‘Still vulnerable’
Return of Councilman King sparks harassment protest 1 more in race for Lowey seat
Activists depicted a culture of widespread harassment at City Hall and called on lawmakers to crack down on the misconduct at an emotional rally on Tuesday.
The demonstration came as Councilman Andy King (D-Bronx) was set to return to his job Wednesday after being penalized with a 30-day suspension for harassing and retaliating against staff, among other charges.
The staffer who went public with her accusations against King in a Daily News op-ed led Tuesday’s charge against harassment, urging the City Council to expel the pol and hold public hearings on sexual harassment.
“This is a searing indictment of the system where mostly women, especially women of color and LGBQ, TGNCNB people don’t feel like they will be protected — because they haven’t been,” said King accuser Chloe Rivera, using an acronym for transgender, gender nonconforming and nonbianary people.
Members of activist group Harassment Free NYCC read anonymous accounts by other City Hall staffers who said elected officials had abused them.
“When my boss kissed me, I nervously laughed. I brushed it off and stayed quiet about it,” went an account by a staffer who was dismissed after she reported the unnamed pol for harassing another staffer.
The activists decried the City Council’s Oct. 28 decision to suspend and fine King instead of expelling him for rampant ethics violations ranging from retaliating against staff to misusing Council resources.
“City Council can do better and they must do better for their staff,” said Rita Pasarell, co-founder of the Sexual Harassment Working Group, which lobbied Albany to pass anti-harassment measures earlier this year.
Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou (DManhattan), who helped champion the legislation, echoed Pasarell’s calls.
“Staff members are still vulnerable to sexual harassment in the workplace without proper protections and systems,” she said. “We need to have a foolproof system in which victims are able to trust our justice system.”
The Council Ethics Committee’s recent investigation into King has helped catalyze calls for change at the City Council.
A Council vote to expel King failed last month. But Council Speaker Corey Johnson said he was open to working with anti-harassment activists.
“I’m grateful for the work they’ve done on this and the work that they did in Albany,” the Dem said at a news conference. “We will continue the conversation to actually figure out what else we can be doing here at the Council.”
A former federal prosecutor in the “Operation Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal is the latest entrant in the crowded race to replace Rep. Nita Lowey.
Adam Schleifer, a former assistant U.S. attorney and special associate counsel in the state Financial Services Department, said his experience as a prosecutor and regulator sets him apart from the pack.
“I think that Westchester and Rockland deserve a congressperson with the energy and experience to make government work as hard and as well as all of the rest of us do every single day,” Schleifer told the Daily News Tuesday.
The 38-year-old was among the prosecutors in the courtroom earlier this year in California as charges were laid against dozens of parents, test administrators and coaches accused of rigging the admissions process at top schools in exchange for bribes.