Council Ethics Commitee opts to look into Paladino’s anti-Muslim rhetoric

The New York City Council Committee on Standards and Ethics voted Thursday to look into the conduct of Republican Council Member Vickie Paladino over Islamophobic remarks she made on social media last weekend, according to a source familiar with the discussions. 

The five-member committee voted to do so on the day of the last full council meeting of the year, meaning any investigation into Paladino’s conduct will likely be overseen by a newly formed ethics committee under the new council led by presumptive Speaker Julie Menin. A spokesperson for the speaker’s office said that the next ethics committee will likely not need to vote again in the new session to reopen the matter.  

Paladino declined to comment because it was her understanding that “nothing had happened” as a result of Thursday’s ethics committee meeting. It was also her understanding that the committee had “disbanded” with the end of session and ahead of the appointment of new committee members come January. 

Paladino is known for her provocative, often offensive rhetoric on social media, but her statements over the weekend were even more widely condemned than usual. “We’re in the midst of a global jihad the likes of which the world has never seen, and we cannot ignore it,” Paladino wrote in response to a deadly antisemitic terror attack targeting a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia. “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.” That tweet garnered a wave of criticism from many of her colleagues, including outgoing City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. While Paladino eventually deleted the post on Monday afternoon after Menin asked her to do so, she doubled down on the offensive rhetoric throughout the week. In an op-ed published Wednesday in the Queens Jewish Link, Paladino called for mass deportations of “radical Muslims and those who support them” and the development of a legal framework for denaturalization. 

“There is no grounds for censure,” Paladino told reporters on Thursday. “Is the ethics committee now in the business of regulating political speech of council members? If so, then I’m going to have a lot of complaints of my own to file. They can call me Islamophobic if they want – the word has no meaning whatsoever. This isn’t 2008.” She didn’t clarify what she meant by the 2008 reference.

At the stated meeting Thursday, Council Member Shahana Hanif, one of the body’s two Muslim members, tearfully condemned Paladino’s words and called for her to be “expelled, or at the very least, censured.” “A member of this body continues to dehumanize people,” Hanif said. “The leniency of this body emboldens her hateful rhetoric that puts New Yorkers in danger … so I ask you, where do we draw the line?”

Council Minority Leader Joann Ariola defended Paladino in the chamber. “There is a reason that we have free speech enshrined in our Constitution, and that’s to protect us from government retaliation, punishment and censorship. It would be the height of hypocrisy for members of this council … to call out a council member … for punishment for exercising their right to free speech.”

Several members have expressed frustration with council leadership, arguing that not enough disciplinary action has been taken against Paladino and other council members that have garnered controversy over the last four years. Last week, the Ethics Committee officially decided not to censure Republican Council Member Inna Vernikov for bringing a gun to a peaceful protest in 2023. According to the Daily News, City Council Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala said the committee voted to not take the matter further to avoid it spilling out into next year. 

A spokesperson for the speaker’s office said that “neither the speaker nor the speaker’s office determines official disciplinary decisions” against council members. “As democratically elected officials, council members in violation of Council rules must be disciplined by a vote of their colleagues, with the initial decision made by a vote of the Committee on Standards and Ethics,” they said in a statement. “It is the committee’s responsibility to initiate investigations and decisions related to the discipline of Council members and it must hold all accountable to the rules.” 

Paladino herself has a long history of generating controversy. While Speaker Adams booted her from the City Council’s Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addiction in 2023 for disparaging comments she made against the LGBTQ community, she’s never been formally censured.

“Everyone has seen Vickie’s hateful speech take place for four years. There’s a frustration in the council that the Speaker didn’t take this head-on early,” Council Member Keith Powers said. “The failure to address this over the last four years has resulted in an action being taken only now when it’s too late – and a culture where this type of speech was permissible without consequence.”