Job application of controversial City Council aide, redacted
Segal's application. New York City Council via FOIL
11:47 am Jun. 18, 2012
When the New York Post reported in April that a spokesman for City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez had been arrested seven years earlier for throwing a flaming rag into an army recruitment center, one immediate question was raised: What did Rodriguez know and when did he know it?
The spokesman, David Segal, told the Observer after his firing that he had checked the box on his application indicating he had been convicted of a crime, but Rodriguez said he was unaware of Segal's conviction. (In the original Post story, an attorney for the Council defended Segal's hiring, suggesting it would have been illegal to discriminate based on that conviction.)
The incident subsequently took an odd series of turns when Rodriguez fired Segal after the first story, then rehired him. Then, later fired him permanently.
During that back and forth, I sent a Freedom of Information Law request for Segal's employment application to see how he described his arrest when he applied for a job at the Council.
Today, the Council sent me Segal's application, which shows that he did check the box indicating he was convicted of a crime, though it's unclear exactly how he described the incident. The following section—which says "if yes, explain"—was redacted.
