NYCERS Employee Can't Clear Name About Affair; ALJ Concluded She Lied
By TOMMY HALLISSEY
An Administrative Law Judge refused to clear the name of an Associate Staff Analyst at the New York City Employees' Retirement System who was demoted after having an affair with the system's top official.

JOHN MURPHY: Affair still reverberating.

Androniki Browne, whom NYCERS hired in 1998 as a Human Resources Generalist, rose up the ranks to Director of Administrative Services by January 2004, just as her affair blossomed with Executive Director John Murphy.

Prior to her promotion, rumors began to circulate that she was having an affair with Mr. Murphy, according to the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings. Both of them were married at the time.

Denied They Were Involved

Deputy Executive Director Milton Aron and General Counsel Karen Mazza testified they approached Ms. Browne about the rumors, and she denied them.

The affair between Mr. Murphy and his subordinate was exposed in a June 2004 anonymous letter to the NYCERS Board of Trustees. "The letter complained that [Ms. Browne] and John Murphy 'have been having an affair for more than two years' and that [Ms. Browne] had been promoted to Director of Administrative Services to compensate her for 'sexual favors,''' wrote Administrative Law Judge John B. Spooner on Aug. 26.

The letter, written by a "longtime NYCERS employee," also accused Ms. Browne and Ms. Mazza of conspiring to hire a mutual friend, Felita Baksh, as Director of Human Resources by altering her resume, according to OATH. The Department of Investigation looked into the change and interviewed Ms. Browne and Mr. Murphy, who both admitted in July 2004 that their affair began in December 2001. The DOI report recounted statements of various NYCERS employees who said they saw Mr. Murphy grab Ms. Browne in an elevator and kiss her and observed "tickling scenes" between the pair.

An Inappropriate Relationship

In March 2005, the DOI issued a report that concluded Ms. Browne's and Mr. Murphy's romance violated the NYCERS Code of Conduct, which prohibited relationships between supervisors and their subordinates. Mr. Murphy resigned his job that month.

In May 2005, the Conflicts of Interest Board found that no formal enforcement proceedings were warranted.

'Planted Untruths'

In June 2005, Mr. Aron presented Ms. Browne with an evaluation of her work as Director of Administrative Services. On a scale of 1 to 5, Ms. Browne scored 4 or 5 in every subcategory, but overall was given a 1 because she had "planted untruths within the managerial team regarding her romantic relationship with Mr. Murphy," according to OATH. He also told more than two dozen employees that he demoted Ms. Browne because she lied about the affair.

Ms. Browne brought a civil suit to clear her name because the record failed to show her demotion was "arbitrary and capricious." It was dismissed by a Brooklyn court and affirmed by the Appellate Division.

The OATH hearing centered around whether Ms. Browne lied to Mr. Aron when she said she was not having an affair with her supervisor. ALJ Spooner referred to a June 28, 2005 letter from Ms. Browne in response to the allegations of impropriety that indicated she denied the affair to Mr. Aron three years earlier when it had been going on for several months.

"I denied my relationship with Mr. Murphy only in the context of personal conversations between myself and anyone else inside or outside of NYCERS," Ms. Browne wrote. "At no time did Mr. Aron, ever ask me, in his capacity as Deputy Executive Director of NYCERS, whether I was involved with Mr. Murphy. In fact, the only time I denied my relationship with Mr. Murphy to Mr. Aron was during a private, personal conversation which took place approximately three years ago, well before Mr. Aron had offered me the position of Director of Administrative Services."

'Implausible' Omission

This meant her conversation with Mr. Aron took place in June 2002, six months after when she said her affair with Mr. Murphy began. "It seems highly implausible that, if [Ms. Browne] knew that her denial to Mr. Aron occurred before the romance began, she would not have included this fact in her letter as further proof that her demotion was a 'personal vendetta' by Mr. Aron," wrote ALJ Spooner.

Ultimately, he had trouble believing Ms. Browne. Her "extraordinary account of embarking upon an intimate relationship with Mr. Murphy only days after indignantly denying rumors of such a relationship to Mr. Aron, apparently without any further consideration or reservations, seemed implausible," he wrote.

Mr. Spooner denied a request to expunge remarks in her evaluation that she lied about this relationship with Mr. Murphy.