By Jacob Kaye
City Council Speaker Julie Menin said Tuesday that the legislature’s ethics committee will expedite its inquiry into Islamophobic remarks made by City Councilmember Vickie Paladino, after the Queens Republican posted a fresh round of controversial comments online this week.
The Council’s Committee on Rules, Privileges, Elections, Standards and Ethics will soon wrap up its process questioning a December social media post made on Paladino’s personal account in which she called for the “expulsion of Muslims from Western nations,” the speaker said ahead of Tuesday’s Council meeting.
A Council spokesperson told the Eagle that the committee’s process includes an investigation, which could result in Paladino’s censure.
“The City Council has a very clear policy against harassment, which includes conduct away from the workplace as well as online and on social media,” Menin said in a statement to the Eagle. “Councilmember Paladino’s continued rhetoric is unacceptable and deeply Islamophobic. This deplorable, inflammatory conduct negatively affects Council employees and people across our city. New York City is the most diverse city in the world, and we will not tolerate behavior that targets or demeans any community based on their faith, background, or immigration status — particularly from our own members.”
“Accordingly, I am directing the Committee on Standards and Ethics to meet as soon as possible to conclude their process,” she added.
In a statement, Paladino defended her conduct, which has been decried by a number of her Council colleagues and by Muslim New Yorkers throughout the city.
“Regardless of any process, we feel we are on very firm First Amendment grounds and are not concerned,” Paladino said.
Menin’s orders came days after Paladino doubled down on the remarks, sending out a series of posts appearing to claim that Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, was orchestrating an Islamic takeover of the city. Paladino also reposted a number of messages claiming that Islam was an inherently violent religion.
The Queens lawmaker’s posts were sent at the start of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Muslim calendar.
Her posts have renewed calls for her censure in the Council, where members have been critical of former Speaker Adrienne Adams for not punishing Paladino for past remarks.
During a press conference ahead of Tuesday’s Council meeting, Menin said the ethics committee has a “very clear and strong process to address these issues.”
The initial inquiry into Paladino’s remarks began at the start of the year, when Menin first took office. Several weeks before the start of the legislative year, Paladino made several posts to X following the killing of 13 people at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia by a pair of gunmen.
In her posts, Paladino said Western governments should restrict Muslims from living within their borders. She also reposted a number of tweets expressing similar sentiments, including one that called on governments to “ban Islam.”
“We need to take very seriously the need to begin the expulsion of Muslims from western nations, or at the very least the severe sanction of them within western borders,” Paladino said in the post that she later deleted after Menin reportedly asked her to. “The administration needs to begin developing a formal legal framework for the denaturalization process and get it over with before we end up with another 9/11 or worse.”
A number of Paladino’s elected colleagues denounced the message at the time, including Queens City Councilmember Shekar Krishnan, who called the posts “absolutely disgusting.”