Metro

Time’s up! Shameful Shelly has got to go

The scathing reports that found Assemblyman Vito Lopez harassed and abused several female staffers, coming on top of the latest indictments of several allegedly corrupt lawmakers, show why, at long last, it’s time for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to resign.

Despite Silver’s repeated claims to be shocked, shocked, to learn of repeated cases of sexual harassment and abuse of women at the Capitol — even after those cases reached criminal levels in his own counsel’s office a decade ago — the reports confirm what has long been suspected: Silver is trying to hide from the public what may be the most sexually abusive workplace in the nation.

The most damning of the two reports came from Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, serving as a special prosecutor. It reads more like an indictment of Silver than a commentary on Lopez’s conduct.

Referring to Silver’s top aides who handled the first two of four harassment complaints leveled by Lopez’s employees, Donovan found that the main concern of Silver’s aides was “mitigating the Assembly’s damages’’ and not getting to the truth of the charges.

“That goal outweighed any interest in investigating or disciplining Assembly Member Lopez or in preventing similar occurrences in the future,” said Donovan.

Donovan said the controversial “confidentiality clause’’ that Silver claimed prevented him from notifying the Assembly’s Ethics Committee about the first two allegations against Lopez after two more women came forward with similar charges was agreed to by Silver at Lopez’s behest, not at the request of the two initial victims.

That clause not only hid from the public the serious allegations against Lopez, but, Donovan found, it “apparently encouraged him to continue the inappropriate conduct.’’

That, of course, makes Silver the enabler who allowed Lopez’s abuse of victims No. 3 and No. 4.

The second report, from the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, was restrained in criticisms that reflect on Silver — not surprising since three of its members are his appointees.

But the damning criticisms were there nonetheless.

Buried on page 66 of the report was the finding that “errors were made’’ by Silver’s staff “relating to the management and disposition of the complaints against Lopez.

“Among other things, the first two complaints against Lopez . . . were not referred promptly to the Assembly Ethics Committee,’’ and, what’s more, before the secret settlement agreement was reached, “there was no investigation into the allegations, nor were any other measures taken to protect Lopez’s female staff.’’

Translation: Donovan got it right when he said Silver & Co. were more interested in a coverup than they were in uncovering and disclosing the facts of Lopez’s behavior.

State GOP Chairman Ed Cox got it right when he bluntly declared that Silver was responsible for some of Lopez’s actions

“By silencing earlier victims of sexual abuse, both at the hands of [former Silver counsel] Michael Boxley and Vito Lopez, Speaker Silver is directly responsible for their subsequent victims,” Cox said.

“We repeat our call for Vito Lopez to resign from the state Assembly and for Sheldon Silver to resign the speakership,” Cox added.

At long last, it’s time for Silver to go.