Council ‘bounce’ for 3rd ethics rap
Strike three!
The City Council’s ethics committee took the extraordinary step of recommending that Bronx lawmaker Andy King be expelled from office Tuesday after determining that he continued to misuse government resources and mistreat his staff.
It’s the third time in the last two years that the watchdog panel has probed and substantiated allegations of wrongdoing by King, a Democrat first elected in 2013.
“The Committee on Standards and Ethics found the charges against Councilmember King to have been substantiated and is recommending the sanction of expulsion to the full [City] Council,” said the committee chairman, Steven Matteo (R-Staten Island).
Matteo reported that his panel — essentially a grand jury for investigating violations of council ethics rules — charged King with four counts, including misusing government resources and violating antidiscrimination and harassment policies.
A two-thirds majority is needed to expel a member, and a vote could come as soon as next week.
Council Speaker Corey Johnson backed the expulsion recommendation in a statement released shortly after the committee called for the lawmaker’s ouster.
“This is not a decision to be made lightly, but Councilmember King has given us no alternative,” Johnson said.
“This is the third time this committee has had to discipline the councilmember, and yet he continues to show a blatant disregard for the rules and policies put in place to protect staff and the integrity of this body, including undermining the monitor who was imposed to try and correct his egregious behavior.”
The committee’s written report was not immediately made public, but Matteo, in his comments, detailed graphic new allegations of misbehavior by King
The lawmaker told a female staffer who needed emergency treatment for menstrual bleeding to “put a Band-Aid on it” and then forced her to take unpaid leave after she “talked to others about her medical condition,” Matteo said.
King also allegedly engineered a kickback scheme in 2019 by awarding a staffer a $9,500 one-time payment from council funds, through which he netted $2,000.
The panel also blasted King for failing to comply with the terms of his October 2019 admonishment by the full City Council on previous allegations of misusing government resources.
At that time, his colleagues slapped him with a 30-day suspension and a $15,000 fine, mandated he take sensitivity training, and imposed a monitor on his office to ensure his abuse of staff would end.
However, Matteo reported Tuesday that King refused to pay the fine, failed to take the required counseling course and repeatedly attempted to do end-runs around the monitor.
Speaker Johnson opposed a bid to expel King in October, but signaled earlier this year that he would back the legislator’s ouster if the third investigation turned up more evidence of misbehavior.
King, who was first elected to the council in 2012, cannot seek re-election under term limits. His term expires at the end of 2021.