Ethics Committee Suggests Penalties In Jennings Case

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The committee hearing the misconduct case against an embattled member of the City Council, Allan Jennings Jr., voted late last night to recommend a slew of penalties for the lawmaker, sources close to the decision said.


Mr. Jennings stood accused of six charges, including allegations that he acted inappropriately toward two female council staff members who worked at district his office, that he unfairly fired two employees, and that he misused council money by having an aide clean his apartment.


The City Council’s Committee on Standards and Ethics will recommend that the full council suspend Mr. Jennings from all of his committees, impose a $5,000 fine, and require him to attend both anger management courses and harassment sensitivity training.


The committee will also recommend that Mr. Jennings, a Democrat who represents parts of Queens, be publicly censured and that his staff be monitored by the head of the Ethics Committee, Council Member Helen Sears, to ensure that they have a safe working environment.


The committee could have opted to recommend anything from censuring the council member, to removing some of his staff, to expelling him from the council altogether. Members also could have voted to recommend no penalty at all.


The ethics committee substantiated the two charges related to his creating a hostile work environment and to wrongly firing an employee. The committee found that the other charges, which included inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature, did not technically violate any council rule, a source close to the committee said.


Mr. Jennings has denied all but one charge. His lawyer, Robert Ellis, has criticized the process as unjust. He has long been calling for the “trial” to be open to the public. He has said the council speaker, Gifford Miller, has kept it private in an effort to curb attention. The council has said it closed the hearings to the public to protect the privacy of those making the accusations.


Mr. Miller, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor, has been criticized for not initiating an investigation sooner and allowing the case to drag on.


Last night, attorneys representing Mr. Jennings and the defendants presented their cases on penalty to the committee. The committee is expected to release a report with its findings today or later this week. The full council could vote on the penalties as soon as April 20. It does not have to adopt the committee’s recommendations.


Council officials said last night that they would not be commenting on the matter until today.


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