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Struthers council OKs amendment on absenteeism
STRUTHERS — Legislation meant to discourage council members’ absenteeism at their meetings passed unanimously at the council meeting earlier this week.
The legislation, an amendment to a city ordinance on council members’ duties, originally was proposed by council member Michael Patrick. He proposed it, he said, because he thinks absenteeism has been a problem at meetings.
The amendment can’t force a council member to attend meetings, Patrick acknowledged, adding it would just be a way to embarrass members into better attendance.
The amendment, passed Wednesday, says members should submit excuses 24 hours before a meeting they intend to miss.
The amendment says council members should have only three excused absences a year but could have more if council votes to allow it. Valid excuses are medical reasons, family emergencies and work conflicts.
Vacations and recreation, the amendment continues, are not valid excuses because council takes a recess in July and August. Council meets twice a month throughout the rest of the year and calls special meetings to deal with issues that can’t wait until the next regular one. It called 15 special meetings last year for a total of 35 meetings.
The clerk of council compiled a list of last year’s meeting attendance after Patrick asked for it. That has prompted council member Dan Yemma, who missed seven meetings last year, to ask for attendance records from the past 10 years he’s been on council.
Yemma has requested records for himself and members Ronald Mathews, Anthony Protopapa and Terry Stocker.
Mathews missed two meetings last year, and Protopapa missed eight. Stocker was not on council last year; he is now the mayor.
Yemma said he chose those other three members because they are a fair comparison — they also were on council for 10 years.
Yemma said he made the request because the attendance list compiled by clerk Megan Shorthouse looked at only one year. “I believe I have nothing to hide,” he said.
Yemma’s attendance record showed the third-highest number of missed regular and special meetings last year. Tying for most missed meetings were Protopapa and Sherri Hartzell. Both are not on council this year.
Yemma’s record showed that of the meetings he missed, only one was a regular meeting. He and Hartzell have said the mayor and the council call too many special meetings for issues that could be dealt with in committee meetings.
Shorthouse said Friday that she told Yemma it will cost him $300 for copies for tapes and 10 years’ worth of records. She said the request will take from three to six months to complete, because she will have to review tapes and roll-call minutes, and some of that material is archived. She said she is waiting for word from Yemma on how he wants her to proceed.