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City Council attendance records

UPDATE: The big table in the center of city hall's plaza level council room was decidedly empty come 3 p.m. on a recent Tuesday afternoon.

The staff members were there. The journalists had their laptops ready.

But most of the city council members -- the guests of honor of this and every council briefing -- were MIA.

Councilman Mike Barber took the opportunity to chastise the absent members for not showing up for the session, which was scheduled so council members could give the staff key recommendations about financial issues.

"Over the last few months, it's as though the council meetings aren't important enough to attend," he said.

Mayor Yvonne Johnson and Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small were the other two members in attendance when Barber made his comment. Councilman Zack Matheny and Councilwoman Trudy Wade both came a few minutes late.

Barber has a point. Briefings in March and April were cancelled by council, sometimes because people were too busy to attend.

The issue made Scoop wonder, who has the best attendance record on council?

No council member has had perfect attendance since they took office in 2007 until May 2009, according to an analysis of the City Council meeting minutes compiled by the city clerk. For simplicity, Scoop’s analysis did not make any distinction between excused and unexcused absences.

Bellamy-Small has a near-perfect record.

She never missed a regular meeting. But she arrived late on one occasion noted in the minutes.

Wade came in a close second, with one absence.

Councilman Robbie Perkins wracked up the most absences, arriving late three times and being absent four times. Councilwoman Sandra Anderson Groat had one tardy and three absences; although during one of those meetings she participated via telephone for part of the session.

And Barber ends up in the middle with the rest of council members, who each had two to three occasions when they were late or absent. Barber had two absences (during one he made a guest appearance by telephone) and one tardy, as counted by the clerk.

The clerk’s office does not keep a record of attendance for council work sessions or the briefings that concerned Barber.

Scoop had incomplete records for those meetings, but can anecdotally verify Barber’s statement; they are not as well attended by council as regular meetings.

And so far as we can tell, the clerk’s minutes don’t always note if council members leave early, do the crossword during the meeting or sneak out of the council chambers to check the basketball scores.

So if you are using attendance as a measurement of your council member, make sure it isn’t the only tool you use to judge.

Accompanying Photos

Photo Caption: T. Dianne Bellamy Small