The New York City Council\u2019s standards and ethics committee voted Monday to charge Council Member Vickie Paladino for Islamophobic remarks she\u2019s made on social media over the past few months.<\/p>\n
The disciplinary process remains in motion. Jack Lobel, a spokesperson for City Council Speaker Julie Menin, said that the council\u2019s Committee on Rules, Privileges, Elections, Standards and Ethics specifically charged Paladino with \u201cengaging in disorderly behavior and violating the council\u2019s anti-harassment and discrimination policy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The firebrand Queens Republican will now have five days to provide a written response. From there, she\u2019ll be scheduled to appear before the committee in a closed door, executive session in the coming weeks to continue disciplinary proceedings. It\u2019s not immediately clear what sort of tangible consequences may be brought against Paladino upon the conclusion of the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s disciplinary process is largely carried out by the nine member standards and ethics committee,<\/a> which has the power to recommend sanctions like censure, fines or most seriously, expulsion. Any final verdict would ultimately need to be approved by two-thirds of the 51-member City Council.<\/p>\n Paladino did not immediately respond to a request for comment prior to publication. She argued last week the City Council couldn\u2019t punish her, after Menin said she had directed the standards and ethics committee to address Paladino\u2019s comments. \u201cAs an elected official and an American, have an absolute first amendment right to speak on these matters of public policy in any way I see fit. Period,\u201d Paladino said in a lengthy defense on X.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n The ruling comes in wake of the committee\u2019s vote<\/a> in December to look into Paladino\u2019s social media conduct after she posted a string of Islamophobic rhetoric<\/a> on her X account, including one that said Muslims should be expelled from Western nations. While the posts drew a wave of criticism<\/a> from her fellow council members, Muslim groups and other elected officials, Paladino has repeatedly doubled down on the remarks, claiming she has a right to free speech. She\u2019s continued firing off other controversial tweets that have drawn outcry, including one<\/a> describing a photo of Mayor Zohran Mamdani praying with Muslim sanitation workers as \u201cpart of Islamic conquest\u201d and about \u201cdismantling the country as it was founded.\u201d<\/p>\n Paladino is known for her provocative, often offensive rhetoric on social media. And she\u2019s had a long history of generating controversy. In June, she used her account to call for the deportation of Mamdani, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Uganda. While former Speaker Adrienne Adams booted her<\/a> from the City Council\u2019s Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addiction in 2023 for disparaging comments she made against the LGBTQ+ community, and later knocked her down to six committee placements, she has never been formally censured. At least not yet. The standards and ethics committee\u2019s latest vote is the furthest formal disciplinary action has been taken against her.<\/p>\n There\u2019s some precedent for the committee censuring council members, but most investigations have involved alleged ethical misconduct instead of offensive speech. Then-Council Member Andy King for example was censured in 2019<\/a> after the committee concluded that he\u2019d harassed a female staffer, retaliated against whistleblowers and misused taxpayer funds. (King was later expelled from the council)<\/a>. However former City Council Member Rub\u00e9n D\u00edaz Sr. was stripped from chairing a committee overseeing for-hire vehicles in 2019 for homophobic comments<\/a>, and former City Council Member Kalman Yeger was removed from the immigration committee for saying Palestine doesn\u2019t exist<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n After getting elected speaker in January, Menin said she only assigned Paladino to two committees, which she attributed to Paladino\u2019s conduct on social media. The Republican council member claimed that she\u2019d only wanted to serve on the two committees, but later bashed the speaker<\/a> in a radio interview for calling her out in front of the press. Menin for her part has said the council needs a \u201cfar stronger\u201d standards and ethics committee, and promised to make that a priority, along with strengthening the body\u2019s harassment policy.<\/p>\n