Andy King Suspended From NYC Council Amid Ethics Scandal

NEW YORK CITY HALL — City Council members suspended one of their own for the first time in recent memory Monday after lawmakers found Council Member Andy King broke a slew of ethics rules.

The council voted 44-1 to temporarily boot the Bronx Democrat from his job for myriad misdeeds ranging from the petty to the sinister. The sanctions included a 30-day suspension without pay, a $15,000 fine, and the unprecedented installation of a monitor who will have broad authority over his office's operations.

The council's Standards and Ethics Committee outlined King's alleged misconduct in a 48-page report that Speaker Corey Johnson said made him feel "literally sick to my stomach." The panel said King tried to obstruct the investigation and failed to cooperate with it.

"Those violations outlined in the report are appalling, particularly coming from an elected official who is duty bound to serve the public," Johnson, a Chelsea Democrat, said on the council floor Monday. "… His conduct also shows complete and utter disdain, and even contempt, for this body and its processes, which he himself voted to approve at the beginning of each of his terms."

The move came after King, a Bronx Democrat, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court aiming to block the council from voting on his punishment. He was the only one to oppose the package of sanctions; two of his colleagues abstained.

Echoing his lawsuit, King railed in the council chamber against a process he likened to a crucifixion, saying investigators put him off when he tried to participate in the probe. He said he had been the target of an "agenda of cruelty" and that he has treated his staff "like my own family."

"I am so bothered that I am being put in this situation and acting like I’m some horrible individual," King said. "I’ve read the (hearing) transcript — I wish you all had the opportunity to read the transcripts, because one and one doesn’t equal two on these documents."

"I have been and always will be a kind and loving soul, and that’s where I stand," he added.

Council Member Steven Matteo, the ethics committee chair, denied King's accusations. The Staten Island Republican said King declined to confront the charges against him at a two-day trial and read an email from King's lawyer calling the investigation "disingenuous."

Johnson, Mayor Bill de Blasio and other officials have called on King to resign. But lawmakers rejected a resolution Monday to expel him from his seat as council rules allow.

Johnson and others stood by the ethics committee's recommendations, which were based on months of work and hours of hearings, and expressed hesitation about booting a duly elected lawmaker from office.

But the 12 who supported King's expulsion argued the council needed to hold him to a high standard and condemned the lack of contrition he showed before his colleagues.

"The absolute lack of remorse, the absolute lack of even understanding that anything had been done wrong, anything, blaming other council members blaming lawyers blaming staff — that to me is just even more of the pattern of behavior that brought us to this moment in the first place," said Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, a Queens Democrat who introduced the resolution.

The probe the Standards and Ethics Committee launched in March uncovered a wide range of misbehavior by King going back to 2015, including self-dealing, an anti-gay remark and the intimidation of and retaliation against his staff members.

On one occasion in 2017, King held a meeting at his home where he identified a staffer who accused him of sexual harassment that year and berated her in front of his staff, the panel found. That staffer, Chloe Rivera, identified herself in a New York Daily News op-ed calling for King's explusion from the council.

"Our elected officials must choose to set the right precedent," Rivera wrote. "They must establish a standard that worker abuse and witness intimidation and retaliation will not be tolerated, that repeat abusers are unfit to serve and will be removed from office."

King put the squeeze on several staffers who cooperated with the committee's probe or who he thought had done so, forcing one out of his office and threatening to fire two others, according to the panel's report. And he let a supervisor make repeated violent threats against underlings, the committee said.

The probe found King let his wife — labor union executive Neva Shillingford-King — play a substantial role in the functioning of his office, which she used to promote her image through a newsletter and social media posts, the report says.

King also used council money, staff and other resources to help plan a 2017 retreat to the Virgin Islands that prominently featured Shillingford-King and her employer and also included her daughter's wedding, the investigation found.

And in June 2015 King allegedly reprimanded a staffer who accidentally posted a picture from the New York City Pride March to his Twitter account, calling the image "the same as child pornography." King denied making the remark.

The investigation of King was helmed by Carrie Cohen, a former federal prosecutor who led the criminal corruption case against former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

King's lawsuit asked a state judge to block the council from voting on his suspension and order a new hearing on the charges against him. But a judge denied his request for a temporary restraining order, council spokesperson Jennifer Fermino said.

Johnson, Cohen and Matteo said they were confident their findings would hold up in court.

"The committee and I were keenly committed to ensuring that Council Member King was afforded every due process right," Cohen said.