MIDTOWN — Mayor Bill de Blasio continued to support his embattled aide Rachel Noerdlinger Wednesday.
When asked at a press conference about DNAinfo New York's story that Noerdlinger owes $900 in unpaid parking tickets and that eight of the nine summonses were received after she began her job as chief of staff to First Lady Chirlane McCray, de Blasio once again came to her defense.
"I know a lot of people who have a lot of parking tickets," de Blasio said after an unrelated press conference in front of the Empire State Building. "Everyone should pay their parking tickets."
The Finance Department said Noerdlinger has set up a payment plan to resolve the tickets.
"I have faith in her work as a public servant," de Blasio said. "I think she's doing very good work for this city."
Noerdlinger, a former aide to the Rev. Al Sharpton, came into the public spotlight after DNAinfo first reported that she lived with boyfriend Hassaun McFarlan, who has manslaughter and drug trafficking convictions, and called police "pigs" on Facebook.
DNAinfo also first reported that Noerdlinger failed to disclose that she lived with McFarlan and his criminal history on Department of Investigation background check forms before she was hired.
After the DOI said she had no "intent to deceive" and cleared Noerdlinger, who could have faced the loss of her $170,000-a-year job, de Blasio declared the "case closed."
DNAinfo also reported that Noerdlinger was busted by police in a car driven by McFarlan that was on the wrong side of the road and filled with the smell of marijuana with an underage passenger in the back seat, according to a police report.
Noerdlinger was issued a summons for allowing the unlicensed McFarlan to drive her Mercedes-Benz.
McCray was with the mayor at the press conference about domestic violence awareness, but she has not taken questions at her last two public apperances.