Through increased transparency, compliance training and Her departure comes roughly a year after the IG's office came into conflict with the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, which ignored Leahy Scott's recommendation that a forensics director at the agency, Brian J. Gestring, should be disciplined for threatening female employees with physical violence and engaging in years of sexual harassment, and that two other top officials First Deputy Commissioner Mark Bonacquist and human resources director Karen Davis should be sanctioned for mishandling complaints against Gestring. She also allegedly took $52,646 in NYCHA rental assistance. 4/22/2023 4:17 AM. Before joining the inspector general's office at the beginning of 2020, Adair had worked since 2015 in Cuomo's office. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Other appointees have found themselves the subject of speculation around their futures. Age: 71. He previously served as managing editor, Capitol Bureau chief and entertainment editor. Letizia Tagliafierro had been one of Mr. Cuomo's loyalists for more than a decade, working for him when he was state attorney general and later serving as special counsel to the governor. She first began working for Cuomo during his tenure as state attorney general. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. My office will not tolerate such egregious violations of an individuals privacy and safety, and we will continue to work together with the New York State Inspector Generals office to hold bad actors accountable at every turn.. Tagliafierro served as the Joint Commissions Director of Investigations and The Joint Commission on Public Ethics today named Letizia Tagliafierro as the agencys new executive director. George E. Pataki was in office. Contact him at cseiler@timesunion.com or 518-454-5619. Copyright 2021 WBRC. RANDOLPH New York State Inspector General Letizia Tagliafierro on Monday announced the sentencing of a Randolph woman who stole Workers' Compensation benefits by forging her late father's . Ms. Hochul, who was sworn in Aug. 24, has said that she will take the first 45 days of her administration to review existing appointments. regulatory authority and oversight than prior ethics and lobbying She previously served as special counsel for public safety and deputy commissioner of the criminal investigations division at the state Department of Taxation and Finance. He lives in Albanys lovely Pine Hills. Jan. 6, 2019 Updated: Jan. 6, 2019 4:52 p.m. 3. said Commission Chair Daniel J. Horwitz. By. Adam Zurofsky is the new director of state policy and agency management. OWIG has been working on the matter with the New York City Department of Investigations Inspector General for NYCHA. She recused herself from the inspector generals investigation, which closed without finding wrongdoing. Meanwhile, her role as the former ethics agency head came under fire in 2019, when a whistleblower complaint launched a state Inspector Generals office inquiry into an alleged leak from a private JCOPE meeting involving Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-The Bronx). director reports to the 14 appointed commissioners, six of whom are appointed The Commissions Ms. Tagliafierro presently serves as Special Counsel for Public Safety. Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said the dinner was an innocent coincidence. Does N.Y. already have authority to bust illegal pot shops? (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union). ALBANY State Inspector General Letizia Tagliafierro, a longtime aide to former Gov. Compliance with State ethics and lobbying laws are clearly a top priority for all New Yorkers and it remains my goal as a public servant to earn and exceed the trust placed in us to promote integrity in government.. On Tuesday, the commissioners voted again to approve the referral of the leak investigation and mustered a sufficient number of gubernatorial appointees to support it but failed to sustain the referral regarding the performance of Tagliafierro's office. We thank Mr. Rozen for his service and, as of this afternoon, we have appointed Camille Joseph Varlack, a former assistant district attorney and a lawyer with a long record of public service to take his place as chair, said senior advisor to the governor, Rich Azzopardi, in a statement. Last month, the commission voted to reopen the leak matter and the inspector generals investigation of it, referring both to the state attorney general, Letitia James. members are evenly split among the two major political parties. In a deposition with the attorney general's investigators in June,Vincent Straface, a former commander of the governor's Protective Services Unit, confirmed that in late 2017 he had a conversation with Tagliafierro, who was then a special counsel to the governor, and informed her the female trooper and another member they wanted on the protective detail did not have enough time on the job to meet the minimum qualifications. legislative branches of State government. government. Cuomo'smeddling through the years in the work and promotional decisions within the unit, which included transferring members of the unit who crossed him or pushing for promotions for those he liked,was detailed in anAug. 21 Times Union story. Compliance Tagliafierro's role in the matter was revealed Thursday when state Attorney General Letitia James' office released another tranche of transcripts from an investigation into allegations that Cuomo had sexually harassed or acted inappropriately with multiple women, including the trooper who went on to become one of his drivers. Tagliafierro recused herself from the investigation citing her prior role and allowed her ex-deputy director Spencer Freedman who recently landed a job at SUNY to lead the probe. He also was a deputy special master of the federal September 11, 2001 Victim Compensation Fund. New York State Inspector General Letizia Tagliafierro announced the arrest of the associate director of operations at Pilgrim Psychiatric Center who allegedly obtained more than $132,000 from the Empire Plan/UnitedHealthcare insurance company by submitting hundreds of false claims under his wife's name for services that were never provided. This removes a major hurdle to passing a state budget, but means New York will likely not pass any major housing initiative in 2023. Enforcement. on. James cited what she concluded was JCOPE's failure to follow rules that require gubernatorial appointees to approve investigations that involve the governor. During that same period, the administration also had instructed troopers guarding the mansion not to retain those visitors' records for more than 30 days. In 2013, Adair was special counsel to Cuomo's Moreland Commission on Utility Storm Preparation and Response, and has worked as an attorney at several state agencies, dating back to Republican Gov. Legislative Assistant to former State