Info for Ethics Officers

Ethics Officers...It's more than a title... it's a responsibility...

Ethics Officers provide a critical function in assisting the thousands of State officers and employees in navigating the State's ethics laws.  The Public Officers Law and the Commission's ethics regulations create legal obligations for both agencies and their officers and employees. For this reason, each agency should designate an Ethics Officer to provide guidance to these individuals on compliance with the ethics laws.

In addition, the Ethics Officer is responsible for ensuring that both the agency and its personnel comply with the legal obligations related to the following subjects:

• Mandatory Ethics Training
• Requirements for Financial Disclosure Statement Filers (“FDS Filers”)
• Approvals for Outside Activities
• Approvals for Honoraria
• Approvals for Official Activity Expense Payments
• Acceptance of Gifts (including Widely Attended Event)

The Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government is available as a resource to assist you in providing guidance to your agency on the ethics laws and regulations. We encourage you to contact us with questions or for confidential guidance on a specific matter.

Ethics training is a yearly requirement.  Ethics Training is required for every state employee including full-time, part-time, unpaid and per diem board members. Employees and faculty of the State University (SUNY) and City University (CUNY) campuses are also required to complete ethics training.  The training mandate expanded to include both Financial Disclosure Statement (FDS) and non-FDS filers. Employees who are seasonal or temporary employees are also required to complete ethics training every year.  

• Comprehensive Ethics Training Course (CETC) -  A live ethics course that can be conducted either in-person or remotely using videoconferencing tools such as Webex, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, etc.  The CETC must be live and not pre-recorded to allow participants the ability to answer questions in real time.

• Online Ethics Refresher (OER) - A self-paced online training.  The On-Demand Ethics Training can be accessed directly through the Commission’s online enrollment portal and is available for the majority of the state workforce via the Statewide Learning Management System (SLMS) or your agencies learning management system.

  The following agencies do not allow their employees to complete an Online Ethics Refresher/On-Demand Ethics Training:

  • All Department of Corrections (DOCCS) facilities
  • All Office of Mental Health (OMH) facilities
  • All Department of Transportation Regions
  • All Division of Housing and Community Renewal employees
  • All Civil Service Employees

For existing employees, the 2026-2027 Ethics Training Schedule is based off the ethics training class completed in 2025. 

Information for employees who complete an overdue 2025 training in 2026 and how an overdue training is applied in the Statewide Ethics Training Application (SETA).

The ‘catch-up’ rule in SETA is triggered by the completion date and works as follows:

• If an employee is overdue for a 2025 ethics training class and completes the overdue training from January 1 – June 30, 2026 – the ‘catch up’ rule requires that the completion date be applied to the overdue 2025 ethics training requirement.  This policy was created to deter employees from consistently being late in fulfilling their yearly ethics training obligation.

• If an employee is overdue for a 2025 ethics training class and completes the overdue training from July 1 – December 31, 2026 – the ‘catch up’ period expires, and the employees’ next open training class is 12/31/2027.  This is meant to get the employee on a regular training cycle.  

Ethics training is tracked for every state employee in the Commission’s Statewide Ethics Training Application (SETA). 

Ethics officers or their designess are required to submit monthly training statistics and enter training completion dates for the employees listed in your agency profile.  This also applies to agencies who track employees’ live Comprehensive Ethics Training (CETC) via the Statewide Learning Management System (SLMS).  

Updating your Agency Profile

In addition to submitting your monthly training statistics, you are also required to update the following information:

• Review and update any missing or inaccurate email addresses.
• Enter training completion dates for live CETC sessions conducted at your agency.  Employees who enroll and receive credit for attendance at a COELIG hosted live CETC session are automatically marked completed in SETA if the employee has a profile established in SETA.
• Enter training completion dates for the online ethics refresher – this only applies to agencies who do not utilize the Statewide Learning Management System (SLMS).  COELIG continues to update the ethics refresher monthly for employees with access to SLMS. 

Additional information and resources on tracking ethics training is available below.  

learn more

Recorded presentation from the Ethics Officer Forum presented on August 6, 2025.  

The complete slide deck has also been included below.

Topics Covered:

COELIG Executive Director, Sanford Berland, joined the COELIG Training Team to deliver opening remarks on the importance of the statewide ethics training mandate. 

Topics covered included: 

• a review of the statewide collective progress in meeting the annual ethics training requirement
• overview of the training resources available to Ethics Officers through COELIG
• updates on any changes to the 2025 training requirements aimed at supporting improved compliance

Agency Ethics Officers and trainers may request access to the COELIG Ethics Training SharePoint site to download our updated training materials.  Due to the file sizes of the materials, we are no longer able to post these materials on our website.

Request sharepoint access

Agency Specific Trainings, are trainings that are requested by an agency Ethics Officer, Training Unit or Human Resources department.  Agency Specific Trainings provide the COELIG Training Team with the opportunity to train a large group of your agency employees remotely, utilizing WebEx or your preferred video conferencing platform. 

We ask for a minimum enrollment of 100 participants.  For agencies looking to train a smaller number of employees, we encourage you to direct your employees to one of our open CETC sessions that are available to any employee, from any agency within the state workforce.

To request an ‘agency specific’ training, please send an email to [email protected] with up to (3) preferred dates and times. We generally have availability on Mondays. Requested sessions are not guaranteed until a confirmation email is sent from the COELIG Training Team. 

Missed our live forum on the Role and Responsibilities of the Ethics Officer?  See the recorded presentation below. 

Overview

An agency’s Ethics Officer is the primary liaison between the agency and the Commission. Each State agency must name an Ethics Officer. Other individuals may be involved with the Ethics Officer's duties, but one individual must have the primary responsibility for coordination with the Commission. Many State agencies have designated staff from either their Counsel’s Office or Human Resources department.

Duties of the Ethics Officer with regards to Financial Disclosure Statement Filers

The Ethics Officer, or his or her designee, is minimally responsible for: 

• Serving as the point person for communication with the Commission, including receipt of Commission notices, correspondence, opinions, determinations, policies, publications, newsletters and legislative information, and disseminating relevant information to FDS filers
• Notifying new filers of their obligations to complete financial disclosure and ethics training requirements in a timely manner prior to adding them to COELIG's online FDS system
• Creating and updating account profiles in a timely manner to reflect accurate filer information, including filer contact information, leave status, and salary information
• Assisting the Commission with financial disclosure compliance efforts by encouraging required filers to file on time and communicating with delinquent filers on the Commission's behalf
• Informing agency staff that the Ethics Officer is the internal agency contact for Public Officers Law related questions, and advising staff of their obligations under the law and how to seek advice and guidance from supervisors, the Ethics Officer or the Commission
• Ensuring the appropriate filings are submitted to the Commission
• Attending Commission trainings to stay current and informed

For assistance on how to use the online FDS system contact the FDS helpdesk at: [email protected]

Video from Ethics Forum on January 13, 2022