Gov. Eliot Spitzer signed five executive orders in his first morning as governor of New York, including orders establishing a number of ethical guidelines for state workers and making the government more open to the public. Gov. Eliot Spitzer delivered his inaugural speech outside the Capitol in Albany.

During a signing ceremony about 8:45 a.m. at the executive mansion, Mr. Spitzer said he was fulfilling a promise “that one of the first acts I would take as governor, officially, was to put in place a series of ethics guidelines and strictures that would begin the process of restoring government to what it should be, which is responsive, open, transparent, available to the public and to the extent feasible, insulated from the influence of improper gifts and contributions.”

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Mr. Spitzer’s first executive order prohibited state workers at public agencies and authorities from accepting gifts of more than nominal value and prohibited the use of state property, including vehicles, computers and telephones, for non-official business. And in what seemed to be a reference to the scandal that led to the resignation of former Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi, the order said that individuals authorized by their agencies to use vehicles for personal purposes “shall keep records of such use, and the value of such personal use shall be calculated and reported as personal income.”

The same order also prohibited nepotism in hiring and contracting and barred former state workers from lobbying their former agencies for two years.

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