By Bill Mahoney, Nick Reisman, Jeff Coltin and Emily Ngo

The days of legislative chaos in Albany appear to have waned from the Senate coup in 2009 and subsequent criminal charges. The Legislature is poised to go five years with an arrest on public corruption. | Mike Groll/Associated Press

Albany is poised to hit a notable milestone: It will soon be five years since the last time a sitting state legislator was arrested on corruption charges.

It’s a point worth recognizing for a state Capitol where a week without an arrest would have been seen as a break in the action at some points in recent history, POLITICO reports today.

“We had a lot of rehabilitation of our image to do. We had just really been in such a difficult place,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said. “We had to focus on ethics. We had to focus on our own responsibility as people who were representing a broader constituency than ourselves.”

State government certainly hasn’t avoided scandals in recent years, as anybody familiar with ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s downfall is well aware.

Notably, the streak only counts if you exclude Brian Benjamin — who was arrested while lieutenant governor for allegedly illegal fundraising practices that occurred while he was a senator running for New York City office. And former Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb was charged with a DWI in 2019 that led him to step down from his leadership post.

But the last arrest of a sitting state legislator on the sort of corruption charge that made Albany nationally infamous for years occurred in the fall of 2018. That’s a dramatic departure from the norm for a Legislature where dozens of lawmakers were arrested in the years preceding that, including six in top leadership posts.

So what has changed? Some of the shift might be due to conscious action taken by lawmakers in the wake of last decade’s scandals.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie pointed to a new requirement that legislators obtain approval for their outside jobs: “I think that coordination has probably been the number one reason we’ve seen less issues,” he said.

Other observers noted a decreased level of enforcement from the federal government in the wake of Supreme Court decisions rolling back anti-corruption laws and the departure of ex-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. There’s also a general agreement that there are fewer shamelessly crooked legislators than in the days of people like Pedro Espada.

And maybe lawmakers have simply learned their lesson.

“Perhaps the shock of seeing the former speaker indicted and jailed and the former majority leader also indicted and jailed, and other governmental officials charged and reprimanded, has sent a message,” Assemblymember Charles Lavine said.

HAPPY MONDAY Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.

WHERE’S KATHY? Making a transportation infrastructure announcement in the Bronx.

WHERE’S ERIC? Arriving in Israel and attending a reception with Israeli faith and ethnic leaders in Jerusalem, as well as meeting with Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I quickly realized this was not a normal workplace" — Di Ma, a former assistant counsel for the state Gaming Commission in a Times Union report about misconduct at the agency.

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Sen. James Sanders is urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill into law that would study reparations in New York. | Hans Pennink/AP Photo

REPARATIONS CONVERSATIONS: Queens Sen. James Sanders wants to take his arguments statewide for the creation of a commission on slavery reparations.

Sanders told Playbook in an interview Sunday that ongoing conversations are necessary to discuss the goals of the measure, which would have the commission consider “remedies and reparations” from New York’s role in slavery.

Sanders along with Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages (D-Nassau County) held an event last week on the issue at the Schomburg Center for Black Research in Harlem. Another public forum on the commission is being considered for Ithaca to lay out his argument for the commission, he said.

“We’re going to go all around the state,” Sanders said. “We’re working on several different parts around the state. There is a clamor to have me bring this show on the road.”

The bill creating the commission was approved by state lawmakers in June.

California had previously approved the creation of a similar commission, whose members ultimately supported $500 billion in recommended payments.

Sanders said he has had preliminary discussions with the governor’s office.

“I have had conversations with her leading people, and they’ve assured me that they’re going to have a full and frank conversation with me,” he said.

Does that give him hope she would sign it?

“I’ll feel better after it was signed,” Sanders said with a laugh. “In my business, it’s not over until it’s over.” — Nick Reisman

NEW THIS MORNING:

• Is the political honeymoon over? The influx of migrants into the state is threatening to wreck what has been a carefully crafted alliance between Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, one that had stood in contrast to the ceaseless feuds that swallowed up their predecessors. (POLITICO)
• More redistricting uncertainty: Candidates might be eager to run in competitive House seats in New York next year, but they won't have a clear sense of where to campaign until likely next year. (POLITICO)

An emergency housing facility for migrants opened Sunday on Randall's Island. It has cots and amenities for 3,000 single adults and couples. | Emily Ngo for POLITICO

RANDALL’S IS READY: The city’s newest migrant housing complex — one of its largest — opened Sunday on Randall’s Island, the same parkland where migrant tents were pitched last October only to close a month later.

