Gotham Gazette Asks “How Is JCOPE Doing”?

The title of this article from Gotham Gazette, Three Years In, New York Ethics Commission Still Looking to Find Footing, pretty much says it all.

The article quotes a number of “Albany watchdogs” regarding how the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) has performed in its first three years in existence.

While there are some interesting perspectives in the article, I can’t help but think that the expectations for JCOPE may be too high. JCOPE is a civil regulatory body with jurisdiction over a relatively narrow scope of non-criminal activities – those found in Public Officers Law sections 73, 73-a and 74, and the Lobbying Act.

While there are definitely things that JCOPE could do better (such as spending less time in executive session, and more time publicly discussing issues that come before it), JCOPE is not (and, to be fair, shouldn’t be compared to) is a prosecutorial entity, such as a District Attorney, or the U.S. Attorney.