Erica Vladimer

I’m gonna lose my voice yelling at the refs not at Smith. My God can we just let these kids play?! (This is a UConn skeet)

Daily News Headline that says: NYC Council panel looking at censure for Councilwoman Inna Vernikov over gun incident

Two years later this is JUST coming to a vote?!

I mean, it’s better than the 8 years I had to deal with but accountability should not take this long.

I got a scam call today: a woman with "DHS" said they intercepted a package for me from Mexico w/ $94k in cash & 20 fake drivers licenses. She wanted to know how I felt about it. I told her I could really use $94k so I'm kind of bummed she stole it. She hung up on me.

FYI: the # is 762-435-7962

In Monrovia, California, protesters are purchasing 17¢ ICE scrapers from Home Depot and immediately returning them to create long lines and slow down the entire store. Their aim is to disrupt sales and convey a message opposing ICE raids occurring in their neighborhood.

“Including city council and city hall staff” too, right?

Right??????

RIGHT???????????

Oh hey look, it’s @bigal.bsky.social and me (Allison has the blue sweatshirt on, I’m next to her)!!!

The Commission also claims that under NYS law, they can only act by a majority vote of the body’s full membership. With only 7 of the 11 seats filled, two “no votes” block any finding or action. The Commission’s position is essentially that after taking up taxpayers’ time and money, subjecting me to hours of invasive questioning and emotional hardship, they are toothless to proceed. This is doubly unacceptable and utterly pathetic.

Let me be clear: this is not a win for Klein, who unequivocally sexually harassed me and then spent years desperately attempting to evade the inevitable conclusion. A determination should’ve left me feeling vindicated and affirmed. Instead, I am livid and disconsolate. For more than seven years, I have done everything humanly possible to work within the state ethics system to hold Klein accountable. State employees demand better from our public officials and from the oversight body that supposedly governs their conduct. I am more determined than ever to fix our deeply broken, fundamentally failing system."

I’m really tired. And angry. And I feel so empty and kind of lost from this decision. But I know I’ll eventually channel that into my @hfny.bsky.social work.

It’s time to keep working.

More than seven years after I shared my experience of sexual harassment publicly, and former Senator Jeff Klein desperately sought to be exonerated by the ethics body governing elected officials' professional conduct, a majority of sitting COELIG commissioners, 5-2, found sufficient evidence in the record to conclude that Klein kissed me without my consent.

This is textbook sexual harassment as defined by the New York State Human Rights Law. Yet astonishingly, a majority of commissioners also determined that, even with sufficient evidence of sexual harassment, Klein’s actions did not violate section 74(h) of the Public Officers Law, which reads: (3) An officer or employee of a state agency, member of the legislature or legislative employee should endeavor to pursue a course of conduct which will not raise suspicion among the public that he or she is likely to be engaged in acts that are in violation of his or her trust.

This is an unconscionable loophole in the law that Harassment Free NY and good government groups, including Reinvent Albany and Common Cause/NY, have been trying to close. It is outrageous that sexual harassment is not considered a violation of professional conduct for public officers. The same public officials who voted for the human rights law, which applies to everyone else, have carved out their own exemption from accountability for their professional conduct. This is blatantly corrupt and lawmakers must address this ASAP.

Here’s my statement (& 1 more post below) but here’s the gist: the NYS commission on ethics and the laws governing electeds’ ethics are still very deeply flawed.

Jeffrey Klein c/o Richard A. Portale, Esq. Portale Randazzo, LLP 245 Main Street, Suite 605 White Plains, New York 10601 RE: Case No. 18-015 Dear Mr. Klein: On December 30, 2019, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), the predecessor to the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (COELIG), notified you of a hearing to determine whether you violated Public Officers Law § 74(3)(h) by kissing staff member Erica vuside the simi siris colaryl, he healing as, id on she 900, 1, and 1,202. delays After reviewing the full hearing record and discussing the matter at length, the Commission voted not to issue a Substantial Basis Investigation Report and to close the case. Under Executive Law § 94(4)(h), the Commission may act only by a majority vote of its full membership. With an eleven-member Commission, six votes are required. Because the Commission currently has seven members, two "no" votes prevent a finding or an action. In this case, the Commission voted on two questions: 1. Is there sufficient evidence in the record to find that you kissed Ms. Vladimer, on April 1, 2015, without her consent; and 2. If there is sufficient evidence in the record to find that a single kiss occurred, and was immediately rejected by Ms. Vladimer, would that constitute a violation of Public Officers Law § 74(3)(h).

Both votes failed to achieve the required majority. Question 1: 5-2 vote [Yes: Vice Chair Ayers, Caraballo, Caras, Edwards, and Groenwegen; No: Austin and Chair James] Question 2: 2-5 vote [Yes: Chair James and Vice Chair Ayers; No: Austin, Caras, Caraballo, Edwards, and Groenwegen] Because neither question received the necessary six votes, the Commission will not issue a Substantial Basis Investigation Report. This matter is now closed. This decision should not be read as an approval of the way in which you handled the complaint. The record shows that you failed to comply with New York State Senate Harassment Policy requiring the reporting of this incident to designated independent Senate staff. However, this issue was not part of the allegations against you. Please be advised that, pursuant to 19 NYCRR Part 941.16, the Commission has determined that disclosure of this letter is in the public interest and, therefore, the letter will be disclosed to the public.

