Rachel Noerdlinger has a powerful job at City Hall, serving as Chief of Staff to the First Lady Chirlane McCray and a top advisor to the mayor. She was also the Rev. Al Sharpton's top aide for years, and she's often described as smart and thorough.
But her personal life has roiled some city officials, and this week, the Department of Investigation (DOI) looked into whether she lied on paperwork about her controversial live-in boyfriend, who was convicted of manslaughter when he was 15. He has also written angry, derogatory things about police.
But late Friday, top city officials said Noerdlinger never intentionally did anything wrong.
"As DOI seems to conclude, there was no deliberate attempt to mislead or distort," press secretary Phil Walzak said. "There is no need for further action."
The mayor has defended Noerdlinger and said you don't fire someone because of what their boyfriend did, but the police union president has called for Noerdlinger to resign. And detectives union president Michael Palladino called it serious that noerdlinger failed to disclose in official paperwork her controversial relationship.
"It is a horrible omission if it is, in fact, true," Citizens Union Foundation executive director Dick Dadey said. "And you have to ask the question why was it left off? Was there a deliberate attempt to deceive and to not fully report?"
And Good Governments Group questioned whether Noerdlinger's connection to Sharpton, who is close to the mayor, may have affected the whole thing.
"This is a classic example of where someone close to and a friend of the mayor is being protected," Dadey said.
City Hall officials say the mayor and his wife still have full confidence in Noerdlinger and that her job is safe.
"Rachel has been a leader in this town on issues like social justice and civil rights and ending income inequality," Walzak said. "And that mission continues."
The Police Benevolent Association feels otherwise.
"The double standard is alive and well in the de Blasio administration-one standard for the elite at City Hall and another for the rank and file workers," PBA president Pat Lynch said in a statement.