The difference between then and now?

“At that time, we had about 15,000 asylum seekers in our city’s system,” said Ted Long, senior vice president of ambulatory care and population health of New York City Health + Hospitals. “We now have over 58,000 asylum seekers in our system.”

The first 150 migrants were bused Sunday to the tent campus, which Playbook toured. Officials expected the site would quickly fill to its capacity of 3,000.

A similar facility opened last Tuesday at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens. It already has 600 occupants and can hold 1,000.

The state will reimburse the city for building and running both sites.

Long said he didn’t know the exact cost, but he took pains to commend state leaders amid the tension between Adams and Hochul. He said more shelters are possible thanks to “the power of partnership.” — Emily Ngo

More from the city:

— Questions rise over Mayor Eric Adams donors: one woman says she was reimbursed, others say they never gave (The City)

— It's $2.90 a swipe now to ride the subway or bus in New York City. (ABC 7)

Sen. Jeremy Cooney (D-Rochester) said he will seek legislative remedies to New York's ongoing troubles with its recreational marijuana program. | Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul

CANNABIS ACTION: New York lawmakers are considering how to address the bumpy rollout of the state’s cannabis marketplace as court challenges and illegal sales have created complications.

A state Supreme Court judge last week blocked state cannabis regulators from issuing new licenses and warned the program itself is in “legal jeopardy.”

At issue is a lawsuit by a group of veterans who have argued state officials have not followed the 2021 legalization measure when regulators issued marijuana licenses exclusively to people who have had prior cannabis-related convictions.

Sen. Jeremy Cooney, a Rochester Democrat who leads a newly created Senate committee on cannabis policy, said he wants to address the issues raised in the lawsuit legislatively (lawmakers are not due to return to the Capitol until January).

“This lawsuit has shined a spotlight on the shortcomings of New York’s rollout of the adult-use program, and we will be announcing legislative action very soon,” he said. — Nick Reisman

More from Albany:

— The shadow of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo looms large in Albany two years after his resignation. (The New Yorker)

— Hochul has ended her recusal policy for issues related to Delaware North after her husband left the company. (Spectrum News)

Enter the “room where it happens”, where global power players shape policy and politics, with Power Play. POLITICO’s brand-new podcast will host conversations with the leaders and power players shaping the biggest ideas and driving the global conversations, moderated by award-winning journalist Anne McElvoy. Sign up today to be notified of the first episodes in September – click here.

— NYC contractor DocGo is alleged to have interfered with a police investigation into two allegations of sexual assault at migrant shelters it runs in motels upstate. (The New York Times)

— Forty-four migrants who had been staying on Buffalo State’s campus are being evicted. (Buffalo News)

— The Manhattan Democratic Committee is facing heat for its judicial nominating convention. (Daily News)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Steve Case of Revolution and the Case Foundation … Mary Brady of the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. … Ken Mehlman of KKR … Peter Hamby of Snapchat and Puck … CNN’s Cameron Hough … Greg Bell … Bloomberg Gov’s George Cahlink … CBS’ Fin Gómez … (was Sunday): CFR president Michael Froman … Larry Kudlow … CNN’s Oliver Darcy … Fox’s Tammy Bruce … Al Roker … Elizabeth Bibi … Jessica Todtman … Meghan Grant Swiber … Connie Chung … Vox’s Julia Kurzius …

… (was Saturday): former President Bill Clinton (77) … NYT’s Joe Kahn and Farhad Manjoo … Molly Jong-Fast … Daily Mail’s Emily Goodin … WSJ’s Brody Mullins and Madeline Marshall … CNN’s Paula Reid.

MEDIA MOVES: New York Post City Hall Bureau Chief Bernadette Hogan is leaving the paper to join Spectrum News NY1 as a state politics reporter.

MAKING MOVES: Jack Wild has been promoted to director of external affairs in state Inspector General Lucy Lang’s office. Wild has previously worked for New York City as well as in the state and federal governments.

— NYC’s most popular neighborhoods like the West Village and Hell's Kitchen are declining in housing stock. (New York Post)

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