Mr. Cuomo’s legal department has taken the unusual step of distributing a five-page, 22-question survey to state agencies, asking them to evaluate the performance of Mr. Schneiderman’s office. The questionnaire leaves few stones unturned.
It asks agency general counsels for feedback on what challenges, if any, they have had in dealing with the attorney general’s office, and to suggest ways to improve communication with the office. The governor’s office also wants to know how often agency lawyers hear from the attorney general’s staff, if Mr. Schneiderman’s office gives them adequate time to review legal briefs and what happens if the agency and attorney general have opposing legal theories on a case. Other questions are more procedural, asking, for example, if the agency has an electronic case-management system.
Mr. Cuomo’s office described the questionnaire as an honest-faith effort to streamline how the state tracks legal cases, adding that Mr. Cuomo, himself a former attorney general, had no knowledge of the survey.
