This article was written by Matthew Hampton.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman are taking a big step in the fight to diminish public corruption in New York State, and they want Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's help.
Cuomo and Schneiderman picked Kelly as a special advisor to the "Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption" Tuesday, hoping to use his law enforcement expertise to get to the root of New York State's rampant corruption issues.
“We must root out corruption in politics and government,” Cuomo said in a statement, adding that the commission "will convene the best minds in law enforcement and public policy from across New York to address weaknesses in the State’s public corruption, election and campaign finance laws, generate transparency and accountability, and restore the public trust.”
The areas of interest to the commission will be many and varied, but they'll largely be concentrating on criminal statutes and bribery laws for public officials, as well as statewide campaign finance issues and the role of the Board of Elections.
Kelly's presence on an statewide oversight commission is at least a little eyebrow-raising, considering its timing. Kelly himself is in the middle of a pitched battle at the city level — on the side fighting more oversight for his own police department.
The commission will be co-chaired by Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice and Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick.
It will release its findings on Dec. 1.
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