|
||||
Full Council Only Met 42% Of Time In 2008-10 Term by Keith Higginbotham | City Beat | 07.28.10 |
+  2:30pm | The recent City Council difficulty in reaching an initial decision on Vice-Mayor for the new Council term placed a spotlight on how the absence of even one Councilmember can have possible long-term ramifications. Long Beach City Councilmembers and Mayor Bob Foster posted attendance rates between 78.9 percent and 98.7 percent during the last Council term, according to a review of the official minutes from 76 City Council meetings held from July, 2008 to July, 2010. The review also revealed that a Council meeting including all the sitting Councilmembers and the Mayor only occurred 30 times, or 39.5 percent of the time. Even without considering the attendance of the Mayor, the Council only met in full for 32 meetings, or just 42.1 percent of the time. During the 13 meetings in late 2008 and early 2009 when the 1st District seat was vacant, a full council was considered as occurring when the sitting eight members were present. This only happened five times during that period. Also, attendance was based on each meetings' opening roll call. Councilmembers (or the Mayor) who arrived late were considered absent. Individually, most of the Councilmembers turned in fairly impressive attendance records during the term. The best attendance was turned in by 9th District Councilmember and the term's Vice-Mayor Val Lerch who only missed one meeting (on Oct. 7, 2008) for an overall 98.7 percent attendance rate. On the low side, 8th District Councilmember Rae Gabelich appeared at the start of 60 meetings for an overall 78.9 percent attendance rate. The other Councilmembers were spread out between these two bookends:
The average attendance rate for a City Councilmember during the two-year term was 88.2 percent. By comparison, an average full-time worker that uses 10 sick days a year would have an attendance rate of just under 96 percent. Mayor Foster had an 84.2 percent attendance rate, missing 12 of the 76 meetings during the term. Val Lerch, as Vice-Mayor, presided over each of the 12 meetings missed by Mayor Foster. In total, there were 28 meetings during the term where nine Councilmembers were in attendance, 25 meetings where eight members were present, 10 meetings with only seven members present, seven meetings with only six members present and six meetings with just five members present. Under law, a meeting requires a minimum of five Councilmembers for a quorum. This works out to roughly 37 percent of the 76 meetings during the term were conducted with nine members present, 32 percent with eight members, 13 percent with seven members, 9 percent with six members, and 8 percent with five members. Click here to read our policy on covering the Long Beach City Council.
Comments
Click Here to Join the Discussion on this Story
14 Comments so far.
Absent Without Leaving What about missing votes while attending a meeting? Seriously, Councilman Garcia should tell his family not to call him when he's on the public's dime -- maybe he can call back when he's already in the bathroom dodging a high-profile vote. Do any other councilmembers pull a Garcia when the going gets tough? NLBr What is the purpose of this article? It sounds a little like someone is trying to stir things up just for the fun of it. It sounds horrible that only 42% of the council meetings are fully attended but when you look at the individual records, all but one member are over 80% which is actually pretty good. It is easy to manipulate numbers to sound good or bad, this reeks of sinsationalism. Please be careful, this isn't Bell. disco_bill So if a member missed the roll call at the very beginning of the meeting you mark them absent for purposes of coming to your conclusions in this article? No offense, but that's an awful way to do your math. Just because a member misses the first five minutes does not necessarily mean they missed substantive council action. Have you watched those stupid presentations at the very beginning of the meeting? Hell I'd skip out on those too if I were on the council. Your math is skewed by poor metrics, mr. Higginbotham. Jonathan Kraus Keith, I appreciate your efforts to shed light on city governance through your City Beat column. However, you do all of your readers a disservice when your information is incomplete and misleading. Instead of completely reviewing the minutes for each of these meetings you reference, you seem to have only looked at the initial roll call, which is taken upon the call to order of the meeting. Often times, as regular observers of council meetings are aware, council members may be at the meeting, but not in the room at the time of the roll call. You either failed to notice, or chose to omit the fact, that in the official minutes of many of the meetings you reference, there is a second roll call taken within a few minutes of the initial roll call in which all of the members are present, or the minutes indicate when a councilmember has joined the meeting shortly, thereafter. It is unfortunate that you misrepresent to your readers that the councilmembers were absent from these meetings, when the minutes clearly show that they voted and participated in the discussions of those meetings. While it may not make as bold of a headline, I think it is important in this case to set the record straight. After reviewing the official minutes for the same 76 meetings you refer to between July 15, 2008 and July 13, 2010, all of the council members had better than a 90% attendance rate (and Vice Mayor Val Lerch had a perfect attendance record). The full council was present at 45 of the 76 meetings, nearly 60% of the time. Councilwoman Gabelich missed 7 meetings during this two-year period, which is a 90.8 percent attendance rate. Some of those absences were due to the unfortunate deaths of some close friends and family members. Again, I appreciate your efforts to hold our elected officials accountable for the work they do. I just ask that you be thorough