Are NY’s Local Ethics Boards Functioning? Unfortunately, Most Are Not.

A new report by Reinvent Albany finds that while nearly all of New York’s largest local governments have ethics boards on the books, fewer than half of those boards appear to be functioning. 

New York State law requires local governments to have ethics laws, but it does not require them to create ethics boards to enforce them. In other words, it is up to local governments in New York to decide if they will even enforce their ethics laws – and if so, how.

The report, Are New York’s Local Ethics Boards Functioning? examines the 16 most populous counties, cities, and towns outside New York City — 48 local governments in all — to determine whether they have an ethics board, whether that board is operational, how members are appointed, and what information is available to the public. 

Major Findings

1. All 16 of New York’s largest counties, and all 16 of the largest towns have laws establishing ethics boards, as do 13 out of 16 cities. (Three of the smaller cities, Niagara Falls, Binghamton, and Rome, do not.) 
2. Only 20 of the 45 local ethics boards met so far in 2026. 
3. Eight ethics boards do not have a website: Oneida County, Albany (City), Syracuse, Saratoga County, Babylon, Ramapo, Greece, and Colonie. 
4. Only two of 48 local governments published the financial disclosures of public officials on their website. (Orange County for the executive and legislators, and Cheektowaga only for the mayor). 
5. Local ethics boards were appointed in three ways by the executive (14 localities), the legislature (18), or multiple actors (14). 

Recommendations for the State Legislature

1. Require every local government to have an independent ethics board, or report to the ethics board of the next highest unit of government: for example, villages report to towns, towns and cities to counties.  
2. Create uniform transparency and website requirements – including requiring boards to at least have a webpage on its local government website – to improve public access to ethics boards’ information. 
3. Require annual reporting by local ethics boards, and more rigorous state oversight by the State Comptroller.
4. Work with the NYS Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government to study and identify successful governance models that can be replicated across localities.

The report shows that simply creating an ethics board in local law does not ensure meaningful ethics enforcement. It builds upon Reinvent Albany’s prior ethics oversight research, including most recently a joint report regarding state-level oversight agencies, Structural Obstacles to Government Oversight in New York, with the State Policy Advocacy Clinic at Cornell University’s Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy.

Below is an excerpt of a table from the report summarizing Reinvent Albany’s findings for ethics boards at the city level. Similar tables are provided for counties and towns within the report. 

Click here to view the datasheets for the report.