Mayor Adams’ chief City Hall lawyer is demanding an ethics inquiry into Councilman Lincoln Restler for how he questioned administration officials about the city’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against top Adams aide Tim Pearson.
In a letter sent Friday to City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, the mayor’s Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg claimed Restler proceeded to “defame and harass” city officials he grilled at a Council hearing Thursday.
Restler shot back immediately, telling the Daily News that Zornberg’s missive represents an attempt at a “complete and utter distraction” away from two lawsuits against the city and Pearson.
NYC_PUBLIC_BANK
“Every City worker deserves a workplace free of harassment — that was the focus of yesterday’s hearing. Tim Pearson’s alleged actions are incredibly troubling and the handling of his case has raised a very long list of questions,” Restler said.
“I would hope the chief counsel and the administration would direct their focus on trying to get to the bottom of this case and addressing those questions to ensure all city employees are protected.”
In one of the lawsuits in question, retired NYPD Sgt. Roxanne Ludemann alleges Pearson, a senior adviser to the mayor, repeatedly touched her against her will and blocked her promotion after she spurned him. In another suit, retired Sgt. Michael Ferrari claims that, after he backed up Ludemann’s accusations, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey demoted him at Pearson’s prompting.
Obtained by Daily News
Roxanne Ludemann, left, and Timothy Pearson.
During a Council hearing Thursday, Restler questioned Adams’ administration officials about those lawsuits. He asked why the city’s Office of Equal Employment Opportunity didn’t make further inquiries into the matter after Ludemann had spoken once with an NYPD internal affairs inspector and three times with a manager in the the mayor’s equal employment opportunity.
Ludemann ultimately opted to drop her internal complaint, but that decision wouldn’t preclude the administration from further probing the matter.
“Overwhelmingly when people speak out against harassment and mistreatment in the workplace, they face retaliation. It’s clear that happened here at City Hall. It’s been widely reported,” Restler said during the hearing Thursday. “How does the city ensure retaliation does not occur?”
Silvia Montalban, who serves as Adams’ chief citywide equity and inclusion officer, responded that city employees “are protected against retaliation in that they should come forward and feel comfortable in reporting any kind of behavior that they think dissuades them from participating in that EEO investigative process.”
Not present for the hearing was Melody Ruiz, the chief EEO officer inside the mayor’s office. Zornberg said in her letter that Ruiz was not invited to attend the hearing and that Restler “viciously went after” her, which left her “devastated.”
“Without cause or basis for the attack he unleashed, he called her out by name; he cited her salary on the record; [and] he disparagingly referred to her as a ‘longtime former borough hall staffer’ to wrongly suggest that she ‘got a large pay raise’ in order protect ‘the mayor and his closest allies.’
Zornberg defended Pearson as well, saying Restler made “categorical assertions that Mr. Pearson had violated the law” which showed his “misunderstanding of the U.S. legal
system.”
John Scola, the lawyer representing Ludemann, offered a different perspective.
“The city has set a dangerous precedent by failing to investigate allegations against Tim Pearson for sexual harassment and now by attacking those who question their actions,” he said. “It seems the motives of all involved, accept City Hall, is to get to the bottom of Tim Pearson’s sexual harassment allegations.”
A Council spokesperson confirmed that the lawmaking body received Zornberg’s letter and said the Council takes both its oversight responsibilities and allegations of sexual abuse seriously.
