People don’t know how scary it is to report sexual harassment at work.

JULIA LILkENDEY

threatening work retaliation she didn’t call back.

Lilkendey confided to a coworker, Matthew Kulvicki, who was hired by the Senate Dems as productions director in her department in April 2009.

Kulvicki — who later dated Lilkendey for three years — decided to talk to Democratic higherups on her behalf.

Senate sexual harassment policy at the time suggested that those who felt harassed talk to their supervisors or others in the chain of command. If they did not feel comfortable doing so, they could take their complaints directly to the Senate personnel office or the secretary of the Senate, who at the time was Aponte. if

Lilkendey said she was too scared to approach officials on her own, and Kulvicki told The News he didn’t want to reach out to Aponte, who was seen as having a close relationship with Gonzalez.

Several people he trusted in the Senate suggested he reach out to Mayer, who had a reputation of being fair.

Kulvicki met with Mayer in her office on Oct. 29, 2010, just three days before a crucial election that wound up flipping the majority back to the Republicans.

He said he told Mayer what his co-worker was going through, and that he did not believe she could get fair treatment from Aponte.

Mayer, Kulvicki said, told him she’d like to help — after the election. He said while he was “shellshocked by the lack of reaction,” he later told Lilkendey he believed something would get done.

Mayer, he said, told him to have Lilkendey call her, but she never did out of fright.

Lilkendey said Mayer never reached out to her.

A Mayer source claims the counsel reached out both to Lilkendey and Kulvicki, but never heard back.

Mayer’s rep and three former senior Senate Democratic officials argued that as chief counsel, her role was not to investigate sexual harassment complaints.

Two Mayer colleagues at the time said she brought up the issue with Aponte. Aponte told The News he has no recollection of that. Even if such a discussion occurred, Lilkendey and Kulvicki questioned why that seemingly was the end of Mayer’s involvement.

No formal action was ever taken against Gonzalez, who left the state payroll in January 2011. He and his wife are currently listed as production directors for Bliss Cruises, which is geared toward swingers.

Gonzalez on Thursday refused to discuss the allegations. “I have absolutely no comment,” he said. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”