Albany's most powerful special interest is comprised of elected officials who are also private-sector lawyers. That group includes the leaders of both the Assembly and Senate and the Senate minority leader, none of whom voluntarily discloses his income or clients. While Gov. Paterson is proposing legislation to mandate such disclosure, that provision is apparently not winning the support of another lawyer-politician, Andrew Cuomo, who says he is "wary of forcing attorneys to disclose their clients, which has 'ethical issues.'"
If lawyer-legislators are in such agonies about the ethics of all this, they could just take boring clients who don't care who knows who represents them. Or they could devote all their working hours to earning their public salaries and serving the people. The key "ethical issues," as apparently only Paterson recognizes, are letting the public know about potential conflicts of interest. That potential is very high, since almost every client of a New York lawyer could be materially affected by what the Legislature does.
Joe Bruno, the recently convicted Senate leader, was not a lawyer but a business consultant, who was able to use the cloak of secrecy provided by current state law to conceal his clients and income. That ability to conceal needs to be removed from all legislators, especially the most powerful ones, who are currently lawyers with private-sector practices.
My company has a code of conduct that I must follow if I want to keep my job. It impinges to a small extent on my ability to earn outside income. I have to decide which is more important to me. No man can serve two masters. People have to make choices in life. Why should legislators be any different?
Posted by: Brian | January 07, 2010 at 03:37 PM
Let's tell the truth: being a legislator is not a God-given right, contrary to what many seem to think. We as their employers have every right to demand ethical behavior on their behalf. If they can not balance the ethical demands of their two jobs, then they can give up one.
Posted by: Brian | January 07, 2010 at 03:38 PM