Making government more accountable and open

Legislation I supported passed the Legislature to improve oversight of the state’s public authorities and public benefit corporations. The measure has the support of the state Senate and governor. Scandals and fiscal mismanagement continue to plague public authorities. Authorities need to be reined in and made accountable, and this legislation (A.9007) will do so by:

·        creating an inspector general with jurisdiction over authorities to make sure they are given the kind of oversight they’ve been lacking;

·        creating the Authority Budget Office to review authority budgets;

·        mandating training for authority board members, strengthening ethics and prohibiting authority executives from sitting on authority boards;

·        improving standards for independent audits of authority spending; and

·        establishing new rules to regulate the sale of authority property

Another bill to open government was signed into law clarifying existing FOIL provisions and streamlining the request process (Ch. 22 of 2005).  The law has the support of government watchdog groups and the New York State Newspaper Publishers Association.

Under the legislation, the FOIL law would also:

·        require timely responses to FOIL requests;

·        require in writing an agency’s inability to grant a request within 20 business days; and

·        take into consideration special circumstances in granting a request, such as large number of records that must be collected.

The legislation helps close one of the biggest loopholes, which has allowed government offices to simply ignore a FOIL request. The public and press will now have a legal recourse if an agency fails to respond. Failing to respond will be treated as a “denial,” which opens an appeal process.

 Curtailing special interest lobbying

Billions of taxpayer dollars are spent every year on state and local government contracts. Often, there is little or no oversight of behind-the-scenes lobbying efforts to obtain these contracts. This year, the Assembly, Senate and governor reached an agreement to limit the influence of lobbying on the awarding of state and local government contracts.

The three-way agreement reforms the procurement process by:

·        creating a restricted contact period in which all communication for negotiating contracts will be made by designated contact officers;

·        raising the threshold of allowable expenditures and compensation to require lobbyist registration from $2,000 to $5,000 annually; and

·        prohibiting payments to lobbyists contingent on the acceptance of a bid or contract by any governmental entity, or other procurement-related decisions

Stopping taxpayer-funded Viagra for sex offenders

Providing sex offenders with Viagra is like giving dental insurance to sharks. It is simply unacceptable for taxpayer dollars to go toward sexual performance-enhancing drugs or procedures for convicted sex offenders.

The three-way agreement between the Assembly, Senate and governor will ban the use of public funds to cover Viagra and other medical techniques intended to enhance sexual performance for registered sex offenders (A.8999). This legislation is a common sense response to disturbing revelations involving sexual predators. We are taking tough, aggressive steps to prevent, punish and monitor sexual predators who stalk our streets, playgrounds and neighborhood.

I authored a bill which passed both houses of the Legislature to create a new crime called compelling prostitution. A person would be guilty of compelling prostitution when, being twenty-one years of age or more, he or she knowingly advances prostitution by compelling a person less than sixteen years old, by force or intimidation, to engage in prostitution (A.6723). The crime would be considered a class B felony and an individual found guilty under the law could serve up to 25 years in prison

Another bill which passed the Legislature would ban sexual predators from working on ice cream trucks (A.2550). Ice creams trucks attract young children as customers, especially in the summer. The only thing a child should have to worry about is what flavor to choose, not who is serving the ice cream. We must prevent sexual predators from taking jobs that bring them in close contact with youngsters.

I am encouraged by what we were able to accomplish during this legislative session. Our work is far from over and I look forward to working together in a bipartisan manner to find solutions to the unresolved problems facing New Yorkers.