NYC Council candidate’s claims of working as a instructor and residing in Brooklyn unsure: Day by day Information investigation

A Metropolis Council candidate in southern Brooklyn has made her instructing profession a cornerstone of her political identification.

On the marketing campaign path this yr, the Republican Council hopeful, Anna Belfiore-Delfaus, has repeatedly described herself as a metropolis public college instructor and spoken to the plight of working in lecture rooms in the course of the pandemic. In a Feb. 6 tweet, she even claimed she for a time “couldn’t return to work” due to her refusal to adjust to the Schooling Division’s since-rescinded coronavirus vaccine mandate.

However there’s only one drawback: Belfiore-Delfaus hasn’t been on town payroll as a instructor for almost a decade — and public information solid doubt over whether or not she even resides within the borough she hopes to symbolize within the Council.

Metropolis payroll information reviewed by the Day by day Information don’t have any document of Belfiore-Delfaus being paid since 2015, when she went on child-care-related go away from her particular training instructing job at Public College 244 in Brooklyn. Based on an Schooling Division supply immediately acquainted with the matter, there’s no document of her making an attempt to return to work or looking for an exemption to the company’s vaccine mandate, both.

“She was neither requested to be vaccinated nor did she attempt to come again,” the supply instructed The Information, talking on situation of anonymity to debate an worker’s work historical past.

Belfiore-Delfaus, who’s operating to symbolize the forty seventh Council District, which incorporates Bay Ridge, Coney Island and Gravesend, didn’t return a number of telephone calls, textual content messages and emails looking for remark final week.

Republican Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, a outstanding supporter of Belfiore-Delfaus’ marketing campaign, additionally didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Belfiore-Delfaus’ obvious misrepresentation of her employment drew a rebuke from Brooklyn Councilman Ari Kagan, an ex-Democrat who switched get together affiliation to Republican this yr and is operating towards her in June’s main to get the GOP nomination for the forty seventh District.

“Anybody who runs for political workplace ought to count on the general public to know the reality about their work. … I don’t perceive why anyone, together with Anna, would cover their administrative center,” stated Kagan. “I don’t perceive why anybody would do that; the reality all the time comes out.”

Along with the put up about vaccine mandate resistance, Belfiore-Delfaus routinely calls herself an “NYC public college instructor” on Twitter, and retains that descriptor in her profile bio, subsequent to “District 47 Metropolis Council Candidate.”

In a Dec. 19, 2022, tweet responding to a put up from Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) about municipal well being care coverage, Belfiore-Delfaus wrote, “As a NYC public college instructor I thanks. Preserve combating the nice struggle.”

A newer instance got here in a Feb. 1 interview Belfiore-Delfaus did on “New York’s Most interesting: Retired & Unfiltered,” a podcast hosted by ex-NYPD Officer John Macari.

Referencing the outset of the pandemic — at which level she hadn’t been on the payroll as instructor for some 5 years — Belfiore-Delfaus instructed Macari, “Initially when faculties had been reopened, we used to get emails updating us on what number of circumstances had been discovered within the constructing. … We had been getting emails back-to back-to-back, you already know, ‘New case, new case, three circumstances, 4 circumstances.’ Now, we get an e-mail perhaps as soon as in a blue moon saying there’s one case of COVID within the constructing.”

On prime of her employment claims, Belfiore-Delfaus’ place of residency has recently raised eyebrows within the forty seventh District.

Voter registration information present that as not too long ago as January, she claimed as her residence handle a townhouse in Westerleigh, S.I., outdoors the confines of the forty seventh district.

Nevertheless, in official petition paperwork not too long ago submitted to town Board of Elections, Belfiore-Delfaus lists her residence handle as a one-family home on 79th St. in Bay Ridge — which is throughout the district.

Belfiore-Delfaus’ husband remains to be registered on the Staten Island residence, for which he has been listed in metropolis information because the proprietor since December 2020. The couple has three kids collectively.

Although her petition kinds declare she lives in Bay Ridge, The Information noticed Belfiore-Delfaus strolling into the Staten Island home with one among her daughters Friday afternoon.

The Bay Ridge handle Belfiore-Delfaus claims as her residence within the petition paperwork was purchased by a girl named Sabrina Sorrentino in January 2022, in accordance with a deed submitted to the state Taxation and Finance Division. To purchase the property, Sorrentino — whose relation to Belfiore-Delfaus is unclear — took out a $962,500 mortgage that must be paid off by Feb. 1, 2052, state information present.

Reached by telephone final week, Sorrentino refused to say if Belfiore-Delfaus lives at her home.

“You’ll must name me at one other time,” Sorrentino stated earlier than hanging up. She didn’t reply to followup calls or texts.

Below metropolis election guidelines, candidates don’t must reside within the Council districts they’re vying to symbolize whereas campaigning this yr as a result of the strains had been redrawn as a part of a once-in-a-decade redistricting course of. Candidates do must reside within the districts they’re operating for on Election Day, although.

The query marks round Belfiore-Delfaus’ employment and residence come as scrutiny stays heightened over political candidates‘ résumés due to varied lies about his life by Rep. George Santos (R-Nassau, Queens).

Kagan stated Belfiore-Delfaus is making it seem to be she’s registered on the Brooklyn handle as a way to make sure that she meets the Election Day requirement forward of time.

“If she does reside on Staten Island, she is allowed to run in Brooklyn, but when she does reside on Staten Island and he or she’s placing an handle on a petition that’s Brooklyn, that’s an even bigger drawback,” he stated.

Bay Ridge resident Michael Ragusa, who mounted a short-lived Republican bid for the forty seventh District earlier than dropping out this month after being accused of petition malfeasance, stated he has stopped by the handle on 79th St. on a number of current events. He claimed he’s by no means seen Belfiore-Delfaus there.

“Individuals knew from the beginning she didn’t reside right here,” Ragusa stated. “So it’s time to be trustworthy with the voters and are available clear.”

With Gardiner Anderson