New York City Councilmember Kalman Yeger was removed from his post as chair of the council’s Standards and Ethics Committee on Thursday. The group oversees the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board and investigates concerns about councilmembers’ conduct.

Yeger, an Orthodox Jewish lawyer who has represented parts of Brooklyn, including Borough Park and Midwood, since 2018, became chair of the Standards and Ethics Committee in 2022. 

At a press conference, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams declined to comment in detail about committee reassignments, but said part of the goal was to “get new energy.”

“With regard to committee changes, I get the impulse to speculate and try to figure it out,” said Adams, who is a Democrat. “It’s good to change things, it’s good to reorganize, it’s good to get new energy behind different desks.”

A Democrat, Yeger doesn’t always vote with the rest of his party. He is a member of the council’s “common-sense caucus,” a 9-member group composed mostly of Republicans. 

In 2019, Yeger was removed from the council’s Immigration Committee when he said “Palestine does not exist.” During the Covid-19 pandemic, he protested against lockdown measures in Orthodox neighborhoods alongside firebrand Republican Heshy Tischler. In 2022, he endorsed Lee Zeldin in the Republican primary for the New York gubernatorial election. Recently, he introduced legislation that would require the city to study the feasibility of offering tuition vouchers to families sending kids to private schools.

The new chair of the Standards and Ethics Committee is Councilmember Sandra Ung, a Democrat who represents parts of Queens. Yeger was not only removed as chair, but will no longer serve on the Standards and Ethics Committee at all. He will, however, serve as a member of several other committees, including the Oversight and Investigations Committee, the Public Safety Committee, and the Fire and Emergency Management Committee.

Yeger did not respond to messages from Shtetl on Thursday.

Representing another Haredi cmmunity, Councilmember Lincoln Restler, a Democrat whose district includes South Williamsburg, became chair of the Committee on Governmental Operations, State and Federal Legistlation.