2015 LEGISLATIVE SESSION

Legislative/Judiciary Budget Bill #S.2001/A.3001

CJA's February 23, 2015 letter to Chairs & Ranking Members of the Senate Finance Committee & Assembly Ways & Means Committee –
“YOUR FEBRUARY 26, 2015 ‘PUBLIC PROTECTION’ BUDGET HEARING: Reconsidering Your Denial of CJA’s Request to Testify, Pursuant to Legislative Law 32-a, in Opposition to the Proposed Judiciary and Legislative Budgets – and the Governor’s Budget Bill #S.2001/A.3001”

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CJA's October 30, 2015 FOIL/Records Request --
"Commission on Legislative, Judicial and Executive Compensation"

From the Governor:
       November 6, 2015 acknowledgment   
       December 8, 2015 extension
       December 23, 2015 letter -- enclosures

From the Senate:
      November 6, 2015 response, attaching October 14, 2015 letter

From the Assembly:
      November 9, 2015 acknowledgment
      November 12, 2015 response, attaching June 9, 2015 letter

From the Judiciary:
     October 30, 2015 acknowledgment
     March 4, 2016 response, attaching letter

December 12, 2015
"Gov. Cuomo's Burden on Ethics"
NYT (editorial)

"...Ethics in government should now move to the top of his priority list.
... He should bring new transparency to a notoriously opaque budget process that allowed Mr. Silver to pass out about $500,00 without leaving any fingerprints.  It's also time to release details about slush funds, especially those tucked into the state's capital budget...."

December 14, 2015
"Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney, Sees Lessons in Albany Corruption Trials"
Benjamin Weiser, Susanne Craig, Wiliam Rashbaum

"Mr. Bharara took special interest in the two trials, spending many days observing from the rear of the courtrooms with several of his senior aides.  In the interview, he recalled on piece of testimony that he had found particularly revelatory -- 'stunning,' as he put it.

State Senator Tony Avella, a Democrat from Queens, testified that as chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, he had been barred from holding any committee hearings.

'The idea that the chair of the ethics committee has never had the opportunity to mark up a bill, has never had the opportunity to hold a hearing,' Mr. Bharara said, 'tells you everything you  need to know about the enabling nature of all the people in the State Legislature who may not have been convicted of crimes, but seem not to care that they're going on.  I think that's indisputable.'"

...Mr. Bharara noted that investigators, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and career prosecutors 'have been doing their job with abandon' for years."

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