By ADAM SICHKO
The Albany Business Review

Watchdog groups and former state officials are using the Joseph Bruno trial to push for stronger ethics laws in state government.

Whether state legislators will act quickly, though, remains to be seen.

"What is abundantly clear is that New York's legislative ethics is rotten," said Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Bruno, the former Senate Majority Leader, was convicted Dec. 7 of committing two felony crimes while in office. Federal prosecutors said Bruno, an iconic politician from Brunswick, intentionally and illegally covered up his outside business-consulting activities, particularly by withholding information from mandatory financial disclosure reports.

He has maintained his innocence and plans to appeal the verdict.

During the trial, former aides and attorneys for Bruno revealed situations that grabbed headlines and the attention of government watchdog groups.

Witnesses testified that, at times, Bruno had them work on his private business matters while on state time, using state resources. Others said they did Bruno's Christmas shopping for him.

One Senate attorney said legislators, including Bruno, were advised to hand-deliver their financial disclosure reports specifically to avoid the type of mail- or wire-fraud charges brought against Bruno.

Horner and others have called for more stringent disclosure requirements and for creation of an ethics watchdog commission that is more independent of the legislators it regulates.

Federal prosecutors, for their part, pledged to continue to prosecute ethics violations in Albany.

"(The trial) has crystallized the need to deal with this issue, more than anything," said Karl Sleight. Sleight formerly ran the state ethics commission, and is now an attorney at Harris Beach PLLC in Albany.

"It's become an increasingly complex area," Sleight said. "Companies and government officials are both searching for clarity, where sometimes there is none. It presents significant problems for them."

David Grandeau, who has an ethics consulting business in Niskayuna, said the problem is weak enforcement of laws, not the laws themselves. Grandeau ran the state lobbying commission for 13 years until 2007, when he lost his job after the state reorganized its lobbying and ethics-oversight system.

"Some will say, ‘What a tragedy, we can't ever let this happen again, we need to pass new laws to stop the Joe Brunos from doing this again.' And two years from now, we'll be talking about the next scandal the laws didn't address," Grandeau said. "People only have to do enough to get past (state regulators) while not having to do enough to do what's right."

Grandeau also criticized state legislators, but traced the root problems back to the state's method of regulating their activities.

"They don't get it. And they don't get it because they don't have to get it," Grandeau said. "How many other elected officials can go under oath and say what they do for a living? It should be all of them, but ... few of them will go on record about it."

It's unclear just how legislators will react to Bruno's trial.

Senate Republicans have declined to comment on the Bruno trial and its potential impact on state ethics laws. Bruno is a Republican.

A spokesman for Senate Democrats, who control the chamber, said ethics reform is the "top priority" for the 2010 legislative session, which begins next month. Reforms could include scrapping the state Commission on Public Integrity, which handles ethics and lobbying oversight, and forming a new organization somehow less tied to state government.

"Maybe we get lucky and create a new one. It certainly can't get any worse," Grandeau said.

Democrats said they intend to address what they call the "Bruno gap" in state ethics laws. Grandeau, for one, is skeptical that any meaningful reform will occur.

"Any time they name a law after someone, you know they're coming to the party a little late and a little short," Grandeau said.

"Did you really need this trial to see what was going on? Who really was shocked by any of this?" Grandeau asked. "That's how truly corrupt the system is. If I sound like I'm fed up with it, it's because I am."

Sleight believes legislators can tackle ethics, and the state's pressing budget crunch, at the same time.

"They can do two things at once," Sleight said. "Obviously, the economy is the most significant issue, unquestionably. But it's important their ethics and integrity processes are valid."