Council Members are offering their take on the damning scandal once again surrounding North Bronx Councilman Andy King, including Norwood’s councilman who is reserving judgment so he could hear King out. 

Councilman Andrew Cohen, who represents the 11th Council District, finds the contents of the report deplorable, but is holding out on which way he’ll vote until King makes his plea before the Council, which is expected next week. A 48-page report drafted by the New York City Council’s Standards and Ethics Committee found King misused his office while painting him as a threatening legislator to his staffers. 

“I’ll certainly hear him out,” said Cohen of King. “The report makes a very strong case.”

His comments came after Queens Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer tweeted that the Council should remove King from office. “To the employees he abused, degraded & retaliated against: I’m so sorry you had to go through this. To the people he supposedly serves: you deserve better,” he wrote. 

King’s behavior is horrifying & fundamentally disqualifying: if he does not resign immediately, the Council should expel him. To the employees he abused, degraded & retaliated against: I’m so sorry you had to go through this. To the people he supposedly serves: you deserve better

— Jimmy Van Bramer (@JimmyVanBramer) October 23, 2019

Bronx Councilman Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr., who also faced calls to resign early this year and was removed from the Council committee that dissolved, said he too will be holding off until he hears from King. Councilman Mark Gjonaj told the Norwood News he too is reading through the report filed by the New York City Council’s Standard and Ethics Committee and doesn’t want to weigh in. Council members Rafael Salamanca and Fernando Cabrera did not return calls seeking comment. 

King is facing a 30-day suspension, $15,000 fine, removal of his discretionary funds which could have serious implications for the communities, and removal from committee posts following an investigation by the Ethics Committee which found instances of harassment, retaliation, and self-dealing, outlining their findings in a 48-page report. King represents the 12th Council District, which includes Baychester, Co-op City, Edenwald, Eastchester, Wakefield, and the Williamsbridge sections of the Bronx. King had replaced former Councilman Larry Seabrook, who was convicted of corruption in 2012.  The Ethics Committee confirmed four charges against King for harassing staffers, disorderly conduct, and violating the conflicts of interest policy. 

An additional sanction includes a permanent, independent office monitor. 

Bronx Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, representing the 16th Council District, sits on the Ethics Committee and was part of the unanimous agreement concerning how the Councilman should be disciplined. Gibson did not return a call for comment. 

King failed to appear at the committee hearing and his attorneys allege that there wasn’t sufficient time to respond to the Council’s investigation. According to the committee, he waited three weeks from when he was notified and used the time to single out dissenting staff members. 

“Instead of cooperating, Council Member King attempted to make a mockery of this committee and the Council’s rules and policies,” said committee chair Steven Matteo. “While the committee certainly would have been inclined under normal circumstances to consider a reasonable adjournment, we were not going to give Council Member King more time to hurt staffers who had done nothing more than carry out their obligations to the Council to cooperate.” 

This is King’s second time facing disciplinary action. In 2018 he was required to attend sensitivity training following the ethics committee substantiating an allegation he sexually harassed a female staffer. King was alleged to inappropriately ask a female staffer to smile more and when inviting her to a winter ball, he said he hoped to see her in a “beautiful gown.”

King held a meeting in his home with his whole staff present, in which he identified the complainant in the 2017 matter and bashed this person as the rest of his staff looked on. 

The report also highlighted how King instilled fear into his staff, creating a toxic work environment. In April, King organized yet another at-home meeting, this time requesting those that had cooperated with the investigation to fess up and that no one would be able to leave until they did. Once three staffers admitted, he, in retaliation, engineered inconveniences and hardships that made it more difficult for staffers to do their jobs. 

One staff member was forced to commute two hours, as King assigned them to work out of his Bronx office as opposed to previous accommodations that the staff member could work out of his legislative office in Manhattan due to a medical circumstance, according to published reports. The other two staffers were sent home and told to not report back until they received a phone call from King. He never followed up and subsequently removed their email access. 

In another instance, a trip to the US Virgin Islands for his wife’s daughter’s wedding was organized and paid for with taxpayer dollars and he allowed his wife, an employee with 1199 SEIU, to become overly involved in Council business. Threats of physical violence via a supervisor were also carried out under King’s leadership, according to reports. 

King did not respond to requests for comment. 

The Council is expected to vote on the matter early next week.

admin

Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.