COELIG Sees Significant Growth in Ethics and Lobbying Training Co...

The Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (COELIG) experienced significant growth in training completions in 2025, with more than 266,000 executive branch employees completing live comprehensive and on-demand ethics training, an increase of 49% over 2024 totals, Executive Director Sanford N. Berland announced today. COELIG also saw a significant increase in the number of ethics inquiries it received, with 1,404 inquiries reported in 2025, a 73% increase since 2023. The Commission continued its efforts to increase access to training and resources throughout 2025 for the more than 330,000 officers and employees who must take annual ethics training. 

In addition, over 3,100 lobbyists and clients completed the ‘Ethical Standards for Lobbyists and Clients’ training course in 2025, marking an increase from the over 2,200 training completions in 2024.  

“The increase in training completion in 2025 is a notable achievement, as ethics training plays a crucial role in our mission to maintain the highest ethical standards across New York State government,” Executive Director Berland said. “From our inception, we have continuously built up our training capabilities. Commission staff have worked tirelessly to deliver an increasing schedule of live trainings, create effective and readily accessible on-demand trainings, and provide numerous resources to support the work of agency ethics officers and trainers, who carry the majority of the burden for delivering live ethics training to agency employees. These efforts will continue to be prioritized.” 

“The Commission is committed to cultivating a state workforce that has a clear understanding of its ethical obligations,” Chair Seymour W. James, Jr. said. “The increase in the number of ethics training completions also led to an increase in inquiries and approval applications to our Advice and Guidance Unit and our attorney-of-the-day program. This demonstrates that state employees are becoming more cognizant of their responsibilities, advancing our goal to restore trust in state government.” 
 

Ethics Education 

More than 266,000 executive branch employees completed the live, instructor-led comprehensive ethics training course (CETC) or the on-demand ethics training course in 2025, marking a 49.2% increase from 2024 and 78.7% increase from 2023. This includes 210,000 executive branch officers and employees who completed the live CETC, a 127.35% increase from 2024, and over 56,000 who completed comprehensive on-demand training.  

COELIG is responsible for administering comprehensive ethics training to approximately 330,000 officers and employees at over 380 state agencies and departments, as well as on-demand ethics training to more than 10,000 lobbyists and clients. The Commission developed the New York State Ethics Training Application (SETA) to fulfill the unprecedented and nationally unique program of mandatory annual ethics training mandated by the 2022 Ethics Commission Reform Act (ECRA). 

The Commission launched the Statewide Ethics Training Application (SETA) in 2024, the first statewide ethics training application of its kind, which makes it possible to schedule, track, and monitor ethics trainings and compliance with training requirements at the individual employee level.  In 2025, COELIG’s training team increased training accessibility and availability, expanding the number of agency-specific and open training CETC classes and expanding class enrollment limits to keep up with the end-of-year training demand.  In addition to COELIG’s On-demand Comprehensive Ethics Training Course (OETC), which is available through the Statewide Learning Management System (SLMS), COELIG training staff also developed a new on-demand MP4 ethics training course that is available to all state employees at any time, including individuals at agencies who do have access to SLMS or other learning management systems.  Since its launch in July 2025, over 13,500 employees have completed the MP4 on-demand training course as of March 2, 2026. 

The following table shows the totals in ethics training completion and year-over-year growth from 2023 to 2025. 

ETHICS TRAINING BY YEAR

COELIG is also responsible for administering the mandated ethics training requirement for lobbyists and clients. The Commission developed an online ‘Ethical Standards for Lobbyists and Clients’ training course that is available on the COELIG website. Individuals required to complete the training must do so within 60 days of their submission of the initial Statement of Registration. Active lobbyists and clients must complete the training again within three years of the last date they completed training.  

In 2025, 3,131 lobbyists and clients completed the ethics training course, a 41.5% increase from the 2,213 reported in 2024. As of September 30, 2025, the training has an 87.2% compliance rate, with over 9,300 individuals trained for the 2025-2026 biennial period. 

Ethics Guidance 

The Commission regularly provides ethics law and regulation advice and guidance to state officers and employees. The Commission’s teams of knowledgeable staff and counsel answer questions and address issues in both written and informal communications daily. 

In 2025, Commission staff provided ethics guidance in response to more than 1,400 requests, a 7.7% increase from 2024 and 72.48% increase from 2023. Staff provided guidance on topics such as outside activities, post-employment restrictions, and gift rules. 

The following table shows the growth in Commission ethics inquiries since 2023. 

