New NY Ethics Board to Meet Secretly

The new state board charged with regulating Albany's ethics is holding its first meeting privately, citing an exemption to the Open Meetings Law that surprises and concerns a good-government advocate.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics was scheduled to meet for the first time by teleconference Thursday without public notice. A spokesman cites a provision of executive law that exempts the board from the Open Meetings Law. The powerful board will regulate lobbying and ethics in the executive and legislative branches.

But one of the good-government advocates who supported the new board says she had assumed the meetings would be open. The lobbying and ethics boards that it replaces held open meetings.

Barbara Bartoletti of the League of Women Voters says the practice should be reviewed.