While David gave the state high marks and said the administration has created a “safe space” for complainants, other observers are slower to clap. | AP Photo Sexual harassment in Albany: 6 years, a thousand complaints and more than $6.4M

ALBANY — A corrections officer systematically harassed at multiple jails. A legislative aide groped by a powerful Assembly member. A state worker belittled by a supervisor who sent her inappropriate videos.

They are three of the more than 1,000 people who have complained of sexual harassment in New York state government entities since 2012, according to court filings, payment records and official figures reviewed by POLITICO during a three-month investigation.


The cost to taxpayers for settlements involving sexual harassment or gender discrimination over that period is at least $6.4 million.

That includes 54 cases settled for a combined $5,552,880, according to records obtained from state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office; 18 out-of-court settlements tallied by Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, totaling $693,691; a $60,939 judgment by the state's Division of Human Rights; and a confidential and controversial $103,080 payment in 2012 for misconduct by former Assemblyman Vito Lopez.

And the $6.4 million does not include what agencies spent on legal defense, and excludes some major governmental entities that are not technically state agencies, like its court system and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — whose employees are not always represented by Schneiderman's office. It’s also possible that there were other confidential settlements about which POLITICO was unable to find records.

Allegations of sexual misconduct against state Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx) and Sam Hoyt, a former Assembly member and economic development official, have ignited a conversation in the Capitol that has raged around the country since news broke last fall about Harvey Weinstein’s decades of predatory behavior.

But as Albany talks about changing the rules for dealing with sexual harassment complaints, the scope and parameters of the problem are as labyrinthine as the sprawling state government itself: Budget Director Robert Mujica was unable to provide a figure when asked earlier this year by reporters. A spokeswoman for Schneiderman's office did not have a tally of the total payments, and a spokeswoman for DiNapoli said that New York's Statewide Financial System was not set up to track which judgments and payments arose from sexual harassment — they're simply lumped into a broader category for legal settlements.

State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), who said she was “floored” by the number of payments, says the existing system might not encourage reporting because employees feel there’s no separation between their bosses and the complaint investigators. Some aides who came forward in prior years have found their reporting hurt their careers.

“My gut is, at least for those who work for the Legislature or the executive, we have not set up a system that works," Krueger said. "It is not clear that they have anyone to go to but a person who reports to the head of the Senate, the Assembly or the executive. So by definition, that is a problematic model.”

State governments around the country are grappling with the scope of sexual harassment settlements as a result of greater awareness and the power of the #MeToo movement. Individuals have come forward in Florida, California and elsewhere to accuse powerful men in politics — lawmakers, lobbyists, fundraisers and state officials — of sexual misconduct.

In California, the state government paid more than $25 million over three years to settle sexual harassment claims, according to The Sacramento Bee. Taxpayers have funded at least $17 million in settlements for harassment in Congress, although that figure doesn’t include settlements paid out of the offices of individual lawmakers.

In Albany, lawmakers of both parties have proposed legislation that would restrict confidential settlements, end forced arbitration clauses and in some instances make elected officials or supervisors personally liable for any harassment awards. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed all three, and is hoping to standardize the procedures by which sexual harassment allegations are investigated. The Democratic governor has also said the state will seek information on the number of settlements reached by private companies contracting with the state.

Alphonso David, the governor’s counsel, said the administration already has taken major steps over the last seven years to address harassment, and said the number of complaints should be taken in the context of a state workforce of 132,000 employees and an annual budget that now exceeds $160 billion.

“I don’t want to objectively assign a grade level to that, but I would say that at this point, we are doing a good job of educating people of their rights and responsibilities,” David told POLITICO last week. “We would love for that number to be zero, and we are hoping as we progress over the next few years that we will continue to decrease the number of complaints that are substantiated. … But when you’re looking at all the claims that have been filed, when you’re looking at all the claims that have been adjudicated, it’s very few in context compared to the number of people who work for the state and the number of claims that have been filed.”

Multiple avenues to complain

The definition of sexual harassment is well-settled, but state employees with a grievance have multiple options to pursue. David pointed to a 2011 handbook, developed when he was Cuomo’s deputy secretary for civil rights, that now governs employees throughout the executive branch.

Most complaints are taken internally by the equal opportunity officer in each agency, who then handles discrimination claims according to a 10-step procedure that was developed by David and the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations. While individual agencies handle complaints, GOER has systematically tracked their outcomes since 2015.

Employees can also sue, in either state or federal court, or utilize quasi-judicial agencies like the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the state’s Division of Human Rights.

