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Attorney Evan Davis calls on JCOPE to stretch its muscles
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March 17, 2014
“Hope for JCOPE,” a report released Friday by Common Cause & the New York City Bar, was critical of, but hopeful for, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, better known as JCOPE. Former Counsel to Governor Mario Cuomo attorney Evan Davis shared some details of the report with WCNY’s The Capitol Pressroom on March 17.
According to Davis, JCOPE needs to stretch its muscles.
“Our recommendation is to give much more authority,” Davis told The Capitol Pressroom host Susan Arbetter, “which we believe they are entitled to do, to their executive director and staff independent of the commission, not going to the commission to check, to pursue investigations against additional people. They can start the subject matter, so the subject matter might be [Vito] Lopez. But what if, in the course of that investigation with Lopez, you find things about other people. And if you look at their Lopez report, we think there are areas where they could have pursued their investigation. We are not saying who did wrong and who did right, but they cut it short with just Lopez. They should have pursued it.”
While the legislature is scheduled to review JCOPE in June, Davis told Arbetter that the Bar and Common Cause wanted to take an early look at the commission to help set the agenda for reform.
Listen to Davis on The Capitol Pressroom here.
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