‘He had some boundary issues’
Village of New Paltz official describes interactions with Rodriguez, says he’s making effort to improve
The village of New Paltz’s deputy mayor said Thursday that she is among a number of women who have been made to feel uncomfortable by Ulster County Legislator Hector Rodriguez’s behavior toward them.
“Early on in our relationship, he had some boundary issues,” Tobin in a phone interview. She described interactions including a hug “that went too long,” a compliment she called inappropriate to make to a married woman, and some instances where he got “too close for comfort” in what she felt was an invasion of her personal space.
Tobin said that while, at the time, she didn’t consider the legislator’s actions to be sexual harassment, listening to stories from other women and looking back through the lens of the #MeToo movement, she now sees a pattern of behavior that suggests his actions were just that.
“Being on the other end of it, I didn’t think of it as sexual harassment at the time,” she said. “I think we’re looking at it dif-
ferently now.”
In addition to her own experience, Tobin said, she had heard from women who felt that Rodriguez, D-New Paltz, used his position as county legislator to pursue women and would shut them out if they rejected him.
“It’s not just the touching,” Tobin said. “It’s what happens because of the touch.”
She said she doesn’t consider Rodriguez’s actions
towards her or others to be sexual assault, but she hedged when asked if they could be considered sexual abuse.
“I would say that chronic sexual harassment, some people might consider abuse,” she said.
On Jan. 30 — several weeks after Rodriguez withdrew his name from consideration for the chairmanship of Legislature and amid a growing number of stories spreading within the community from women who said he had behaved inappropriately toward them — Tobin said she and others sat Rodriguez down for an intervention
of sorts. She said town of New Paltz Councilman Daniel Torres also attended that meeting, along with a number of other community leaders she declined to identify.
“I’d been thinking a lot about how the #MeToo phenomenon has been transpiring and how men who have been getting called out aren’t taking ownership,” she said. “I felt that if there was going to be something like this in my community, as a community leader, I felt it was important to say, ‘There’s another way, to listen, to be contrite, to make amends,’” she said. “We need
men to step up and say this is toxic and harmful.
Tobin said Rodriguez “did a lot of listening” at the meeting, and that while she doesn’t believe he yet fully understands all he’s been accused of, he has vowed to work to change his behaviors.
“He’s walking the walk,” she said. “He’s making good on his promise.”
Eight days after that meeting, on Feb. 7, Rodriguez announced he would not run for a 10th two-year term as a county legislator. And six days after that, on Wednesday, he issued an apology on Facebook
for communicating with women in a way that “made them uncomfortable.”
“I am sorry. I offer no excuse, nor any defense,” he wrote.
Rodriguez has not returned telephone calls or text messages from the Freeman. In an interview with Hillary Harvey that aired Wednesday on Radio Kingston (WKNY-AM), before Rodriguez posted his apology on Facebook, he said he was aware of the allegations against him but unsure of many of the specifics.
“I’m largely here to listen,” Rodriguez told Harvey, “but it’s also a thing where ...
I’m interested in finding out if and how I’ve hurt people.
“I still don’t even know some of the definitive things, [but] if my actions have ever hurt anybody, clearly I want to correct the behavior,” he added.
In his Wednesday post on Facebook, Rodriguez wrote: “I have a great deal of work in front of me. I am working with a few women friends to help me understand how to move forward. I am committed to listening, to apologize for what I’ve done, but to also use a restorative justice process if the people I’ve hurt or have offended wish to.”