Where was Lafazan?

                                                                             

Nassau Legislature today as police officers are honored. Josh Lafazan seat, second chair from the far right,  is empty.

Democratic Legis. Josh Lafazan of Woodbury earns $81,125 from Nassau County.

In two weeks, his salary jumps to $84,370.

Pretty good pay for a part-time job.

Yet Lafazan seldom shows up for his official county duties, such as attending county legislative sessions, even though they are generally held only twice a month.

While he was running unsuccessfully for Congress this year, Lafazan was nowhere to be seen at the meetings as he attended "remotely"  because of the coronavirus pandemic. Oddly, Covid-19 didn't prevent him from appearing in person at news conferences or other events, even events he hosted in legislative offices, according to his own social media posts.

Today, Lafazan held a 10:30 a.m. news conference at the legislature to call on Republicans to cut red light camera fees -- a move he helped block last year when Republicans proposed it.

                                                                                  

Lafazan in middle

Then Lafazan disappeared. Although the legislatures' last meeting of the year began at 1 p.m. Lafazan was nowhere to be seen.

Police and firefighters were honored. But not by Lafazan.

He strolled in an hour late.

While he was gone, however, he was "available over zoom, over phone, or in person" for reporter interviews about  the winner of the Congressional 3rd District race, Republican George Santos.

The New York Times today said they could not verify public informaton about Santos background.

Lafazan, who came in third in the Democratic primary for the Congressonal seat despite spending more than any of his Democratic opponents, today tweeted a demand that Santos resign.

                                                                                

Remember that Lafazan didn't disclose a "student loan" of more than $50,000 on his county disclosures for two years. He promoted himself during the Congressional campaign with a county-paid mailing, skirting a ban on county mailings 45 days before a county election.

He received more than $700,000 in campaign support from a PAC essentially funded by former cybersecurity titan Sam Bankman-Fried, who has been charged with diverting billions of dollars of investor dollars in his FTX cryptocurrency exchange to fund personal expenses and illegal campaign donations.

 Lafazan was never "available by zoom, by phone or in person" for questions about those subjects.

No answers so far on why he was late today.