Del. Jay Jalisi Responds To Ethics Committee Report Alleging 'Abusive Workplace Behavior'
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) — Del. Jay Jalisi was absent from the House session Tuesday in Annapolis, but did respond to a Maryland legislative ethics panel that has recommended he be reprimanded for "ongoing pattern of bullying and abusive workplace behavior."
A 16-page report from the Maryland General Assembly's Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics on Del. Jay Jalisi was delivered Monday to lawmakers.
Jalisi said he has been made a target of a "nasty smear campaign and a sham investigation by a powerful lobby in Annapolis," and that he has requested multiple times to be provided with an opportunity to be heard and to see copies of complaints against him.
The panel found repeated conduct that was "intimidating, degrading, disrespectful, and belligerent."
The ethics panel found that the Baltimore County Democrat forced his staff to work overtime and wouldn't sign their time cards.
The panel also found he would not let an employee go home on a snow day, when state employees were given liberal leave.
The report says the behavior took place over the last five years.
Panel Urges Maryland Lawmaker Be Reprimanded For Bullying
He said the delegates were instructed on Friday by the Speaker Pro Tem and the House Majority Leader to come an hour early for the session on Monday, March 25 where they were handed copies of the printed report.
"It almost seems that the Ethics Committee report was written even before the Committee hearing!" He said in a statement Tuesday.
He said in his statement that the Ethics Committee is defunding his staff's payroll,
"While I respect the Maryland General Assembly and am honored to have been re-elected as its member for a second term, it makes no sense for the Ethics Committee to defund my staff's payroll as a panacea to protect them from my alleged behavior. How does not paying my staff help them, or anyone?!!" He added.
He claims that no complaint has come from his personal staff who worked for him "day-in and day-out for months and years,"
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