Senate Bill S5601A

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S5601A

SPONSOR: BORRELLO
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to prohibiting
statewide elected officers and certain appointed officers from receiving
compensation for any book or other published work written during the
course of their term of service

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

Any officer elected to a statewide office within the state or state
salaried positions filled by direct appointment by the governor and
confirmed by the Senate is prohibited from selling or receiving compen-
sation for any book or other published work written during their term of
public service in such position.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1: Establishes which statewide elected officials and appointed
officials are prohibited from profiting from a book or other published
              

work written while serving in that position.

It is clarified that selling or receiving compensation for a book or
published work written before or after such term is not prohibited.

Section 2: Provides the effective date, which is the one hundred eight-
ieth day after becoming law.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Governor Cuomo's laundry list of scandals have cast a dark cloud over
his administration and its ability to continue leading New York during
this challenging time. One of the scandals which has received consider-
ably more media attention in recent weeks relates to the Governor's
decision to write and sell the book in the middle of an ongoing pandemic
that has plagued our nation and our state.

The Governor's book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the
COVID-19 Pandemic has become subject to significant scrutiny that goes
beyond the obvious criticism of publishing and promoting a book as
COVID-19 continued to negatively impact so many of our fellow New York-
ers.

An article from the Democrat & Chronicle shined a light on a potential
conflict of interest when a firm with a lucrative state contract hosted
a private webinar in 2020 with the Governor and purchased large quanti-
ties of his book to provide to their employees (Campbell, 2020). The
article consequently exposed a flaw in our state's ethics laws concern-
ing potential conflicts that can arise from publishing a book while in
office. This is not the first occurrence of such issues arising from an
elected official's book deal. According to an LA Times story from 1989,
former U.S. House Speaker James Wright (D) of Texas found himself
embroiled in scandal, in part due to an Ethic Committee's finding charg-
ing:

"Wright with 69 violations of House rules, including $145,000 in improp-
er gifts from Ft. Worth developer George A. Mallick Jr. and attempts to
evade House limits on honorariums by selling copies of his book to trade
associations and other groups in lieu of accepting speaking
fees"(Jackson, 1989).

Criticism of Governor Cuomo's book deal and further research into former
Speaker Wright's scandal prompted the sponsor to solicit feedback in an
unscientific 24 hour poll on social media where of 1,917 votes cast,
94.9% agreed with prohibiting full-time state elected officials from
writing and selling a book during the term of their elected office
(@Byrne4NY, 2021; Whalen, 2021) .

After drafting this legislation which prohibits certain state-wide
public officials from writing and selling a book during their term of
office, the list of compelling reasons to support such a prohibition has
only lengthened. Recent news reports from March 2021 in the NY Times and
Buffalo News have alleged the Governor's book deal exceeded $4 million
dollars and that state employees and aides had assisted the Governor
with his personal project in writing and/or editing the book (McKinley,
Hakin & Alter; Precious).

Shortly after the March 2021 NY Times article, the Governor's office
responded to a FOIL request (initiated back in August 2020) and released
additional details pertaining to the book deal which confirmed some of
the information previously reported on by the NY Times. Reviewing the
Buffalo News report, it seems likely that the Governor may have violated
part of the terms set forth by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics. In
July Governor Cuomo was reportedly given permission to write the book by
the state ethics agency, as long as the subject matter of the book was
"unrelated to the governor's duties" in office. The title of the book
alone seems to violate that condition.

The reported use of government employees to assist the Governor in his
book also raises added concerns about potential violations of New York
State's Public Officers Law S § 74 part e.

"No officer or employee of a state agency, member of the legislature or
legislative employee should engage in any transaction as representative
or agent of the state with any business entity in which he or she has a
direct or indirect financial interest that might reasonably tend to
conflict with the proper discharge of his or her official duties."

More recently it was reported the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics
in Washington (CREW), a public sector watchdog, has filed a formal
complaint with the New York State Board of Elections against Governor
Cuomo for violating the law (2021). In their complaint CREW provided
specific evidence detailing how the Governor used his campaign's
resources to promote and sell his book for personal profit. One of the
most blatant examples is a copy of an email from the Governor's campaign
directing supporters to an Amazon page to order his book. At the bottom
of the email, it clearly stated it was "Paid for by Andrew Cuomo for New
York, Inc."

As a matter of public policy, we should strengthen our ethics laws and
prevent state-wide officials from engaging in book deals during the term
of their public office. In no way would this infringe on anyone's first
amendment right. Officials remain welcome to write and provide their
opinions for free, but so long as they are compensated by taxpayers this

added restriction should be considered a condition of their employment
with the state.

                          SOURCES

Campbell, J. (2020, Oct. 2) Andrew Cuomo holds webinar with firm that
promised his book to employees.
Democrat & Chronicle. Retrieved April 1, 2021 from
https://www.democratandchronicie.com/story/news/politiosialbany/
2020/10/02/and rew-scuomo-skadden-videoconference-book/5884655002/

Jackson, R. (1989, June 1) The Resignation of Jim Wright: Speaker's
Downfall. LA Times. Retrieved April 1, 2021 from https://www.
times.com/archives/laxpm-1989-06-01-mn-1334-storv.html

@Byrne4NY (2021, March 24). Twitter Poll. Retrieved April 1, 2021 from
https://twitter.com/byrne4ny/status/1374888364265066499?s=21

Whalen, R. (2021, March 25) Assemblyman Proposes Prohibiting Profits for
Statewide Elected Officials. Spectrum News. Retrieved April 1, 2021 from
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/hys/central-nWpolitics/2021/03/25/
assemblymanproposes-prohibitingpublishing-profits-for-statewide- elect-
ed-officials

McKinley, J., Hakim, D. & Alter, A. (2021, March 31) As Cuomo Sought $4
Million Book Deal, Aides Hid Damaging Death Toll. NY Times.  Retrieved
April 1, 2021 from
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/nyregion/cuomosbooknursinahomes.
html?fbclid-IwARNCAEN b4u2Ev42Toq3ZS0n mMaPa7iX09w08NTOtOpAdgbSpanS

Precious, T. (2021, March 31) Seven months later, Cuomo administration
divulges details about his Covid-19 book deal. Buffalo News.  Retrieved
March 31, 2021 from http://buffalonews.com/news/state- and-
regional/sevenmonths-later-cuomo-administration-divulges-details
-about-his-covid-19-book-deal/article_e2ba30ba-9275-11eb9642-83fed
bd461fc.html

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (2021, April 1).
CREW files complaint against Andrew Cuomo (Press Release). Retrieved
April 1, 2021 from https://www.citizensforethics.org/legal-
actionaegalcomplaints/ crew-files-complaint-against-andrew-
cuomo/?fbelid-
IwAR2wuTt7BybQZxCP4MFzTgNWUS5L2MwARj73xiyY3ZvoOKFZTseR4VrWu U

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New Bill

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
One hundred eightieth day after becoming law.