As state lawmakers consider overhauling the state’s ethics commission, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday joined in the criticism of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or J-COPE. 

“It’s meaningless,” the governor said during a question and answer session with reporters at his midtown office.

J-COPE was created by Cuomo and passed by the legislature in 2011, after the governor promised to have the “most transparent administration in history.”

But since then, J-COPE has been chided by critics for its ineffectiveness and near obsession with secrecy. The watchdog agency was supposed to enforce ethical lapses and violations in both the legislative and executive branches.

“The fundamental flaw is a constitutional barrier,” Cuomo said.

“Because the fundamental flaw is it can't enforce anything, it's non-binding. It's essentially advisory. If the legislature takes the position that its findings are not binding because there is no outside agency that has any authority for any sanction,” Cuomo added.

J-COPE has actually sanctioned numerous state lawmakers for misconduct. But critics say because the governor appoints the majority of members on the commission, J-COPE has never concluded an investigation targeting any member of the Cuomo administration or the governor himself. 

It all hit a boiling point recently when it was revealed the commission’s staff approved a $5.1 million book deal for Cuomo without publicly disclosing the sum. Normally, commissioners would make that decision but normal processes appear to have been bypassed by the governor. 

Now, members of the legislature are calling for a complete overhaul of J-COPE, which Cuomo says he agrees with. Reworking the agency from scratch, however, would take a constitutional amendment, which is at least two years away from passing.

Meanwhile, the Assembly’s judiciary committee held its third meeting in the impeachment inquiry it is conducting into Cuomo for multiple scandals. 

The committee held the public portion of the meeting for just a few minutes before going into a closed-door executive session.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Lavine took issue with reports the Assembly had only been allocated $250,000 for its broad inquiry.

“It is not true that only $250,00 has been allocated for the entirety of the investigation,” Lavine said, adding that payment was only the first installment

The Committee has hired the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell to conduct the investigation. It’s looking into multiple accusations of sexual harassment, whether Cuomo manipulated data and downplayed COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes and whether Cuomo’s staff helped write his book on state time. The committee will then determine whether any of those alleged misdeeds rise to the level of impeachment. There is no set timetable for the committee to wrap up its impeachment inquiry.