As a long-term advocate of changing the way government in Albany works, Assemblyman David G. McDonough (R,C,I-Merrick) today supported ethics and lobbying reform proposals state leaders recently agreed to, but said they need to go further.

“I am pleased that many of the proposals that my colleagues and I in the Assembly Minority Conference have been advocating for many years may finally become reality. However, I remain skeptical. For a long time, Speaker Silver prevented much-needed reform legislation from getting to the floor for a vote. I do remain hopeful that in this case he will keep his promise to make government more accountable and transparent,” said McDonough.

While McDonough is pleased that Legislators have made progress on reform issues, he believes that additional provisions should have been included in the final agreement. For example, the maximum civil penalty for ethics violations will increase from $10,000 to $40,000, plus the value of the violation. This measure contains no sanctions or criminal penalties; it only hits the offender’s wallet. It allows violators to pay their way out of an offense, and that is unacceptable, stated McDonough.

“Elected and appointed officials should be held to higher standards, and when they violate the trust placed upon them by their constituents, criminal penalties should be incurred,” said McDonough.

McDonough also noted that the new Commission on Public Integrity has no investigative authority; they have to wait until there is a violation reported or rely on legislators or lobbyists to turn in their colleagues or themselves. McDonough believes the commission should be given more teeth, allowing them to investigate possible violators.

Finally, McDonough also points out that the current membership on the Legislative Ethics Committee will be replaced with a majority of independent members and statutory disclosure requirements. The problem facing the committee is the lack of impartiality created by the member nominating process.

“When legislators are allowed to nominate and place members on the very committee that will oversee them, you are sending a message to the public that the process lacks integrity and oversight,” concluded McDonough.