New York state senators will face an agenda of ethics reforms and economic-development initiatives when they convene in a special session today.

The session is the first in the state Senate since the partisan gridlock that gripped the chamber in June and July, when senators fought over who controlled the chamber. In the end, Democrats maintained their original 32-30 majority.

Senate Democrats announced the special session on Friday. The state Assembly has no plans to convene, unless the entire Legislature is called into a special session by Gov. David Paterson.

Paterson has said he plans to call legislators to Albany this month to erase a budget deficit of at least $2.1 billion. That is less than 2 percent of the $131.9 billion budget.

Paterson has not announced the date that special session will occur.

The agenda for the Senate session this week features a package of new ethics laws that aim to create more independent government watchdogs: one for lobbyists, one to oversee the executive branch, and a third to oversee legislators.

Currently, one commission - the Commission on Public Integrity - performs most state government oversight. Paterson has sought to replace most of its members, following reports of lawbreaking during the commission's investigation of the 2007 political fight between former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick.

The bill passed the Assembly earlier this year. If it becomes law, the new commissions would begin at the start of next year.

The Senate agenda also includes proposals to:

• Spend $112 million to create a "green jobs" program, with the goal of making 1 million businesses, nonprofits and residential homes more energy-efficient over the next five years. Legislators say thousands of jobs would be created to perform the energy work.

• Establish a database of bioscience research materials, with the goal of aiding product development in that field.

• Require the state Department of Health to hold public hearings to gauge the local impact of a pending hospital closing.

All the above bills have already passed the Assembly.