Follow the Rule, No Exceptions

Mickey Conroy, a state Assembly member from Orange County, has been accused of sexual harassment. While the merits of a lawsuit brought by a former aide will have to be decided in court, the legislator and his chief of staff already have been reprimanded, properly, by an Assembly committee for a procedural violation.

The harassment suit was brought by a woman who says the lawmaker kissed her several times, made repeated sexual comments and finally fired her after she complained.

Conroy has denied the allegations and without elaborating says that the assertions of his accuser, Robyn Boyd, arose from “unfortunate misunderstandings.”

The Assembly member, a Republican from Orange who represents one of the most solidly Republican districts in California, says his office has taken “immediate corrective action where appropriate.”

Pending the legal outcome, there has been a finding in this case in the area of Assembly policies and procedures. What happened, according to the Assembly Rules Committee, was that Conroy and his chief of staff, Pete Conaty, violated Assembly policy by not reporting Boyd’s sexual harassment charges to the state Equal Employment Opportunity counselor assigned to the Legislature. Conroy should have insisted on that, and he and Conaty have been disciplined privately as a result of a Rules Committee inquiry.

At a time of long-overdue sensitivity to sexual harassment issues, a spate of such allegations in the Capitol lately suggests that the problem will not just go away.

The Conroy case stands as reminder of the need for governmental officials at all levels to insist that proper reporting guidelines be followed in their offices whenever accusations are made, and for them to be held accountable for doing so.