Ethics Commissioner Quits as Panel Meets Behind Closed Doors
By Karen DeWitt
The state ethics commission met Tuesday, and spent most of its time in a private session, as a key appointee of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver resigned from the board.
The Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or JCOPE, accepted the resignation of Patrick Bulgaro, an appointee of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Silver was the subject of a recent ethics commission probe, which examined his role in the sexual harassment charges against former Assemblyman Vito Lopez. The report found Silver was not guilty of any wrong doing, but did criticize the Speaker’s role in a secret $100,000 settlement to two of Lopez’s alleged victims.
Bulgaro is not giving any reason for his departure, but he was one of the few commissioners in the ethics board two year history to speak out publicly at a meeting last September, when he complained about leaks from the commission to the media on the Silver investigation.
David Grandeau is the former head of the State Lobbying Commission, where Bulgaro also served as Chair , and which was merged into the present ethics commission. Grandeau, who ran what was considered to be a successful ethics panel, now advises clients who appear before the state ethics commission. He says he has not spoken to Bulgaro but believes he made the right decision.
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