There are a lot of unknowns regarding a new gaming compact between New York state and the Seneca Nation, including whether or not an emerging deal has completely imploded. 

Separate from the deal itself is Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recusal from the negotiations because her husband is employed by Delaware North, a Seneca gaming competitor. 

According to John Kaehny, executive director of the watchdog group ReInvent Albany, it’s a positive sign that Gov. Hochul has implemented a detailed recusal plan. But what’s concerning, he told Capital Tonight, is that Delaware North has ongoing business with the state and no independent party is enforcing Hochul’s recusal. 

“There’s a huge inherent conflict of interest with her husband, a senior executive at Delaware North, which does tons of business with New York state… so [Hochul] has to take extraordinary measures to ensure that the public is confident that there’s not some kind of conflict going on,” he said. “To really ensure that, means you have to have a third party.”

Currently, Hochul’s recusal is enforced by her own counsel, which Kaehny argues is a flawed model because it puts the counsel in the position of overseeing her boss’ conduct.

“It’s pretty hard to enforce rules on your own governor,” he said. 

That said, ReInvent Albany is not asking that the governor’s husband, William J. Hochul, Jr., step down from his position as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for Delaware North.

“That’s asking too much,” said Kaehny. “But I think it is reasonable for the public to say that if the governor doesn’t want questions raised every single time something like this comes up, then she needs to have an independent, third party looking at her ethics recusal and what could be done to make (it) stronger and more effective,” he said.

According to Kaehny, watchdog groups recommended to the governor that she choose a career civil servant in either the office of the attorney general or the office of the state comptroller to serve as a third-party monitor, or she could ask for assistance from the state’s newly revamped ethics commission.