THE END: A governor plagued by scandals finally decides to resign.
THE BEGINNING: It’s a chance for New York’s leaders to fix an ethically compromised state government.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo may plan to step down in two weeks, but the damage he has done will endure long past the time he officially hands the reins of state government to Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul.
For all the good Mr. Cuomo did in his time in office, he leaves the state with a mess of his own making. But his downfall has also brought into sharp focus what must be one of Ms. Hochul’s and the Legislature’s top priorities: fixing the broken ethical guardrails that Mr. Cuomo has exploited over and over in a host of ways. If they fail, another governor will surely exploit them again.
It was that broken system that no doubt led Mr. Cuomo to believe he could harass female employees with impunity. The governor’s continued denials and carefully worded statements of half-contrition, his vindictiveness and the willingness of those around him to try to destroy the reputations of his accusers, are their own indictments — not just of their arrogance, but of the increasingly excessive power of the governor’s office. That 11 women dared to come forward knowing the governor’s power over the state’s impotent enforcement mechanisms is a testament to their courage.
It was that broken system that also enabled Mr. Cuomo and his administration to go for months defying legislative requests for the true figures on the deaths of nursing home residents from COVID-19 — information that, yes, might have diminished the governor’s image as a hero of the pandemic but would have also shed light on deadly missteps that should never be repeated.
It was that broken system that let Mr. Cuomo think he could use taxpayer-funded staff to help him with a memoir that netted him a $5.1 million advance — and not disclose for months just how much money he was making at public expense.
It was that broken system that has left New Yorkers still wondering just how many bolts holding together the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge are defective — defects that the administration sought to keep quiet for years and that it still apparently does not have a true handle on.
We could go on with all the ways Mr. Cuomo abused the power that he — and governors before him — have amassed. But it’s apparent enough that there are few meaningful checks on gubernatorial power in this state, short of the extraordinary intervention of the independently elected attorney general and the even rarer threat of impeachment. That needs to change when Lt. Gov. Hochul becomes Gov. Hochul.
CHANGE WOULD start by scrapping the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, the toothless lapdog that Mr. Cuomo — who first ran as an avowed ethics reformer — created under the guise of improving ethics and lobbying enforcement. Lawmakers should forge ahead with plans to amend the state constitution to create a more independent watchdog over the executive and legislative branches. New York needs a body that can daily hold state officials accountable for violations large and small, from the countless minor rule-breakings to major corruption — which is what getting away with the little things enough times inevitably leads to.
Clearly, too, the Office of the Inspector General needs an overhaul. It lost all credibility when it was called on to investigate a leak of confidential information to the governor and then concluded that there was no way to verify it — after it conspicuously failed to interview the very governor who received the information. That office’s independence needs to be more than theoretical.
And there needs to be more of a healthy distance between the governor and the State Police. The state’s law enforcement agency, particularly the detail that protects the governor, can’t become just another part of his or her inner political circle — nor can it ever look the other way when it sees misconduct going on, even by the state’s highest elected official.
Ms. Hochul has more to do.
The first woman to be New York governor has a unique opportunity to denounce the harassment Mr. Cuomo really didn’t own up to in his semi-apologies and professions of innocence that, but for saying he will indeed resign, could just as easily have been a refusal to do so. She needs to clean the executive branch of Mr. Cuomo’s enablers and attack dogs, starting with those involved in efforts to discredit his accusers. She needs to set a tone of genuine forthrightness and not treat the public as if it is on a need-to-know basis when it comes to its government.
And the Legislature needs to proceed with impeachment and trial regardless of Mr. Cuomo’s resignation. Conviction is the only way to ensure that he doesn’t get it into his head come the next election, or the one after that, that time has healed the wound he has left in New Yorkers’ hearts. It may close, but the scar will be a blemish on this state, and his legacy, forever.
