Report reflects record caseload

Court conduct panel got nearly 3,000 complaints last year

ALBANY — The state Commission on Judicial Conduct released its annual report Monday, highlighting it received nearly 3,000 complaints last year — an increase of 22 percent from the prior year and the highest on record.

The complaints prompted more than 200 investigations, along with another 187 that were opened in the prior year and carried over. The investigations led to four judges being removed from office, nine resigning, and four others being censured or admonished. Six other judges resigned while their cases were pending and 65 judges were issued confidential letters of caution for various reasons.

The 11-member commission, which was created in 1978 by a constitutional amendment to review complaints of ethical misconduct by judges, renders public disciplinary action against the state’s more than 3,330 judges, when appropriate. Four commissioners are appointed by the governor, three by the chief judge of the Court of Appeals and one by each the four leaders of the state Legislature.

The commission’s historic caseload is occurring as Gov. Kathy Hochul recently proposed cutting the amount of funding the commission has sought from the state Legislature.

The commission had asked Hochul’s administration for $770,000 in additional funding in this year’s budget that’s being negotiated this month. Instead, that increase was cut to $184,000 in Hochul’s executive budget proposal that was unveiled — a spending plan that is grappling with a $4 billion deficit and more than $2 billion in unanticipated funding for the migrant crisis.

The executive budget proposal would increase their funding from the $8.1 million approved in last year’s state budget to about $8.3 million.

Robert H. Tembeckjian, the commission’s longtime administrator and counsel, said the proposed funding would not cover salary increases for the staff that are mandated by state law. It also wouldn’t cover the commission’s rent hikes at their offices in Rochester and New York City.

The proposed funding also appears to contradict a decision from the state Division of Budget last year to authorize the commission to establish a new case management system, which Tembeckjian said would allow the staff to process cases more efficiently.

Hochul’s budget plan doesn’t include the $400,000 in funding for that initiative.