and accurate with the work you do. Jonathan Kraus Chief of Staff Councilwoman Rae Gabelich Val Keith, i never missed a meeting. on Oct 7th, 2008 i was there, i did miss the roll call. but came in after the hearings. i voted from consent calendar on. please correct your article. i have prided myself on never missing a meeting. Our Right NLBr, it is not clear why you are questioning the intention of this article. The manner by which the LB Council avoided to vote one week, and then the following tie vote, then all of a sudden the unanimous vote for Suja, definitely brought about several questions, in everyone’s mind. If when the attendance calculation is corrected, and if we learn that Suja has a lower attendance rate than the majority, then we should rightfully have even more questions as to why the vote for VM position went the way it did. So, we have a right to know. That is all. Thank you Keith. NLBr: Your comment has a certain tone: [please be careful, this is not Bell]: what does that mean anyway? City of Bell could not be the litmus test for any other City. What went there is outrageous. The degree of Bell City’s particular egregious actions should not make any other City officials’ questionable actions less important. We will be lucky if LB residents get engaged, on a regular bases, as the Bell residents did, at the last moment. Threadkiller Hmmm......I was suspect of this article when I read that Councilmember Gabelich was listed with a 78.9 percent attendance rate, only to have it clarified further as 90.8 by Jonathan Kraus in the comments above. Mr. Higginbotham, a response to these comments would be interesting for all of us to read right about now. Waiting... BUGGA BOO BOO I think Higginbotham just made one.:>) Paul Overall this does not seem too bad when it does not count late councilpeople. The worst crimal activity is done by the councilpeople that cowardly slip out during an important vote. They were elected to vote not go to the bathroom. If it were necessary, they could ask for a break for a few minutes. From the latest back that I know of, are Garcia, Ray Grabinski, and Wally Edgerton. There are others for sure. Que? When you say 'The average attendance rate for a City Councilmember during the two-year term was 88.2 percent. By comparison, an average full-time worker that uses 10 sick days a year would have an attendance rate of just under 96 percent.' What kind of comparison is this? Long Beach City Councilmembers are part time. All have full time jobs in addition to family obligations. Many Councilmembers visit DAILY local parks, community centers, senior centers. The peoples business is not just done in the council chamber. Public Service goes beyond just oversight and recording votes on policy/ordinances. Mike Ruehle I can't even count the number of Council meetings where Councilmembers and especially the Mayor were there for the opening roll call and then left the Council meeting shortly afterwards without voting on agenda items. That is how the Councilmembers game the statistics game by claiming they were at most of the meetings but really weren't. Mike Ruehle Why would someone consider it good to only attend 80% of Council meetings? Try telling your employer 80% attendance is good. After subtracting meetings that are cancelled for holidays, election, etc. and the last week of the month, there are only 37 Council meetings per YEAR. That means there are only 3 meetings per month in which Council members are scheduled to speak before the public. 80% attendance means Council members really only attend 2 meetings per month. Why must they miss a council meeting? Why can't Councilmembers' personal businesses and vacations be scheduled during the last week of each month when Council meetings are not scheduled? If they don't want to participate in Council meetings, Councilmembers and the Mayor should resign. Mike Ruehle Val, you claim you claim 100% attendance because you were not at the meeting when roll was called. Yet you failed to mention the meetings you left after roll call was taken. Our Right Que? The fact of the matter is, as you know, the Council meeting is one venue where all the members are found at one place and where they make RECORDED votes on key policy issues. That is also the place where the public could address issues to them, even though we know they have limited the length of time and subject matter one can address at each meeting. Which is another sad story. In addition, however, you try and get the Mayor or any Council member to meet with you on matters they personally or their gate-keepers do not feel is important for their image. This is despite the degree of importance the matter, which you want to address, is to the City or to you, the voter, who put them there. So, yes the degree by which we could hold them accountable could not be based on the closed-door deals, or the number of their park visits, as you implied. The council meeting is the key place where we could RECORD their opinion and hold them accountable for their performances. In addition, the council’s job, as you indicated, is only part-time. So, that limited time should be efficiently utilized and attendance of 96% should be the standard, just like those full-time employees you mentioned.
City Beat
Keith Higginbotham takes you inside City Hall and reports weekly on the decisions being made.
Keith Higginbotham is a freelance journalist and writer who most recently served as the West Coast editor for the trade magazine American Shipper, covering the shipping and logistics industries. Prior to this, he served as the Advertising and Multimedia Manager for the Port of Long Beach. He began his journalism career more than a decade ago as the Trade and Transportation beat reporter at the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
Keith's Community
 
Keith's Favorite Links
en.wikipedia.org huffingtonpost.com laobserved.com marvel.com/digitalcomics/ poynter.org
Keith's Archives
Show All Archives |
||||
| About Us | Contact Us | Policies | ||||
