Yonkers Councilwoman Tasha Diaz’s insulting remarks against a colleague were confirmed by a human resources investigation (Picture: Facebook/Tasha Diaz)
A New York council member who threatened a colleague by saying she would ‘slice this b***h’s throat’ has been let off with only a workplace training recommendation.
Tasha Diaz, who was the Democratic majority leader of the Yonkers City Council, made the slicing throat remark at Councilwoman Corazon Pineda-Isaac, the Human Resources Department confirmed two months after Pineda-Isaac filed a complaint.
Diaz made the comment after a January meeting during which Pineda-Isaac voted to remove her as majority leader. While Diaz was reelected at the time, the City Council voted her out of the leadership role during a special meeting on February 8.
But the same special meeting included a last-minute item which resulted in the City Council censuring Pineda-Isaac for secret recordings of Diaz that she used to prove her allegations.
Yonkers Councilwoman Tasha Diaz was removed from her majority leader role in February (Picture: Facebook/Tasha Diaz)
The recordings included Diaz allegedly saying to Pineda-Isaac: ‘You want to smirk and laugh, Corazon? Keep thinking that s*** is funny. I’ll f****g slap the taste out your mouth.’
A letter from Human Resources commissioner Carlos Moran obtained and shared by The Yonkers Ledger on Monday stated that Diaz’s commends did not appear to violate any federal or state anti-discrimination or harassment laws, but that they did violate the city’s Workplace Violence Prevention Policy.
‘HR concludes that the allegations regarding the comments made by Council Member Tasha Diaz after the January reorganizational meeting are substantiated in that they were threatening statements that had no professional justification,’ stated Moran.
‘As a result of the investigation, HR recommends that the following training be provided to all City Council elected officials and staff members.’
Tasha Diaz continues to serve on the Yonkers City Council (Picture: Facebook/Tasha Diaz)
Moran suggested ‘sensitivity/communication training’ and ‘workplace violence training’.
Diaz did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Metro.co.uk.
The Yonkers Ledger concluded: ‘Given the broad and non-binding nature of the two suggested remedies, it may appear that elected officials in Yonkers can behave outside of the bounds of not only municipal employees, but likely an employee of any private business as well.’
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