North Battleford councillors are making a point of showing up at council meetings.
That is based on information posted monthly on the City's website at www.cityofnb.ca, as well as from meeting minutes and from the News-Optimist's own attendance at council meetings.
A total of 12 regular council meetings have been held at City Hall in North Battleford for the first half of 2014. There was perfect attendance from the mayor and councillors at eight of those meetings.
It should be noted there was also a vacancy on council for the first seven meetings of 2014. Nevertheless, attendance is already better than last year, when only five of the 21 regular council meetings saw perfect attendance from elected officials.
The four regular council meetings in which the full complement of available councillors were not present were: Feb. 10, when Mayor Ian Hamilton was absent; April 28 when Councillor Don Buglas was out due to illness; May 26 when Councillor Ray Fox was unavailable due to a work commitment; and June 23, when Buglas was unavailable due to illness and Fox also absent due to a work commitment.
Recording perfect attendance at the regular council meetings for the first six months of 2014 are councillors Ryan Bater, Greg Lightfoot, and Cathy Richardson. Also recording perfect attendance is Kelli Saemann, who has attended five council meetings since being sworn in on April 28.
In addition to the regular council attendance, the city's website lists attendance records for the Jan. 15, 20 and 23 budget deliberations. There was perfect attendance with the exception of the Jan. 20 meeting, which Hamilton had to miss due to illness.
In general, attendance in 2014 has seen a noticeable improvement over the past few years, in which high absenteeism was raised as an issue by various members of council.
Hamilton brought forward a notice of motion last December to have council meeting attendances posted on the City's website on a monthly basis, along with monthly expenses claimed. Attendance records for all the leading members of city administration are also posted.
Hamilton cited the need for greater transparency as the reason for the motion, which passed at council in January.
All council and director attendances and expenditures are listed on a monthly basis at http://www.cityofnb.ca/city_government/council_meetings.html.
