POUGHKEEPSIE – The New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) has finally responded to an ethics complaint against then-Governor Andrew Cuomo. The complaint was filed by Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro in 2018.
Molinaro claimed that the Public Officers Law was violated when Cuomo permitted his top aide, Joseph Percoco, to use his Executive Chamber desk phone to make hundreds of calls over a two-month period despite being on leave from his job to serve as campaign manager for Cuomo in 2014.
Molinaro’s second claim against Cuomo was based on a political event that was held in a state office, namely Cuomo’s New York City office in April of 2018. A previous JCOPE opinion regarding such activities is clear that using state offices for political activities is prohibited.
JCOPE sent a letter to Molinaro on April 27, 2022, acknowledging the receipt of the 2018 complaint and indicating that the commission, on February 15th, voted against commencing an investigation and closed the case.
Molinaro expressed his displeasure with the delay and the decision. “Yesterday, nearly four years later, I received an answer to my complaint dismissing the matter. We’ve known this so-called ethics panel was a joke from the outset, but to receive this letter now is absurd.”
Of the four-year span between the filing of the complaint and the response, Molinaro added, “I plan to thank JCOPE for their response sometime this decade.”
