| | | | |  | | By Erin Durkin, Anna Gronewold and Julian Shen-Berro | In likely its last gasp, New York's little-loved Joint Commission on Public Ethics voted yesterday to publicly release a report on exactly how it allowed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to write his memoir about the Covid-19 pandemic during the Covid-19 pandemic. The only nay in the 10-1 vote was Cuomo appointee William Fisher. You can read the full report here , but the gist is that Cuomo and his staff spent a lot of time strong-arming JCOPE's approval, and JCOPE staff should have recognized the entire situation was ripe with ethical quandaries. In 2021, the $5.1 million book deal became a priority in multiple investigations, including the Democratic-led Assembly impeachment inquiry that determined Cuomo used government resources to write it. The report, from outside law firm Hogan Lovells, is full of phrases like "which itself should have been a red flag" and "that should have set off alarm bells" and "JCOPE failed to assert itself as a watchdog agency." These are hardly new critiques, but they might be for the last time. JCOPE is now disbanding after 11 years, to be replaced with a new entity lawmakers approved in the state budget that they hope will ensure less partisan and politically motivated commissioners. So Hogan Lovells offered some good luck to the next guys — 10 recommendations that are also generally good ideas such as "the successor agency should require any outside activity request by a statewide officeholder to be decided by a vote of the commissioners." It's been fun, JCOPE, but today many in New York politics are saying goodbye and "good riddance." No one had the time of their life. IT'S FRIDAY. Got tips, suggestions or thoughts? Let us know ... By email: EDurkin@politico.com and agronewold@politico.com, or on Twitter: @erinmdurkin and @annagronewold WHERE'S KATHY? Making an economic development announcement in Fairport. WHERE'S ERIC? Holding a kickoff event for the 2022 Summer Rising program and visiting a bus depot to speak with TWU Local 100 workers. QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Say what you will about Andrew Cuomo, but he died as he lived: with zero regard for the people around him and the impact his actions would have on them." — Democratic strategist Lis Smith, in an adapted excerpt from her new book CLINTON ADVICE TO CUOMO, according to LIS: "Even after the fateful call when we'd told him that his career was 'over,' he tried to press on. He called each of us individually to ask our opinions, seeking a sympathetic ear or some way out of the situation he found himself in. He didn't find one. The sole exception was former President Bill Clinton, who told him that he needed to go out and address the people of New York directly: to state that his fate was in their hands, not the politicians'. The consensus — among advisers, at least — was that unless Clinton, with his legendary political skills, was willing to do the mea culpa himself, it would do more harm than good."
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | |  | What City Hall's reading | | "Monkeypox Vaccine Rollout Is Marred by Glitches in New York," by The New York Times' Sharon Otterman: "The rollout echoed the early days of New York City's Covid-19 vaccine, when finding an appointment could feel like winning a radio contest. The city decided to assign appointments for the first 3,500 or so doses of the highly sought-after monkeypox vaccine via an online system, using Twitter as the main way to notify people. The appointments went within minutes. On top of that, because of a glitch, about 600 appointments went only to those who happened to store an older appointment website on their browsers, because the slots appeared there before a link on the main Department of Health website went live. 'By following the Department of Health's instructions, we had zero chance of getting the vaccine,' said Nicholas Diamond, who spent hours refreshing the city's website. 'I am really concerned that the city, state and federal government have learned nothing from the Covid response, and essentially the burden again has been left on us to figure out how to care for ourselves.'" "NYC Mayor Adams advocated for 'innocent' Rudy Giuliani back-slapper in talk with Staten Island DA ," by New York Daily News' Chris Sommerfeldt: "Mayor Adams confirmed Thursday that he has privately urged Staten Island's district attorney to go easy on a supermarket worker charged with assault for slapping Rudy Giuliani on the back during a tense altercation last month. Speaking at an unrelated press conference in Brooklyn, Adams said he talked with the DA, Michael McMahon, in the past few days about Daniel Gill, who's facing misdemeanor assault, menacing and harassment charges for back-slapping Giuliani while the ex-mayor was at the Staten Island ShopRite where Gill works on June 26. Adams said he told McMahon it was uncalled for to initially jail Gill over the incident." "City Hall, Gov. Kathy Hochul to negotiate details of NY class size bill: Eric Adams," by New York Post's Cayla Bamberger: "Mayor Eric Adams confirmed suspicions on Thursday that City Hall is in negotiations with Gov. Kathy Hochul regarding a costly class-size reduction bill passed by the state Legislature. 