Public advocate Letitia James is often absent from the office for hours to attend personal appointments and political events, according to seven months of her schedules reviewed by the Daily News.
Between January and July, James’ schedule, obtained through the Freedom of Information Law, indicated that she was “out of the office” for long stretches of the afternoon or for a full day about three to five times a month, starting in February.
In February, she was out of the office four full days in one week. During that time, aides said, she was attending events or appointments “outside of her official government capacity” as public advocate. That could mean meeting her nieces and nephews for lunch, taking care of personal appointments or attending political fund-raisers or doing work from home, a spokesman explained.
Some personal appointments also appear on her official schedule: James enjoyed a 90-minute deep-tissue massage on Saturday, May 17, at a Fort Greene salon, according to the schedules.
In June, James, who earns $165,000, was out of the office for at least part of the day “outside of her government capacity” for six days of the month, all weekdays.
She left the office at 11 a.m. on June 9 and didn’t return for the rest of the day. And she was absent for all but one hour of the day on June 23, according to the schedules.
Her official schedules also included events where James never showed up.
The documents indicated that James attended the July 4 Travis Parade on Staten Island, but she was not seen at the event. A spokesman said she had planned to go but “she felt under the weather.”
He added that James “has attended approximately 30 events on Staten Island since Jan. 1.”
Despite her frequent absences, James’ schedules shows many days packed with events — sometimes more events in a day than Mayor de Blasio attends.
She has met with union leaders, top aides to Gov. Cuomo and de Blasio and progressive groups like Make the Road New York and has attended dozens of press conferences.
Her evenings are often filled with events like a birthday party for Rep. Charles Rangel, a gala dinner for New York Chinese businessmen or a birthday event for developer Joe Sitt.
“Public Advocate James continues to maintain a robust schedule, reaching New Yorkers across the city and working tirelessly to uplift working families in every borough,” a spokesman said. “She has successfully advanced a range of serious initiatives including body-worn cameras for NYPD and expanding access to school lunch for our children.”
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg famously blasted the public advocate’s office as a “total waste of everybody’s money.”
But former elected officials who have held the job said it is an around-the-clock gig.
“I treated the public advocate as a 12-hour a day, seven-day-a-week job, because that’s what it took to be a good ombudsman for citizens and monitor of the city government,” said former Public Advocate Mark Green.