According to data provided by the Cuomo administration, 376 complaints alleging sexual harassment across 54 state agencies and authorities were filed in 2015, 249 in 2016 and 237 in 2017. (Data for the last week of that year have not yet been tallied.) Administration officials shared the complaint tallies in response to inquiries, but said GOER does not track complaints made in SUNY, CUNY, the MTA or the court system because they have separate governing boards. POLITICO requested complaint data for six years, to match the court records reviewed, but the administration said only data since 2015 could be easily tallied, due to record-keeping practices.

Of those, 94 were substantiated in 2015, 123 were substantiated in 2016, and 88 were substantiated in 2017. The agencies with the most complaints have large headcounts and run large institutions — they include the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, which oversees prisons; the Office of Mental Health, which runs psychiatric facilities; and the Office of Children and Family Services, which operates juvenile detention facilities.

There have been no complaints or sexual harassment settlements involving Cuomo’s closest aides in the Executive Chamber, David said.

“It’s not a coincidence that we do not have a single complaint filed in the chamber, because we have been focused on this,” he said. “We have a large government that we have to manage, and there’s a challenge making sure people feel comfortable, first coming forward and then we create a process that welcomes them if they feel that they’re the victim of any type of harassment and discrimination.”

EEOC data were not available. The administration provided data about sexual harassment cases before the state’s Division of Human Rights, which are available to employees in both the private and public sectors. According to an annual report, it received 6,128 complaints alleging all types of discrimination in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2017.

Investigators from the commission determine whether a complaint has probable cause, and if it does, a hearing before an administrative law judge determines a potential award — or rejects the claim. The ALJ’s recommendation must ultimately be adopted, modified or rejected by Commissioner Helen Foster.

According to Kevin Luibrand, a civil rights lawyer from Colonie who has been practicing for 34 years, the DHR is a popular venue for complainants and there are multiple opportunities for them to discreetly settle complaints with employers.

“It’s rare that they go to conclusion because the publicity is unwanted — certainly by the state officials but also by the complainants,” he said. “There’s a mutual interest there.”

David said there were 45 sexual harassment complaints filed with DHR against state agencies between 2015 and 2017, and another 19 against other state entities including SUNY and the Legislature. Forty-five of the 64 were dismissed for lack of probable cause or jurisdiction or withdrawn. Two were settled without monetary benefits, 13 are still under investigation, and three are being scheduled for a hearing.

The payments

Of the 64 complaints filed with DHR, just one resulted in a monetary settlement: $60,939 was awarded last year to Patricia Shingledecker, a clerk who worked at three prisons in Western New York. She complained after witnessing a female clerk perform what amounted to a “lap dance” on a male supervisor and other sexually charged interactions, according to the settlement record. She charged that her supervisor retaliated against her when she complained.

David said there have been no other settlements involving state agencies arising from DHR complaints within the last three years.

There have been far more settlements involving court cases. Schneiderman’s office sent POLITICO 961 pages of court records — the subject of recent reports in the New York Daily News and Newsday — for settlements arising from “agreements or judgments in cases involving claims for gender discrimination, discrimination based on sexual orientation, sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and/or sexual assault, arising in an employment or academic context.”

The details of these cases are public court records. Most were handled in federal court, and many of the settlements involved SUNY and CUNY employees.

The largest court settlement — about $730,000 — disclosed by the attorney general’s office went to a woman who worked at the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

Her complaint alleges that coworkers made anonymous phone calls to her desk while at Sullivan Correctional Facility making comments such as “Are your knees dirty yet?” Voice messages accusing her of adultery were left on her home phone. Unused condoms were placed in her lunch box. Fellow officers made bets over who she would sleep with.

She complained of the behavior and it was substantiated, but no action was taken. The female officer transferred to Auburn, which she was warned was a “good ol' boy” jail, to be closer to her family. At Auburn she experienced further harassment, and after complaining again, no action was taken. She transferred again — and one of the officers who was involved followed her.

The second-largest settlement, for $545,000, was reached with Victoria Burhans and Chloe Rivera — two former aides to Lopez, a one-time power broker who chaired the Assembly’s housing committee as well as the Brooklyn Democratic Party.

In court papers, Burhans alleged that Lopez rubbed her thighs, suggested they take a “naked” romp in the “Lincoln Bedroom” and said Lopez suggested she have sex with a Cuomo administration staffer to advance legislation.

