An ethics panel in Albany?

The governorship of New York has become synonymous with corruption and abuse of power over the past several years. In addition to other incidents, both Eliot Spitzer and now David Paterson have become embroiled in charges that they used their office to secure special treatment from State Police. In response, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Eric Adams are calling for the creation of a panel to ensure proper conduct by law enforcement officials. According to New York 1 news, this commission would ‘…investigate systemic misconduct, abuse of power and inappropriate political intervention with state law enforcement.’ While both Congressmen say that this act is not an attack on Paterson, it certainly comes at a bad time for the recently disgraced governor. Paterson has had to end his reelection campaign after details of misconduct surfaced last week.


While standards and ethics panels, especially those that investigate wrong doing by elected officials, are always welcome, the recent proposal leaves much to be desired. Details at the present stage are scarce, but there is certainly one major gorilla in the room: who is going to run this panel?