ETHICS GUIDANCE

Lobbying Filings and Guidance 

The Commission processes, reviews, and provides access to all lobbying Statements of Registration, Bi-monthly Reports, Client Semi-Annual Reports and Disbursement of Public Monies Reports from the lobbying community. In 2025, staff responded to over 35,200 lobbying inquiries and processed over 67,000 lobbying filings. In addition to handling lobbying filings and providing ethics training to lobbyists and clients, the Commission provides advice, guidance, and training to lobbyists and clients concerning the state’s lobbying laws and regulations and the use of the Commission’s data entry portal, the Lobbying Application.  

To increase the accessibility of lobbying resources, COELIG staff worked to publish documents and guides to assist in the filing requirements. These resources were announced and promoted by elevated communications through email eblasts and social media postings. In April 2025, the Commission launched a Late Fee Waiver Request online training, accessible on its website, to assist lobbyist and client filers on how to submit late fee waiver requests. COELIG also offers a series of interactive live trainings that provide in-depth information on how to navigate COELIG’s online Lobbying Application. To help navigate the Source of Funding (SoF) filing requirements and process, COELIG posted three new SoF resources, including a training video, step-by-step flowchart, and an expenditure threshold calculator which are available on the Commission’s website. 

The following table shows the annual totals for Commission lobbying inquiries and filings from 2023 to 2025: 

LOBBYING GUIDANCE AND FILINGS

Investigations  

The Commission receives tips, complaints, referrals, and reports that are reviewed for possible violations of New York’s ethics or lobbying laws. If the preliminary review of information warrants a formal investigation, the subject of the investigation receives a written notice of allegations, often referred to as the “15-day letter,” to which they may respond within 15 days. In 2025, the Commission received 144 tips, complaints, and reports, and issued 53 15-day letters. The Commission also had a total of 247 active cases (open and pending) and closed 126 cases in 2025. In 2025, the Commission held its first adjudicatory hearing and issued its decision on November 21, 2025.  

The following table compares investigation and enforcement matters handled in 2022 through 2025. 

INVESTIGATIONS 

Compliance Audit and Review 

The Commission conducts a statutory Targeted and Random Review Program for Financial Disclosure Statements (FDS) and a Random Audit Program for reports and registration statements filed by lobbyists and their clients to ensure accuracy and compliance with statutory requirements and to provide guidance and, when necessary, enforcement.  

In 2025, the Commission saw a 7.46% increase in FDS filings, with 36,180 filings submitted, up from the 33,668 filings submitted in 2024. COELIG staff completed 736 random audits of lobbying filings and a total of 1,440 targeted and random reviews (621 and 819, respectively) of Financial Disclosure Statements filed by statewide elected officials, members of the legislature, senior state government officials, and other filers. As a result of the latter, the Commission issued 738 Requests for Additional Information Letters (RAILs) in 2025, while the random reviews of lobbying filings resulted in 1,323 findings and recommendations and the amendment of 342 of the 737 filings audited, nearly half of those audited.    

The following table compares audits and reviews for 2025 to 2023. 

AUDITS AND REVIEWS 

Public Data and Records Access  

The Commission is the first New York State ethics agency subject to the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). Members of the public may request access to lobbying filings, financial disclosure statements, and other records filed with the Commission but not otherwise available online. In 2025, COELIG received 126 unique record access requests and responded to 129 requests with over 8,400 pages of records sent. 

COELIG’s communications and lobbying teams also began releasing preliminary lobbying spending data analyses every two months in 2025 to increase public accessibility and transparency in lobbying spending. Detailed charts on 2025 lobbying activity from bi-monthly reports and client semi-annual reports are available on the Commission’s website. 

The Commission also experienced an increase in web activity in 2025, marking a total of 417,274 users. COELIG’s ethics pages saw significant increases in activity, totaling 210,178 users across the top seven webpages, a 97.6% increase from 2024’s total of 106,383. The increase can be contributed to a large influx of visitors to COELIG’s live CETC page, which had 110,366 users alone. COELIG’s media center also experience a significant increase, totaling 14,015 users, a 165.8% increase from the 5,273 in 2024. Commission staff has worked to increase awareness of web resources via training, newsletters, social media, and reminders. In addition, the Commission’s lobbying database, the Public Search Query, received more than 11.5 million visits in 2025.  

Next Steps 

These and other preliminary statistics will be reviewed, finalized, and published in COELIG’s 2025 Annual Report. The report will feature additional and more detailed highlights of the Commission’s work to foster public trust in government, its core mission, through education, training and ensuring compliance with the state’s ethics and lobbying laws. The 2022, 2023, and 2024 Annual Reports are published on COELIG’s website. 

The Commission will also continue to move forward with its yearslong Comprehensive Review Process to gauge the effectiveness of New York’s ethics and lobbying laws, regulations, and advisory opinions and assess whether modifications are needed.