The allegations surfaced after former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver authorized a $103,800 confidential settlement in connection with another set of allegations by different women. The state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics faulted the Assembly’s handling of the incident, and the Legislative Ethics Commission fined Lopez more than $300,000.

A woman hired for disaster response by the Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Services was shown pictures and sent email and video attachments that were “sexual in nature” by her supervisor, according to a complaint she filed in 2014. When she reported the harassment, her hours were reduced and she was told not to take on any work in the disaster operations unit directed by that supervisor.

The male supervisor then verbally harassed her at a New York City hotel while she was working on the response to Hurricane Sandy. A formal state investigation substantiated her complaints, but she was not informed of any action taken against the man who harassed her.

She received no work assignments and was eventually terminated by the department. The case was settled by the attorney general’s office for $150,000 including attorney’s fees.

After the Lopez affair, David said, the administration adopted a policy against entering into confidential settlements. But other parts of the government did not.

According to records that DiNapoli’s office started keeping in 2013, state entities reached 18 out-of-court settlements totaling $693,691 in the last five years. All but two of them were for SUNY or CUNY. The state’s Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services reached a $2,200 settlement in 2014, and the state Senate paid $82,100 in 2016.

The comptroller’s office has little information about the circumstances that prompted the settlements — it could not say if they were related to sexual harassment or some other type of discrimination — and redacted the payee.

A spokesman for OASAS, Jonah Bruno, said the agency’s payment had nothing to do with sexual harassment and was related to a DHR complaint from a woman who said she was improperly transferred from Long Island to Brooklyn.

Scott Reif, a spokesman for Republicans who control the state Senate, refused to release any details about the $82,100 payment. According to DiNapoli’s files, the payment did not involve a complaint against an elected official.

Other agencies

The information provided by GOER is not comprehensive, and Cuomo is pushing to bring all state entities — including both houses of the Legislature, Schneiderman's and DiNapoli’s offices, and local governments — under a uniform reporting procedure.

Reif declined to release any details about the number of complaints in the state Senate, or how many were substantiated, saying they were “personnel matters.”

Mike Whyland, a spokesman for Democrats who dominate the State Assembly, said there have been four substantiated allegations of sexual harassment since the Lopez affair, involving former Assembly members Dennis Gabryszak, Angela Wozniak, Micah Kellner and Steve McLaughlin. All were censured.

Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas (D-Queens), the current chairwoman of the chamber’s ethics committee, said the state’s civil rights law prohibits her from saying if any unsubstantiated complaints have been filed.

Schneiderman’s office policy, issued in 2012, created a special committee to investigate workplace harassment and has a broader definition than what is required in state law. According to Schneiderman spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick, there have been 13 harassment complaints filed there over the last five years — seven of which were substantiated. There were no settlement payments or harassment litigation.

A spokeswoman for DiNapoli's office also said there were no payments or litigation stemming from sexual harassment. Three internal complaints were filed in 2013, one in 2014, one in 2016 and two in 2017. In the three cases in 2013, the employees were counseled or disciplined, spokeswoman Jennifer Freeman said, and the 2014 complaint was determined to be unfounded. In the 2016 and 2017 complaints, the employees were counseled after the OSC determined that the complaints didn’t warrant a full investigation.

A welcome culture?

While David gave the state high marks and said the administration has created a “safe space” for complainants, other observers are slower to clap.

Patricia Smith of the National Employment Law Project said it was difficult to say if the number of complaints — and their rate of substantiation — was high or low, but that strong public-sector unions are an important variable.

“In my experience over the years, complaints are often higher in unionized workplaces … because people feel safer to complain,” Smith said. “You often see higher complaints in unionized workplaces.”

Late last year, the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women set up a hotline to take complaints.

“We know that people are very reticent to report,” NOW-NY President Sonia Ossorio told POLITICO in November. “Certainly in New York we’ve had our fair share here, and we wanted to do the hotline to give a platform for women in politics to speak out, as women in Hollywood have been doing.”

In and around the Capitol, there is a sense that the old way of dealing with — or not dealing with — issues of harassment and discrimination belongs to another time.

“Clearly this is a moment we have to capitalize on. People have understood now that sexual harassment in the workplace is more prevalent than anyone had ever thought of,” Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said recently on WNYC. “We know that a lot of times we didn’t know because nobody was saying. There would be checks cut, there would be things that were very quietly taken care of. We are sure it is in the millions, but the sad part about the way it is now, you really didn’t have to tell.”

Thomas Pudney contributed to this report.

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