Councillor Cathy Richardson can point with pride to having the best city council attendance in 2013.
By contrast, Councillor Trent Houk holds the dubious distinction of having the worst.
That is based on attendances recorded from meetings of each regular city council meeting and special meeting held in 2013.
The posting of council attendance is an issue due to come back to council in January as part of a motion proposed by Mayor Ian Hamilton to publicly post all attendance records. Former councillor Ron Crush had also proposed posting attendance records back in 2012.
At the moment, though, that information is buried deep on the City of North Battleford website in the minutes of each meeting published online and found at www.cityofnb.ca/city_government/council_meetings.html.
While information can be found in each one of the meeting minutes on who attended on a specific date, no chart is provided at the moment showing the composite council attendance for the entire year.
However, based on the information provided in the minutes, the Regional Optimist is able to provide the attendance records of all councillors from 2013.
Based on the minutes, Councillor Houk was by far the worst offender in the no-show department, missing 10 regularly scheduled council meetings in 2013.
He also attended only a portion of the May 27 meeting as well, leaving mid-meeting. Houk's attendance record for regular and special meetings in 2013 amounts to 14.5 meetings out of 25, for a percentage of 58.
Next was Councillor Ray Fox, who missed three regular council meetings as well as two special meetings. His attendance percentage is nevertheless a much better 80 per cent.
Of the others, Councillor Ryan Bater missed two regular and one special meeting, and Greg Lightfoot missed one regular meeting and one special meeting. Even mayor Ian Hamilton, famous at City Hall for almost never missing a meeting, missed two of them in 2013.
Bater's attendance record ended up being 22/25 for 88 per cent while Lightfoot and Hamilton scored 23/25 for 92 per cent.
Don Buglas missed only the special meeting on the budget on Feb. 19, giving him an attendance record of 24 out of 25 for 96 per cent.
Richardson, however, wound up missing no regular or special meetings at all, based on the minutes, for a perfect 100 per cent attendance record.
There were four special meetings held in 2013, but of these, only the Aug. 30 meeting has minutes posted on the city website. According to those minutes, Bater, Fox and Lightfoot were not present.
A special meeting on the city budget was held Feb. 19 and attended by the mayor and five councillors. According to minutes of the meeting on file at the News-Optimist/Regional Optimist, councillors Don Buglas and Ray Fox were not present.
There was also another special meeting in July 3, and also an ultra-short special meeting held May 21 that adjourned after only a couple of minutes. All councillors were present for both of those according to minutes on file with the News-Optimist.
Of the 21 regular council meetings and four special meetings, only five regularly scheduled council meetings and two special meetings were fully attended by the mayor and all councillors.
Reasons why councillors were not present were not provided in the meeting minutes.
The attendance numbers posted here are only for regular and special meetings of city council. Not posted are attendances of councillors at various other meetings at City Hall such as budget deliberations, Municipal Services Committee meetings, Parks and Recreation Committee meetings, and other meetings councillors are required to attend.
Listed here are the council meeting dates and the councillors who were listed as absent according to the published minutes from all the council meetings: Jan. 14 - Full attendance; Jan. 28 - Houk; Feb. 11 - Houk; Feb.19 - special meeting (budget) - Buglas, Fox; Feb. 25 - Fox; March 11 - Houk, Lightfoot; March 25 - Houk; April 8 - Fox; April 22 - full attendance; May 13 - full attendance; May 21 - special meeting - full attendance; May 27 - Houk; June 10 - Houk; June 24 - Fox; July 3 - special meeting - full attendance ; July 22 - Hamilton, Houk; Aug. 19 - Hamilton; Aug. 30 special meeting - Bater, Fox, Lightfoot; Sept. 9 - Houk; Sept. 23 - Bater; Oct. 15 - Houk; Oct. 28 - full attendance; Nov. 12 - Houk; Nov. 25 - full attendance; Dec. 9 - Houk, Bater.
