Then there is a state ethics commission, but its members are appointed by politicians. Good luck with that!”


State Senator Kenneth LaValle of Port Jefferson who, like Mr. Thiele, represents eastern Suffolk in Albany said last week that he agreed with Mr. Thiele, but questioned “whether the public will support a full-time legislature.” Still, he believes “it will be inevitable at some juncture that the legislature becomes a full-time legislature. At that point, there needs to be a decision on how you would compensate legislators.”


But would a full-time legislature, salaries reflecting full-time legislative positions, tougher ethics laws and their proper administration do the job of reforming Albany? It’ll take more, much more, but that would help in challenging a shameful situation.