The City Council might sue one of its own members, Bronx Democrat Andy King, over an unpaid $15,000 fine for abusing his office and harassing staffers.
“We are seeking ways to get that money,” Council Speaker Corey Johnson said Tuesday, the day the payment was due.
“We could potentially enter into litigation with him to get that,” Johnson said about the five-figure fine.
“If he doesn’t pay the fine, the case can be reopened and there could be further sanctions against him,” Johnson warned.
In October the Council voted 44-1 to suspend King for a month without pay, fine him $15,000, pull his committee assignments and appoint a monitor to oversee his office.
Johnson also announced Tuesday that the monitor will be “a very well respected, capable woman.”
King was ordered to take sensitivity training last year after he repeatedly asked a female staffer to smile while grasping her hand and requested her phone number so he could invite her to a gala where he wanted to see her in a “beautiful gown.”
The more recent censure is related to a host of ethics violations including using staffers to plan his step-daughter’s Virgin Islands wedding, lending his union executive wife his employees to do her SEIU work, and trying to fire employees who reported his behavior.
A Manhattan judge tossed a lawsuit by King against the council.
“This strikes me as a completely internal matter. I don’t think the council did anything wrong,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron said Tuesday during a hearing dismissing the case.
King attended the hearing but declined to comment. His attorney later declined to comment on Johnson’s remarks.