'She's given us an opportunity to further talk and negotiate to make sure we can find the right level, because this is hundreds of millions of dollars that we're talking about,' Adams said at an unrelated press conference in Brooklyn." " As fears about public safety loom, many NYPD officers leave the force," by Gothamist's Samantha Max: "New York City police officers are leaving their jobs at what some officers and experts say is an alarming rate, and not enough new recruits are taking their place. Even as 561 new police recruits were sworn in earlier this month, hundreds of officers were handing in their badges and shields to leave the department. According to the Police Pension Fund, over 2,100 sworn officers have retired or resigned since January. That's more departures in half a year than there were in all of 2019. Departures surged in 2020. And while fewer people left last year, the department is still struggling to staff up. There are currently almost 1,200 vacant positions, according to NYPD statistics." "'Still hungry': Struggling to feed NYC students as pandemic aid wanes," by Chalkbeat's Christina Veiga: "More people are hungry in New York City today than before COVID struck. Food insecurity has jumped by 36%. It's higher among children. An estimated 1 in 4 children don't have enough to eat — a 46% increase over pre-pandemic numbers according to Feeding America, one of the leading anti-hunger nonprofits. One group of activists has been feeding communities on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and the Allerton neighborhood of the central Bronx, installing community refrigerators in schools and delivering bags of groceries for parents to take home when they pick up their children. … Faced with higher needs and a shrinking social safety net, this group of volunteers is finding it harder to feed everybody."
| | ACROSS THE RIVER | | "Amazon Hub in Newark Is Canceled After Unions and Local Groups Object," by The New York Times' Noam Scheiber and Karen Weise: "For the second time, plans by Amazon to substantially expand its presence in the New York area have been abandoned after labor and community groups mobilized in opposition. In 2019, Amazon abruptly canceled plans to build a second headquarters in New York City after facing a barrage of criticism that it did not anticipate. This time, the e-commerce giant was unable to complete a deal for a cargo hub at Newark Liberty International Airport. The project, which hinged on a 20-year lease worth hundreds of millions of dollars, attracted opposition after the Port Authority disclosed it last summer."
| | WHAT ALBANY'S READING | | "A New Conservative Majority on New York's Top Court is Upending State Law," by New York Focus' Sam Mellins: "Janet DiFiore. Anthony Cannatarro. Michael Garcia. Madeline Singas. Most New Yorkers have never heard these names. But these four judges form a controlling majority of New York state's highest court. They always rule in lockstep. They often barely explain their decisions. And as the U.S. Supreme Court upends federal constitutional law, these judges too are issuing a slew of decisions pushing New York law to the right. The Court of Appeals ruled on 98 cases in its most recent term, which ended last month. DiFiore, Cannataro, Garcia and Singas voted in tandem in 96 of those cases. On the seven-member court, a bloc of four that sticks together can dictate the outcome of every case. In the past year, these four judges have used their power to prevent criminal defendants from presenting expert testimony supporting their innocence, bar workers from suing employers for workplace injuries, and make it harder for victims of police misconduct to sue for damages, among other rulings." "New York's new gun laws expected to face court challenge ," Times Union's Brendan J. Lyons: "The chairmen of New York's Republican and Conservative parties on Thursday pledged to file a lawsuit challenging sweeping new gun laws that were rushed through the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul last week in response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the state's law concealed-carry permit system. The amendments to multiple state laws have sparked debate among gun rights groups and between Republican and Democratic lawmakers about whether they align with the high court's decision, including the ability of New Yorkers with handgun permits to legally carry those weapons — concealed from view — in public places." THE INTERNET is holding Kathy Hochul responsible for killing the perfectly good Usher meme. Here's who spent the most on New York's lobbying in 2021 , by POLITICO's Bill Mahoney: The Greater New York Hospital Association spent more on lobbying in New York than any other group in 2021, according to numbers calculated by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics. The figures come as overall lobbying spending last year appeared to be the second most on record at nearly $293 million. GNYHA spent $5.4 million lobbying state and local governments. The hospital association was similarly the top lobby client in 2020, as health care issues became all-consuming before state government, and has been a regular presence near the top of the annual list for decades. "NY commission refused to name businesses distributing marijuana. Then it changed course.," by WNYC's Jon Campbell: "Since February, New York state regulators had refused to name the dozens of businesses that received cease-and-desist letters claiming they were illicitly selling marijuana and other cannabis products earlier this year. On Thursday, the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) reversed course. After months of pressure from Gothamist, OCM finally made public the unredacted letters it sent to 66 storefronts from Queens to Buffalo — including many that have continued to distribute cannabis even after receiving the correspondence. Those businesses include some of the most prominent players in the New York City market, such as Weed World and Empire Cannabis Club." "New York Left Hits Wall in Primaries, Points to Reasons for Optimism," by Gotham Gazette's Samar Khurshid: "Bruce Gyory, a Democratic strategist and senior advisor at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, praised Archila's campaign in particular but said it didn't break through to the larger Democratic electorate. 