Where in the World is Natalie Wagner? Top Deputy Gone from OPM.

That was fast. Natalie Wagner’s appointment to a top position in the Lamont administration was announced with fanfare a month ago, but last week a terse email marked her unexplained departure from her new job as deputy secretary at the Office of Policy and Management.

Wagner served in the Malloy administration at OPM, leaving for the private sector. She joined the newly formed Malloy administration, departing from the Hartford law firm Shipman and Goodwin. That firm has recently hired former attorney general George Jepsen and Joette Katz, whose eight years at the Department of Children and Families inflicted a string of brutal failures on the state’s most vulnerable children.

Wagner’s sudden absence from OPM leaves a vacancy as Governor Ned Lamont prepares to reveal his first budget proposal next week.