After eight years, the state Senate’s Ethics Committee finally held a hearing Thursday — for about an hour.
When the committee last met on June 2, 2009, holding the gavel was Sen. John Sampson (D-Queens), later imprisoned over an embezzlement scandal.
Those eight years have seen five other Democratic and two Republican senators convicted on charges ranging from mail fraud and bribery to nonprofit-looting and obstruction of justice.
For the record: An appeals court last month vacated ex-Sen. Tom Libous’ conviction for lying to an FBI agent — on a technicality, because he’d died during the appeals process. And ex-Majority Leader Dean Skelos hasn’t yet exhausted his appeals in his corruption case.
Three more of the convicts — Sampson, Malcolm Smith and Pedro Espada Jr. — had been either the leader of the Senate Democratic caucus, or actual majority leader.
At this week’s meeting, Sen. Mike Gianaris (D-Queens) pushed a motion limiting “lulu” bonuses, but got voted down by a majority, including several senators with lulus at risk.
Not that the Democrats did a thing about the bonuses when last they controlled the chamber under Sampson.
Here’s a reform idea: Stop pretending, and just eliminate the ethics committee.