'I think the problem that progressives have in statewide primaries is that they can't win just by appealing to progressives,' he said. 'They have to build bridges to other constituencies.'" He noted that Democrats weren't as engaged as they were in 2018. 'Voters are not feeling that these incumbents are letting them down. In 2018 there was real anger towards the IDC, that anger does not exist. … I think the progressives misperceived that there was this continuing anger towards Democratic incumbents,' Gyory said. 'I think the one who kind of took it on the chin, perception wise, was AOC, who made all those endorsements,' he said, referring to Ocasio-Cortez." — Times Union: "How socialist organizer Sarahana Shrestha pulled off an election upset" #UpstateAmerica: If your car's inspection sticker is "affixed by clear tape, includes a cutout of a random postal bar code and crude text made with marker and pencil" with months "represented by 12 imprecise squiggles," you'll need to try harder to fool the Fulton County Sheriff's Office.
| | | | INTRODUCING POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don't miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | | | AROUND NEW YORK | | — New York City crime increased 31 percent last month compared to June 2021. — Another lifeguard was bitten by a shark , this time at Ocean Beach on Fire Island. — NYCHA doesn't want residents to own electric bikes or charging the batteries inside their units. — RIP to the great James Caan, a Bronx native. — A small number of monkeypox vaccine doses are headed to Saratoga County. — Rochester has its first permanent police chief in nearly two years. — New York nonprofits supporting Ukrainian refugees need more funding, advocates say. — Nearly a year after Hurricane Ida, New York City is taking additional steps to prepare for future floods.
| | SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN | | HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Steve Holland of Reuters … Jim Miklaszewski … Arlie Ziskend … WSJ's Doug Belkin … CNN's Bill Hinkle … NYT's Lara Jakes … Anna Quindlen … Christian Sherrill MEDIAWATCH — "David Shipley named editor of Washington Post editorial page : The longtime editor at Bloomberg will succeed the late Fred Hiatt as the first leader of the section hired from outside The Post in decades," by WaPo's Paul Farhi and Elahe Izadi — Tim O'Brien is taking over as editor of Bloomberg Opinion. … Katherine Miller is joining NYT's opinion desk as a writer/editor covering elections and democracy. She previously spent eight years at BuzzFeed and is a Washington Free Beacon alum. Quoctrung Bui is also joining NYT opinion as deputy graphics editor, moving over from The Upshot. Announcement … … Gavin Kallmann has been promoted to chief digital production journalist (U.S.) at the Financial Times, with responsibility for overseeing the U.S. revise team. Peter Wells has also been promoted to acting U.S. breaking news and New York desk editor while Mamta Badkar is on maternity leave. … Erin Mulvaney is now a legal affairs reporter at WSJ. She previously was a senior reporter at Bloomberg Law. … Haris Alic is joining Fox News as a Congress and national politics reporter. He previously was a congressional reporter for The Washington Times.' MAKING MOVES — Stephen Chang is now senior director for federal government affairs at Ameriprise Financial Services. He most recently was manager for federal government affairs at AIG. … Anshu Siripurapu has left the Council on Foreign Relations, where he was a writer/editor on economics. He is heading to Georgetown Law in the fall.
| | Real Estate | | "The Woo-woo Agents of Real Estate Can unblocking your chakras get you a house? Maybe!," by Curbed's Bridget Read: "Cary Tamura, a New York agent with the Corcoran Group, has taught shamatha-vipashyana, or mindfulness-awareness meditation, to other real-estate agents. 'The benefits of that in your business, be it dealing with difficult clients or a negotiation, are being keyed into the stuff in between the words,' Tamura says. 'The more present you are, the more clearly you can see those kinds of things.' He says this is especially true of his rental clients, who face a market in which the vacancy rate is less than 5 percent: 'It's very difficult to get a rental, whether you're a broker, whether you're not a broker. No matter what it is, it's very likely that there are multiple applications for any rental happening right now. So the ability to not get flustered is very important.'" | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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