The throw-the-book indictments dropped on Queens Assemblyman William Scarborough send the welcome message that “broken windows” law enforcement has come to a state Capitol that sorely needs it.
Scarborough stands accused of pocketing $38,000 in campaign donations, filing false disclosure reports and padding his expenses to the tune of another $40,000 — types of offenses that routinely get ignored in anything-goes Albany.
Not this time, thanks to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the feds.
Which hopefully will throw a scare into fellow lawmakers who have gotten used to playing fast and loose with impunity.
The New York Public Interest Research Group last year spotted 100,000 violations of campaign finance law, virtually none of them penalized by the dozing watchdogs at the Board of Elections.
Which brings us to the woman who is supposed to change that — the board’s chief enforcement counsel, Risa Sugarman.
Hand-picked by Gov. Cuomo for a newly created post, Sugarman bears no responsibility for what Scarborough did in the past. Her mandate is to provide tough, independent policing that will make pols toe the line going forward.
And she’s off to a horrendous start.
As Daily News Albany bureau chief Kenneth Lovett reported Wednesday, Sugarman has been quietly sharing information on her activities with an aide to the governor — who is, after all, a Democrat and a candidate in this fall’s elections.
He also happens to be her former boss and the man who installed her in this job. Keeping him at arm’s length is especially critical.
But when board members challenged Sugarman for, in effect, using a member of Cuomo’s staff as her press aide, insiders tell Lovett that she arrogantly replied: “I’ll use who I want to use.”
After the mess caused by excessive cross-talk between the governor and his supposedly independent anti-corruption commission, Sugarman should know better — and Cuomo should instruct her that success depends both on true independence and the appearance of independence.
![In a narrow vote this week, the Federal Trade Commission approved a rule that will ban the vast majority of noncompete clauses by U.S. employers, which have long prevented workers from switching jobs or setting out on their own. In doing so, the agency did its duty to protect American economic dynamism and opportunity, nothing less, nothing more. We hope that’s the clear conclusion of the courts that will now rule on a lawsuit being brought by the Chamber of Commerce, which has strenuously supported this anticompetitive practice. Of the arguments that the business group and other opponents have rolled […]](https://www.nydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1820955015.jpg?w=490 "In a narrow vote this week, the Federal Trade Commission approved a rule that will ban the vast majority of noncompete clauses by U.S. employers, which have long prevented workers from switching jobs or setting out on their own. In doing so, the agency did its duty to protect American economic dynamism and opportunity, nothing less, nothing more. We hope that’s the clear conclusion of the courts that will now rule on a lawsuit being brought by the Chamber of Commerce, which has strenuously supported this anticompetitive practice. Of the arguments that the business group and other opponents have rolled […]")
