ALBANY (TNS) —A top aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul has resigned following claims he sexually harassed a male co-worker in an Albany bar last month.

Hochul’s office confirmed Monday that Avi Small, the governor’s press secretary, resigned late last week as the Independence Day holiday weekend began. News of the complaint against Small had been made public just days prior, and Small had been placed on leave while an investigation into the incident was ongoing.

The incident is alleged to have occurred at McGeary’s, a favorite destination in Albany’s political scene, after a June 16 softball game involving current and former staff members from the governor’s office.

That night, Small and a group of colleagues had sat at an outside table for much of the evening.

A private outside law firm, WilmerHale, conducted the investigation and concluded its work last week. Another firm the executive chamber previously had on retainer for four years, Calcagni Kanefsky, has also conducted prior workplace investigations for the governor’s office.

Small resigned just prior to the conclusion of WilmerHale’s investigation, which was “substantively complete” as of Friday afternoon, according to the governor’s office.

Small had been investigated for other workplace conduct issues for months leading up to the June 16 incident, the Gothamist reported last week.

He was placed on leave June 25 after the complaint was filed. Executive chamber employees can submit anonymous complaints regarding harassment or misconduct through an external reporting mechanism, a policy Hochul implemented after taking office in the midst of a sexual harassment scandal that had engulfed Andrew M. Cuomo.

In a statement following the initial investigation, Hochul’s communications director Anthony Hogrebe said the governor has “zero tolerance” for misconduct by any state government employee.

When Hochul took office in 2022, she vowed to run her administration with a heightened focus on preventing workplace sexual misconduct after the resignation of Cuomo, who had faced numerous sexual harassment allegations that led to his resignation in August 2021. Cuomo has since waged a fierce legal battle attempting to discredit the women who accused him of misconduct and has denied sexually harassing anyone.

Hochul has repeatedly cited the toxic work environment in the executive chamber during Cuomo’s administration and deployed a new infrastructure to address workplace harassment internally, including implementing required employee relations training and ensuring that workers have an external mechanism to file complaints.

Several years ago, Hochul created a human resources department that tracks employee compliance with mandatory training that covers discrimination, harassment and retaliation. It also launched a sexual harassment hotline that allows state government employees to file complaints with the state Division of Human Rights.

She also signed legislation banning the release of someone’s personnel files in retaliation for the filing of a harassment or misconduct accusation, her office said.

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