Lise Burcher should get points for consistency, if not attendance.
For the third consecutive year, the Ward 5 rep has recorded the worst attendance of all 13 council members. Numbers released recently indicate Burcher attended just 83 per cent (69 of 83) of the council and committee meetings she was required to attend in 2012, and did not manage to get to a single committee meeting at which she was not a member.
As she did last year, Maggie Laidlaw had the second-worst attendance. Laidlaw made it to 87 per cent (71 of 82) of the mandatory meetings last year and also did not attend a single committee meeting at which she was not a member.
On the other side of the scale, Mayor Karen Farbridge -- who by her office is required to attend all meetings -- got to 115 of the 119 scheduled council and committee meetings, for a 97 per cent attendance rate.
Bob Bell, who always gets the gold star for attendance, got to all 88 of the meetings he was required to attend, and also showed up at 26 meetings of committees at which he was not a member.
Todd Dennis similarly had perfect attendance at his mandatory meetings, and got to 20 non-member committee meetings.
(In fairness, it should be noted regular and closed council meetings are often held back to back on the same night, so someone who is absent that night will technically have missed two meetings when the attendance record comes out. As well, councillor attendance is also heavily influenced by whether councillors hold full-time jobs or positions which require them to represent the city in other parts of the country)
We'll have more in tomorrow's paper.
Any councillor who missed a meeting should not be paid for it. I noticed that the two worst councillors, that do the least for this city, are absent more often than the rest.
Posted by: Gord | January 21, 2013 at 04:03 PM
Hi Scott,
Why do you know about rest of the Councillors? Do we have a full list?
Thanks
Posted by: Natwork | January 21, 2013 at 07:09 PM
@Natwork,
Sorry, should have posted the link. It's on page four of this file:
http://guelph.ca/uploads/Council_and_Committees/Information/info_items_011813.pdf
Posted by: Scott Tracey | January 21, 2013 at 07:18 PM
You know I couldn't help myself:
Don't forget Guelph, Maggie Laidlaw wanted a raise, 'cause she works too hard on council.
Just sayin'.
Posted by: Greg | January 28, 2013 at 03:05 PM
Councillors with poor attendance should not be allowed to run in the next election. Plus their pay should be cut back for each meeting missed.
Posted by: jenner | February 06, 2013 at 05:19 PM