Mayor Says Miller Took Too Long In Handling Case

Mayor Bloomberg took a swipe at a Democratic mayoral hopeful, Gifford Miller, yesterday, saying he would have addressed the sexual-harassment allegations against Council Member Allan Jennings "more expeditiously" than the City Council speaker has.

The council's Committee on Standards and Ethics spent six months and roughly $150,000 to produce a 104-page report that chronicled Mr. Jennings's behavior, finding, among other things, that the Queens council member was responsible for creating a hostile work environment for women who worked for him.

"If this was a city employee and not an elected official, and he worked for me and I had the authority to do so, I would terminate him," Mr. Bloomberg told reporters yesterday. "I don't think that that behavior is appropriate of a city employee. In this case, it is an elected official, and there are different rules on whether you can deprive the public of someone they elect. I think the public will have the option this fall, in the voting booths, to look at his behavior, and if I were them, I wouldn't return him to office."

The questions swirling around the episode have much to do with the way Mr. Miller has handled. Council members have said privately for months that they were upset about the glacial pace of the reaction to the Jennings allegations. A council member from the Lower East Side, Margarita Lopez, told the chamber yesterday the council "failed this city" and "the women of New York" because it allowed the Jennings matter to become a scandal.

"I think I would have addressed it differently," Mr. Bloomberg told reporters yesterday. "But keep in mind I have more experience in terms of, seriously, I have decades of working in a business, and you always have issues coming up, and you have to face these things." Mr. Bloomberg's remarks caused some reporters to snicker, as he had to face at least three lawsuits related to sexual-harassment allegations at his company, Bloomberg L.P.

"I would have had a much more open process and done it much more expeditiously," the mayor said of the Jennings matter. "And I think the next time if it comes up, maybe people will deal with it that way."

In response, Mr. Miller told reporters: "The mayor has experience on women's issues, all the wrong kind of experience. Mayor Bloomberg is in no position to lecture me or anyone else on this matter, given his own history dealing with women."