After almost 8 years, the NY Commission on Ethics has failed not just me, but government employees across the state.

I’m very felt so empty and pissed off all at once.

And yet the USDA would like to ‘completely deconstruct’ SNAP.

The cruelty is the point.

Oh wait, my dad just got in the phone to say they took Sauvignon blanc off the menu, too!

What is this world coming to?!??

TFW your sister calls from @chilis.bsky.social to relay the horror that they REMOVED SKILLET QUESO FROM THE MENU?!

Just…why?!

(And yes, this is a horror for someone with core memories made at my hometown chilis over skillet queso, judge me all you like.)

Re-upping my Epstein essay from August as new information emerges today.

Caution: disturbing descriptions of my and others’ sexual assaults.

Release all the damn files. This is the ultimate test of this nation’s useless partisanship.

I really enjoyed writing this - I hope you'll give it a read!

Today is a good day to remember, and to say, that the #MeToo movement was right, and was righteous, and has been vindicated over and over again. There was no overreach. There was no excess. There was no they-went-too-far.

So much work remains to be done.

I agree! But I don’t think the idea that this will end the danger of many people not being able to eat is true.

Chris Murphy: "There will be pretty substantial damage to a Dem brand that has been rehabilitated if on the heels of an election in which the people told us to keep fighting, we immediately stop... if we surrender without having gotten anything, I worry it'll be hard to get them back up off the mat"

So Democrats get:

1. A CR that will prevent the GOP from facing the wrath of Americans for a shutdown over the holidays

2. A coupon for one (1) meaningless ACA vote that will fail

3. An end to the illegal RIF/SNAP moves that are already before the courts

Those all seem like wins for the GOP.

Millions of Democratic voters on Tuesday: Fight these guys. Fight them.

Senate Democrats: We heard you loud and clear and we will give in

WHAT KIM SAID

Any Democrat voting for this bill is committing malpractice and does not deserve to hold office. Period.

And the Republicans will have a field day with this. “You see? It was the Dems all along who caused the shutdown.” What was any of this for if they cave now?

Idk, April, I think I disagree here. They won’t have the votes to pass any healthcare bill that comes up in December. People who can’t afford their premium spikes won’t be able to put food on the table. So we just…swap a few million starving people for new ones? How is this a win?

Very true. I wish the DSCC and DACC would get more involved. But they’ve (rightfully) written off the state committee as any type of partner, so there’s really no institutional support we can lean on at the moment.

To be fair, some of us have put our shoulder into finding a unifying candidate to run for chair. But when it’s an unpaid gig, and we don’t have access to other SCMs to build coalitions and work together (because of Jay), it’s a much slower process than it should be.

Screenshot of a tweet from NYT reporter Emma G. Fitzsimmons that says: Gov. Kathy Hochul, under a palm tree in Puerto Rico, is greeted with chants of “tax the rich” when she enters. “I hear you,” she says, adding that she’s the type of person who: “The more you push me, the less I’m going to do what you want.”

Because everyone told Hochul to get rid of him, and as Hochul said (PUBLICLY?!?!?) last night: “The more you push me, the less I’m going to do what you want.”

This is her M.O. across the board, political and policy-wise.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHH

A photo of Andrew Cuomo on TV standing at a podium surrounded by his daughters and son in law, with a red X over his face.

IYKYK…

“Tonight, New Yorkers sent an unmistakable message: we will not tolerate corruption, and we will not forget. “Over a year ago, Harassment-Free New York began reminding voters of who Andrew Cuomo really is—a corrupt ex-politician using our taxpayer dollars to wage legal warfare against the women he sexually harassed. Working alongside survivors and advocates, we made sure every voter understood what we've known all along: sexual harassment is the canary in the corruption coal mine.

“By rejecting Cuomo's comeback attempt and electing Zohran Mamdani, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers declared that sexual harassment is corruption—and we've had enough. “But our work is far from over. Cuomo is still using taxpayer funds to harass his victims while trying to silence others with a defamation suit. Cuomo and his team of enablers are the poster children of a system that has allowed corruption to flourish for far too long in New York.

“Tonight, we celebrate closing this absurd chapter—the chapter where Cuomo thought he could waltz back into the political arena as if nothing happened. The chapter where some people told us that threats and bullying and fear-mongering were acceptable in the name of ‘progress.’ Instead, New Yorkers spoke up, and proudly declared enough was enough. “Tomorrow, we get back to work. Harassment-Free New York will continue leading the fight to make every workplace, including the halls of government, a safe environments for everyone. Tonight's mandate gives us strength. And we're just getting started.”

New York City doesn't want a Mayor who sexually harasses his staff and the women he's supposed to represent.

New York City doesn't want a corrupt mayor.

Bye, Andrew 👋