Senator Serphin Maltese. The Communications and Public Information Office is the point of contact for the public and members of the press with questions about the Commission's mission and to request access to records such as the financial disclosure statements filed by state officials and employees, the statewide elected officials, members of the Legislature and legislative employees. Cuomo Ally Resigns From Post as State Watchdog, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/nyregion/letizia-tagliafierro-inspector-general-resigns.html. with State ethics and lobbying laws are clearly a top priority for all New Vanessa Bryant shares sweet posts on Gigis 17th birthday: Love you and miss you so much, Cold case slay solved 30 years after 15-year-old NYC girl found strangled with her own bra : Just glad he got caught (EXCLUSIVE), Aerosmith announces farewell tour with multiple New York concerts, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Tagliafierro as the agencys new executive director. Prior to todays appointment as Executive Director, Ms. the administration of publicly available disclosure filings of lobbyists and director of New Yorks Joint Commission on Public Ethics. Instead, DCJS mounted an internal investigation that cleared all three officials, and instead punished two women who had spoken to the IG's investigators about the alleged abuse. Most often though, cases concerned wrongdoing on a smaller scale: a state worker who sold scrap metal out of his car during work hours, or a roofer who failed to provide workers compensation insurance to his employees. An executive director appointment must include support from Commissioners representing both political parties in both the executive and legislative branches of State government. But JCOPE itself has come under fire in recent years and accused for its lack of transparency. Executive Director Tagliafierro's appointment follows a nationwide recruitment effort that entailed advertisements in top legal publications and newspapers, leading to more than 70 resumes received and reviewed. Family still seeking answers in Schenectady woman's disappearance, Deaf man killed on Ballston road remembered as funny, loving. If you had an independent inspector general, they would have been very busy during Cuomos time in office, said Mr. Kaehny, the good-government advocate. I feel privileged to have had the chance to work with this Commission for more than a year and am looking forward to the opportunities and challenges of my new role, Executive Director Tagliafierro said. Prior to todays appointment as Executive Director, Ms. Tagliafierro served as the Joint Commissions Director of Investigations and Enforcement. But when the matter landed in her lap in 2019, Ms. Tagliafierro said that she could not oversee it because of her history with the commission. Tagliafierro, who worked for Cuomo when he was state attorney general, had previously served inanother key watchdog role: executive director of the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics. A prosecutor by training, Ms. Tagliafierro was appointed inspector general by Mr. Cuomo in 2019. A spokesman for Cuomo declined to answer when asked if she had left of her own accord. Yet the investigation did not include interviews with key individuals embroiled in the allegations, including Cuomo and Heastie. 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report presents the findings of an investigation by the Office of the New York State Inspector General into the New York State Police's (State Police) investigation of a specialized The leak was then investigated by the office of Inspector General Letizia Tagliafierro a Cuomo appointee who recused herself from the probe but was unable to be substantiated. Andrew M. Cuomo bumps elbows with a 30-year-old female trooper at an event at Penn Station in Manhattan in December 2020. Letizia Tagliafierro (left) worked for Cuomo in both the Attorney General's office and the governor's office. What happened to the Taste NY bathrooms on the Taconic? Not only did this defendant use his position at the DMV to illegally access a womans personal records, he then disclosed that information to the victims estranged spouse against whom a court order of protection had been filed, said District Attorney McMahon. The commissions vote came shortly after a former JCOPE commissioner told a State Senate ethics panel that the handling of the leak investigation showed that the inspector generals office was either incompetent or corrupt, according to Senator Alessandra Biaggi. Below is the announcement by the State of her appointment. He had made a meteoric rise through the protective services detail after befriending Joseph Percoco, a former close aide and confidant to Cuomo who was recently released from federal prison after being convicted ofcorruption charges. The Joint Commission on Public Ethics today named Letizia Tagliafierro took over as inspector general the same month the leak occurred, replacing Catherine Leahy Scott, who had served in the post for almost seven years. The Commission also promotes government transparency through the administration of publicly available disclosure filings of lobbyists and their clients as well as all Financial Disclosure Statements filed by State officials. Andrew Cuomo -- resigned from her position Friday in the wake of a revived probe into the office's . We tallied the votes from this years Best of the Capital Region contest in 100 categories. Student Experience & Support - Column One, Student Experience & Support - Column Two, Student Experience & Support - Column Three, JOINT COMMISSION ON PUBLIC ETHICS NAMES LETIZIA Inspector General Tagliafierro thanked the Manhattan District Attorneys Office for prosecuting the case and the Social Security Administration, the NYC Department of Investigation, NYCHA and HRA for assisting in the investigation. 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Haley Viccaro, a spokeswoman for Ms. Hochul, described the resignation as a mutual agreement and understanding., Were going to be operating differently, hiring people who are highly qualified and independent, Ms. Viccaro said, adding, It was Letizias decision to resign, we appreciate and accept that.. Part of Ms. Tagliafierros responsibilities included a stint on the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, known as JCOPE; she was appointed to a staff role at the commission in 2012 and later became its executive director. Let's see what her royal manicure looks like. their clients as well as all Financial Disclosure Statements filed by State Gov. Thanks for contacting us. I feel privileged to have had the chance to work with this A JCOPE spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. Born Jan. 7, 1938 in Amorosi, Italy, she was the daughter of the . Both of the women who suffered the alleged reprisals have filed federal discrimination lawsuits against DCJS officials.