BUFFALO, N.Y. -- While sweeping Ethics Reform may or may not come out of Albany over the next several months, some leaders in Erie County don't want to wait.
"There's nothing novel or creative here but these are basic common sense proposals designed to restore people's trust in our government," acting Erie County District Attorney Michael Flaherty said.
Flaherty said he began examining the county ethics code when he was asked to consider prosecuting a local elected leader's violation.
"I don't want to mention the case but it was widely reported," he said.
Flaherty wouldn't confirm or deny the case in question involved County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw. In December, the Ethics Board ruled Mychajliw violated the code when he allowed local businessmen to pay his tuition for a Harvard executive seminar.
"The inspiration was, what do I do about this particular case," he said. "The answer was, I can't do anything right now and so what I want to do in the future, should that happen again is have some tools to work with."
Flaherty on Friday proposed a series of reforms to the county executive and the county legislature. He said the county should prohibit the appointment of county officials' relatives, close the so-called LLC Loophole for campaign contributions, and automatically terminate any elected or appointed official convicted of a crime.
"I hope that it takes up these proposals and comes up with some better ones so that we can move to create an Erie County government that the people can be proud of and trust," he said.
"I actually think we have a pretty good ethics law but I think it needs to be strengthened and we'll be talking about how we can strengthen it as time goes by," said County Executive Mark Poloncarz, D-Erie County.
Poloncarz plans to propose reforms of his own, like requiring elected officials to disclose the clients they have in the private sector. He said he can't force the district attorney to prosecute cases but he can help put the laws in place to make it possible.
"I know there's been significant complaint against the prior district attorney for failure to go after ethics violations," Poloncarz said.
While it would appear under the current rules, the district attorney can't make the comptroller pay back the tuition he accepted, Flaherty said he's still speaking with the ethics board chairman about the case, Wednesday.