By coming down hard on Manhattan Assemblyman Micah Kellner, Speaker Sheldon Silver claims to be sending “a loud and clear message . . . that sexual harassment has no place in the Assembly.”
What really comes through loud and clear is that Silver still runs a secretive, boss-ruled house of mirrors with no clue how to properly police its members or safeguard its employees.
It came to light in July that a young female staffer reported inappropriate flirting by Kellner in 2009, only to have her complaint ignored by then-Assembly counsel William Collins.
Silver, declaring himself blindsided, responded by sacking Collins and ordering a belated investigation by his in-house Ethics Committee.
Five months later, on Monday, that panel issued a vague declaration that Kellner had indeed violated the Assembly’s sexual harassment policy — but gave zero description of what he had said or done that was wrong.
Nor did the committee make public the investigative report compiled by an outside law firm at taxpayer expense. Nor did it disclose who the firm had interviewed or what records it had checked.
Nor would Chairman Chuck Lavine, appointed by Silver, publicly discuss how his panel had reached its conclusions — saying he was bound by law to keep all such deliberations confidential.
Not even Silver himself — according to his spokesman — was privy to details beyond the slender public record.
Yet that didn’t stop him from publicly admonishing Kellner and summarily stripping him of all current and future leadership duties, barring him from hiring or replacing staff and declaring that no interns may be placed in his office.
Unsurprisingly, Kellner rejects both the committee’s findings and Silver’s penalties, and is pursuing an appeal.
We shed no tears for a politician who has apologized for what he admits was unprofessional behavior — and likely deserves harsh sanction.
But Kellner was owed a fair chance to rebut specific, factual charges.
His Upper East Side constituents were owed a full accounting of why their elected representative’s power has been so sharply compromised.
And the rest of the state was owed the assurance that Silver is acting for the public good, and not simply to cover his political behind.
After shamefully covering up earlier incidents of sexual harassment by Vito Lopez — and having that blow up in his face — Silver is apparently gutting a smaller fish to demonstrate that he’s turned over a new leaf.
But when it comes to hoarding power and hiding facts, Shelly will always be Shelly.
![In a narrow vote this week, the Federal Trade Commission approved a rule that will ban the vast majority of noncompete clauses by U.S. employers, which have long prevented workers from switching jobs or setting out on their own. In doing so, the agency did its duty to protect American economic dynamism and opportunity, nothing less, nothing more. We hope that’s the clear conclusion of the courts that will now rule on a lawsuit being brought by the Chamber of Commerce, which has strenuously supported this anticompetitive practice. Of the arguments that the business group and other opponents have rolled […]](https://www.nydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1820955015.jpg?w=490 "In a narrow vote this week, the Federal Trade Commission approved a rule that will ban the vast majority of noncompete clauses by U.S. employers, which have long prevented workers from switching jobs or setting out on their own. In doing so, the agency did its duty to protect American economic dynamism and opportunity, nothing less, nothing more. We hope that’s the clear conclusion of the courts that will now rule on a lawsuit being brought by the Chamber of Commerce, which has strenuously supported this anticompetitive practice. Of the arguments that the business group and other opponents have rolled […]")
