Codey comes up short on ethics reform
Senate President Richard Codey is one of the three most powerful men in Trenton, along with Gov. Corzine and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr. Most consider Codey a good guy. But as much as anyone, he is responsible for the state's failure to enact meaningful ethics reform.
In our "Profiting from Public Service, Four Years Later" series this week, Codey showed his colors in two of the articles.
In Sunday's piece on ethics reform, Codey said the Legislature's work was pretty much done. "The best way to stop corruption would be to elect people who would not be corrupt," Codey said. "It's all dependent upon the individual (elected). We can pass all the laws to try and stop corruption, but someone who is determined to be corrupt is not going to be stopped by any laws." I beg to differ. So do most residents in this state. The penalties for those convicted of public corruption must be far more severe.
In today's story on the joke known as the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards - a body that hasn't even reprimanded a legislator in nearly 15 years - Codey defended the presence of lawmakers on that committee - something that nearly half the states in the nation prohibit.
“I’m certainly against a select group of elite people running the ethics committee," Codey said. "I don't think it's wrong to have some legislators on it, who've been there and understand the difficult problem of having to be a legislator and pay college tuitions and earn a living."
Codey blocked a bill that would have banned legislators from the ethics committee that was introduced by Roberts and approved in the Assembly.
Codey is only partially right when he says the best way to stop corruption is to elect people who are not corrupt. We also need leaders who set the highest standards for integrity, do everything in their power to discourage corruption and refuse to look the other way at the corrupt and self-serving practices of their peers.
In our "Profiting from Public Service, Four Years Later" series this week, Codey showed his colors in two of the articles.
In Sunday's piece on ethics reform, Codey said the Legislature's work was pretty much done. "The best way to stop corruption would be to elect people who would not be corrupt," Codey said. "It's all dependent upon the individual (elected). We can pass all the laws to try and stop corruption, but someone who is determined to be corrupt is not going to be stopped by any laws." I beg to differ. So do most residents in this state. The penalties for those convicted of public corruption must be far more severe.
In today's story on the joke known as the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards - a body that hasn't even reprimanded a legislator in nearly 15 years - Codey defended the presence of lawmakers on that committee - something that nearly half the states in the nation prohibit.
“I’m certainly against a select group of elite people running the ethics committee," Codey said. "I don't think it's wrong to have some legislators on it, who've been there and understand the difficult problem of having to be a legislator and pay college tuitions and earn a living."
Codey blocked a bill that would have banned legislators from the ethics committee that was introduced by Roberts and approved in the Assembly.
Codey is only partially right when he says the best way to stop corruption is to elect people who are not corrupt. We also need leaders who set the highest standards for integrity, do everything in their power to discourage corruption and refuse to look the other way at the corrupt and self-serving practices of their peers.
posted by Randy Bergmann at 6:05 PM
1 Comments:
Codey is just another shill for the corrupt Democrat party.Everytime I see him and Corzine it gives me that much more incentive to plan my escape from this prison of New Jersey.
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