New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s explanation of some of the circumstances of a U.S. Attorney’s probe into his administration has left some unanswered questions.
Cuomo offered a brief explanation of his former top aide’s involvement in a scandal now encompassing his administration, saying the actions of Joe Percoco were perfectly legitimate. The governor says he knew that when Percoco left his $156,000 a year job to manage Cuomo’s 2014 reelection campaign, that Percoco would also work for private clients, but that’s all he knew about the situation.
“Joe left state service, and went into the private sector, he consulted for my campaign,” said Cuomo. “I knew he might be accepting consulting arrangements with other companies, but beyond that no.”
What Cuomo says he did not know was reported by Percoco in financial disclosure forms with the state ethics commission in mid-2015. Percoco received up to $125,000 for consulting work from two companies, Clough Harbor Associates and COR Development Company. Both are heavily involved in Cuomo’s economic development projects, including the Buffalo Billion.
But Cuomo says it is legal for someone to do that.
“Can you leave state service and then represent companies that deal with the state? Yes, you can,” Cuomo said. “You can’t appear on their behalf before the state. There’s a two-year ban. ”
It’s unknown exactly what kind of consultation Percoco provided, and whether it involved representing the clients before state government. Percoco’s lawyer is not responding.
The man that Andrew Cuomo has described as his father’s “third son” returned to the Cuomo Administration in December 2014, and eventually was paid nearly $175,000 a year, before he left in January 2016. Cuomo said at the time that Percoco said he needed to make more money.
Reform advocates say perhaps the governor and his former top aide have discovered what they call a “sweet spot,” a loophole in the state’s lobbying laws. Blair Horner, with the New York Public Interest Research Group, said, “What has been reported could mean that there’s a gaping hole in New York’s ethics laws. Where you can leave government, work for a campaign and be allowed to have outside clients. And as long as you’re not representing them before the government, it could be perfectly legal.”
Horner says the situation raises a number of questions, including what exactly Percoco did for the money and whether he brought the clients’ perspectives back to the governor when Percoco rejoined the administration.
Horner says he also questions why Governor Cuomo was not more curious about Percoco’s other clients, during the time Percoco managed the governor’s re-election campaign. It was, after all, during the same time period that the U.S. Attorney who is now investigating Percoco and others in the governor’s administration was probing the premature closure of Cuomo’s Moreland Act ethics panel.
“If someone is going to run my campaign, and also have private clients, I would ask them who those clients were,” he said. “And expect that they would be removed from any policymaking decisions that affect those clients.”
Horner says at the very least, Percoco should have asked for an opinion from the State’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics. It’s not known if Percoco did so; those opinions are kept secret.
