Ex-Lawmaker Conroy Fined for Payment to Staff Chief

A state agency has fined a former Orange County lawmaker $2,000 for using campaign funds to help his chief of staff after the Assembly docked the aide a week’s pay four years ago for violating its sexual harassment rules.

Former Assemblyman Mickey Conroy said Tuesday he decided to pay the fine levied by the Fair Political Practices Commission rather than absorb an even bigger financial hit in attorney fees to battle the commission.

“The system doesn’t allow you to fight,” said Conroy, a Republican from Orange. “You can either spend $40,000 to prove yourself innocent or pay a lot less and get on with life.”

The FPPC fine stems from a sexual harassment case that dogged Conroy during the final years of his tenure in Sacramento and was a key factor in his defeat during a 1996 run for an Orange County Board of Supervisors seat.

Conroy and his former chief of staff, Pete Conaty, were accused of sexual harassment by Robyn Boyd, a clerical worker who had been fired. After investigating Boyd’s claims, the Assembly Rules Committee found that Conroy and Conaty had violated the house’s sexual harassment rules.

The assemblyman was reprimanded, but Conaty was suspended from work for a week without pay.

With the aide in the middle of a costly divorce, Conroy decided to pay Conaty his salary out of campaign funds. Both said that the $1,152 was an advance on work the chief of staff later did for Conroy’s reelection campaign.

Boyd’s attorneys, however, didn’t see it that way and complained to the FPPC that Conroy was attempting to circumvent the fiscal punishment handed down by the Rules Committee.

In a staff report released Tuesday, the FPPC found that Conroy’s payment matched a week’s salary for Conaty and had effectively “thwarted the effort” by the Assembly Rules Committee to punish the aide.

Boyd said she was pleased by the FPPC’s recent fine of Conroy.

“I’m glad he was held accountable,” she said. “You just don’t see it that often in the world of politics. I hope this sends a message to our politicians that they’re not above the law, and they should be held to the same rules as the rest of us.”

Conroy, who is retired, said the FPPC initially sought a $4,000 fine, but his attorney persuaded the agency to cut it in half. Conaty, who is a Capitol lobbyist, did not return a call for comment.

Boyd also had filed a lawsuit against Conroy, Conaty and the Assembly. She claimed that she was fired for complaining about an office environment that included profanity, sexual innuendo and unwanted physical advances from her bosses. She also alleged that the Assembly, as an institution, failed to prevent harassment of its employees.

In May 1997, a jury rejected her sexual harassment and battery allegations, but found that she had suffered emotional distress and awarded her $386,000.

Attorneys for the Assembly fought the decision. Last July, the two sides settled for a $360,000 payment.

Conroy and Conaty denied all the allegations before, during and after trial, countering that Boyd had misconstrued events and blown matters out of proportion.