A Council member who skips meetings, especially when without explanation, is usually a legislator who does nothing for the community. Most local legislators are very dedicated, but there are occasional exceptions. Last week, as reported on LehighValleyLive, Easton City Council voted 6-1 to amend its own Code of Conduct to take members to task when they play hooky. This initiative was proposed by Council members Frank Pintabone and Crystal Rose, Easton's two newest elected officials. It was opposed by only one member - Taiba Sultana.
Easton City Council meets biweekly. It also has a committee of the whole, which also meets biweekly.
Under the amended Code of Conduct, attendance at Council and Committee meetings as well as executive sessions is mandatory. At the end of the year, the City Clerk will report the attendance of each member.
Truant Council members can be subjected to a variety of discipline, from oral warning to censure. But Council has no authority to remove Council members. That can only be done through impeachment by the state legislature.
Pintabone, who initially proposed docking the pay of absent legislators, argued that "[w]e were elected to do a job. The bare minimum is to show up.”
Sultana, a frequent absentee, argues on Facebook that compelling an elected public official to explain her absences would violate her right to privacy. This is nonsense. An absent elected official can always say they will be absent for personal reasons, and this would violate no right to privacy.
I personally feel that an elected legislator who misses a meeting should be docked that pay period, no matter what the reason might be.
21 comments:
So if a legislator is dealing with a family death you feel a meeting is more important? Your words, not the readers! But to touch on this, it is a good idea, we all know Sultana has an issue with it because she doesn't want to do her job.
McClure should never have accepted pay for his days pretending to be on council. In fact, he should pay back the money as a show of good faith to those in the county, public and private, who actually work for their pay. Fair.
5:27, Actually, I do believe pay should be docked for missing a meeting no matter the reason, whether it is laziness or a death in the family. There should be no discretion in this matter and that way someone like Sultana can't claim that her privacy is being invaded.
McClure never missed a meeting, as far as committee meetings go, they are self explanatory but i am not going to waste my time explaining it to someone who clearly does not comprehend basic government functions
BO's hate is showing again
I completely disagree. The committee meetings are where the council members get full explanations about the things that go to council meetings. Ever wonder why things get passed in 30 seconds with a 9-0 vote? Because it was explained at committee.
Every council member should be REQUIRED to go to their committee meetings and every member should try to go to all meetings if they want to fully comprehend the agenda before them.
-Someone who knows.
Docking pay is petty since many elected positions only pay a few thousand a year, anyway. Being elected is more than meetings. It's phone calls, emails, reading reports, et al. That all takes time, too. And, I'm willing to bet, there are many councils and boards with members who DO NOTHING other than show up at meetings.
Now, what about the boards that are unpaid, like school directors? I'm assuming there are school boards with similar rampant absenteeism of the same people. Paid or not, if you're elected and miss more meetings than you attend, especially the voting meetings, you are derelict in your duties and should really step down. Councils and boards can't remove elected officials but they can urge someone to resign.
But, Council's "blueprint" here is really a nothing more than a churlish temper tantrum since it was clearly aimed at one person. With this act, they are no better than the person they targeted.
Are you calling Bernie a liar? The Internet is forever. Below is from Lehigh Valley Ramblings on December 31, 2015. Please waste your time defending this theft of taxpayer dollars:
"The two failures are Seth Vaughn (64%) and Lamont McClure (48%). McClure decided early in the ear that he was leaving public office, but his attendance this year is actually better than it has been in the past. But he still flunks."
Allentown city council should follow this, we have a ghost member. A young lady…
Interesting considering that PA is “at-will employment,” where employers can fire employees for any reason, including frequent, not occasional , absenteeism unless protected by disability or FMLA medical situation….yet, elected officials are allowed a wide, if not untouchable amount of slack before being
given notice of, if any, punishment.
In agreement with Vladimir, would bet many, but not all, council people neglect to read or research, or even bring notes to review , for their meetings.
This is a silly attempt to pad one's legislative record. Of course, you love it as you want Pitabone to be Mayor (once again Ken Brown gets shafted) Frank has been anointed so good for him. Yet, I agree with others this is childish and unnecessary. The people decide who gets elected and unelected. This elementary school attendance policy is silly. Of course, it is the product of a feud with one council member and not a "good government" move.
Get on with fixing the wild west side and all the other problems of Eason and leave this to the voters. We will handle it.
Bernie
Was this really about Taiba or was it Mr. Brown? I caught the youtube clip of the meeting and it seemed Brown was very bothered. Then on Taiba's FB page, she stated that she understood the "need for the resolution as Councilman Brown was mia from another committee meeting"
Just curious
Zero tolerance? Are you f'n kidding me? "Sorry folks, I can't come to the nursing home to meet the undertaker picking up Mom's body, I have an Easton City Council meeting."
The rest should follow her lead. If Allentown city council completely ghosts the city, you'd see improvement overnight.
Never states an opinion. Usually doesn't attend in person.Who knows what she is doing during the meeting since her screen presence is never shown. Candida initiated a discussion about on line participation months ago but council didn't do anything with it. I can understand an occasional need for online participation but not to the level she has abused it.
Pintabone clearly stated that this is good government and not about any single person. The only one that went after Sultana was Brown. He made a fool out of himself in my opinion. Watch the meeting on YouTube.
Most municipal officials are underpaid for the amount of service required to do the job right. To think it is a punch clock obligation confined to meetings misunderstand the requirements. Where does the municipal code define how much public officials can be paid? How much are each of the cities pay their councilmembers?
Then they shouldn’t run.
Seldom heard you complain when your boy Lamont missed many meetings as a councilman.
That's a blatant lie. I reported regularly on McClure's absences on county council and was highly critical.
https://lehighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com/2010/12/norco-council-workhorses-showhorses-no.html
https://lehighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com/2009/12/northampton-county-council-2009s.html
https://lehighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com/2013/05/mia-mcclure-147-committee-attendance.html
These are just some of the stories I wrote. I take attendance quite seriously, and it doesn't matter who the missing person may be.
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