New York State has a “Joint Commission on Public Ethics.” It was created by the “Public Integrity Reform Act,” to “restore public trust in government.”
Percoco
Last year, Joseph Percoco, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s top henchman, was convicted of corruption, taking bribes. The trial also revealed that Percoco, after he’d left his state government post to run Cuomo’s political campaign, continued to extensively use his state office and telephone for political business, in violation of law, and right under Cuomo’s nose.
You might think the “Joint Commission on Public Ethics” might be interested in this. But you’d be wrong. This is Cuomo’s New York. The Commission’s members are appointed by the corrupt Governor and legislative leaders.
“JCOPE” refused even to hold a vote on whether to investigate the Percoco matter. A lawsuit was brought to compel JCOPE to hold such a vote. A judge thereupon ordered JCOPE to do so. Did JCOPE comply, and hold a vote? No, instead it appealed the ruling.
The face of public ethics in New York
But JCOPE has revealed that it is dropping its appeal, saying that it has now actually held a vote on whether to investigate.
Has JCOPE revealed the result of the vote?
Of course not.
(This is why you find a series of quotation marks in my first paragraph.)
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