It's time for Gary Lavine to WAKE UP

I just got off the phone with JJOKE commissioner Gary Lavine.

I've known and liked Gary for over 7 years.

He gave me the greatest single piece of advice when I was leaving government that anyone ever has He told me to "embrace serendipity".  It took me a year to understand what he ment but now I try to live that thought every single day.

Anyway I spoke with Gary about his recent statement at the last JJOKE meeting that the source of funding regulations should be amended to require an exemted organization to still file a list of it's donor's with JJOKE with the data to be maintained by JJOKE in confidance.

When I heard that I thought of the fact that 96% of people surveyed by WRGB6 did not trust JJOKE.  I know I don't trust JJOKE and I thought they want the information to leak it to the 2nd floor.

But I remembered Gary had told me on numerous occasions that he wasn't under the 2nd floor's direction so I thought this is a good opportunity to test that statement.

So I asked "what use could JJOKE have for the source of funding data from an exempted organization?"

Gary had a ready answer to the effect that it serves to legitimize the regulatory process.

So I followed up with "but Gary what would you do with that information?"

He said that was a cogent question and that in the future JCOPE might have a use for the data.

So I decided to push the issue and asked the following "Gary have you even reviewed the information that has already been filed?  for example Susan Lerner's filing for Common Cause?"

And I got this breath of honesty "No"

No 

The smartest commissioner on JJOKE has never reviewed the source of funding that has been filed, can't really articulate why he wants the source of funding information from exempted organizations and doesn't really know the rationale for why the disclosure is even required or how it works in real life.

And that is before we had our conversation about Letizia and the Moreland Commission.

JJOKE is doomed

I've returned Gary's favor of providing me the best advice I've ever received about leaving government

I told him he should resign.  As a friend I hope he listened