Sheldon Silver (Joe Larese / The Journal News)
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ALBANY — A lawmaker who dared to bring up the sexual- harassment-cover-up scandal surrounding Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was silenced yesterday during a debate on a sweeping bill to give women more rights and protections.
Westchester Assemblyman Steve Katz was admonished and stopped from bringing up the topic of Silver and the secret settlement he approved for pervy ex-pol Vito Lopez, who was accused of sexually harassing as many as eight women on his staff.
“They shut my microphone off when I spoke about Shelly Silver and the scandal,” Katz (R-Yorktown) told The Post afterward.
During the debate, when Katz started to talk about “a legislative body that has protected and supported a speaker with 12 years history of enabling . . .” Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Jeffrion Aubry (D-Queens) cut him off.
“We are constrained in our remarks to talk about the bill that is before us . . . Other issues relative to the operation of the house or other issues are not in order when addressing a bill,” Aubry said.
Katz replied, “I think this has an awful lot to do with this bill, Mr. Speaker, and I would like to complete what I have to say.”
When he was again denied, Katz, who has four daughters, sniped, “Let’s let all the questions and all the issues that we’ve all been hearing from constituents around the state stay quiet and silent while we all go about our business as if nothing is wrong here.”
Aubry said Katz had the right to free speech off the Assembly floor — where the livestream isn’t running — but on the floor, talk is limited to the scope of the bill, which directly addresses sexual harassment in the workplace.
“Nobody had their mike cut off. Let’s be real,” Silver snapped when asked about it at a news conference following the vote.
The bill, proposed by Gov. Cuomo, calls for guaranteeing pay equity, curbing human trafficking, protections to prevent discrimination against domestic-violence victims, and a “zero tolerance” sexual-harassment policy.
Before the floor debate, Silver — who wields immense power after nearly 20 years as speaker — even got to Republican Assembly leaders, who reportedly told their members not to bring up the topic of Vito or Shelly, several lawmakers said.
“We were essentially told to stick to the bill,” Katz said.
Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb called the report “completely erroneous.”
After the vote, women’s groups stood behind Silver and praised him for bringing all 10 points of the bill to the floor, including a controversial abortion provision to bring state line in line with federal law should Roe v. Wade be overturned.
Asked how they could support Silver after the way he handled the sexual harassment cases, AFL-CIO spokesman Suzy Ballantyne said, “This isn’t germane to the conversation.”