Ethics Handbook Held Up By, Well, an Ethics Case
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

City Council members are grumbling behind the scenes about the glacial rewriting process of an ethics handbook that has been in the works now for more than two years. The manual, a 65-page, eight-chapter volume that is meant to set out codes of conduct in simple language, has been stuck in the office of the council’s EEOC lawyer, Saphora Lifrak.
Speaking on condition that they would not be identified by name, council members told The New York Sun that one reason for the lack of speedy progress is that the equal employment opportunity counsel is in charge of the handbook, and Ms. Lifrak is one of the women who have complaints pending against a council member from Queens, Allan Jennings. She has alleged that Mr. Jennings created a hostile work environment, among other things.
Council members said privately that they felt they couldn’t take the project away from Ms. Lifrak without leaving themselves open to accusations that they were meting out reprisals because of the charges she has brought against Mr. Jennings.
Aggravating the problem is that Ms. Lifrak suffers from carpal tunnel syndrome and does not type. Instead, she has written and edited the manual by speaking into a cassette tape, and staff members have had to transcribe her words.
Ms. Lifrak told the Sun that she had been advised by her attorney that she was not permitted to speak to the press. She declined to discuss the manual.
Mr. Jennings has been accused of creating a hostile work environment by two female aides. He has also been charged by the council’s ethics committee with creating a hostile work environment for two female employees on the council’s central staff, and acting inappropriately toward a female council member. Mr. Jennings has denied having sexually harassed anyone.
More recently, the council has started investigating a complaint of sexual harassment filed against Vincent Gentile, a former state senator and prosecutor, whose council district includes Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights in Brooklyn. Mr. Gentile’s chief of staff, John Martin, has accused the councilman of “unremitting harassment” because of his alleged efforts to initiate an intimate relationship. Mr. Martin retained an attorney and said he is contemplating litigation and a potential harassment suit. Mr. Gentile has denied the charges and has said he is not gay.
The charges against two council members in a year have highlighted criticism of the council’s leadership. Mayor Bloomberg said the council was ineffective at handling the Jennings case, though so far the mayor has steered clear of discussing the Gentile allegations. The council’s Committee on Standards and Ethics is to resume its proceedings in the Jennings complaints next month.
After a comment was sought from Council Speaker Gifford Miller about why completing the handbook was taking so long, and why the task had not been reassigned, Mr. Miller’s chief spokesman, Stephen Sigmund, forwarded this comment from the speaker: “The Council has a strong ethics policy that is reflected in serious online ethics training that is mandatory for all members and staff and in this comprehensive manual.”
When the chairwoman of the ethics committee, Council Member Helen Sears of Queens, was asked to comment, she said: “We have a draft and I am anxious to see the manual come out soon.” A final draft of the manual is now being prepared, Ms. Sears told the Sun.