ALBANY — No one’s beyond reproach.
Hundreds of top aides and administrators tapped by Gov. Cuomo to clean up New York’s scandal-ravaged state government are themselves being sent to ethics school.
The governor issued an executive order yesterday requiring that some 300 high-ranking political appointees — including his agency heads, press officers and other administration brass — complete the ethics training within their first two months in office.
Aides will be required to get an introduction to the state’s laws on gifts, nepotism, financial disclosure and conflicts of interest by attending the Public Integrity Commission’s 2½-hour “Ethics 101” course. The officials will have to take a refresher class every two years.
Blair Horner of NYPIRG called the executive order “an important step forward” in draining the Albany cesspool.
“We hope that it’s a first step to overhaul New York’s woefully inadequate ethics laws,” he said.
