It is a tumultuous time in the New York Assembly. Long-time serving Speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, has been arrested for public corruption. After initially standing by Silver, claiming, amazingly, that his arrest will not be a distraction, members of the New York City–dominated Democrat majority in the Assembly finally came to their senses. They realized that supporting Silver was a politically tenuous position and that a new speaker must be elected.
[Just before press time, Bronx Assemblyman Carl Heastie was elected the next Speaker of the Assembly.] I urge Speaker Heastie, to embrace reform. Sheldon Silver dominated our chamber for such a long time and to such an extent that he solely controlled the way ethics investigations were run, he determined which bills made it to the floor of the house, and he determined how much resources and staff individual Assembly members received. Silver embraced the three-men-in-a-room budget process where the governor, State Senate president, and Assembly speaker divvied how state money was going to be spent. This left rank-and-file members of the legislature on the sidelines.
With Silver gone as speaker, we have an opportunity to change the way Albany is run and bring accountability back to state government. This is the time for our house, with a new speaker, to reform the way the New York Assembly operates. Some of the common-sense rules reform that would change Albany for the better include:
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i) mposing term limits on leadership positions, so that one representative cannot serve for more than eight years in a leadership position;
ii) require public hearings on legislation; and
iii) strengthen and provide more independence to our Assembly standing committees.
Along with these changes, let’s also adopt ethics reforms such as:
i) equiring elected officials convicted of a felony to forfeit their state pensions;
ii) create an independent Assembly ethics committee as opposed to an ethics committee that is directly controlled by the speaker; and
iii) require that any complaint made against an assembly member or staff member to be referred to the ethics committee.
The people are discouraged by the way Albany has been run and I share their frustration. I never supported Silver for speaker because of his refusal to allow reform. The change in leadership in the Assembly provides us with a great opportunity. Over the next couple of weeks, I look forward to joining with like-minded representatives in advocating for reform. I will only support a speaker who is willing to change the way the Assembly is operated.
William (Will) A. Barclay is the Republican representative of the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. Contact him at barclaw@assembly.state.ny.us, or (315) 598-5185.