Which Alder has been out of town 65 days since May 1st?
I still haven’t gotten a response to my open records request I told you about here. Anyone want to place bets on how long it takes to get the information? Realizing that council staff Lisa Veldran is out of the office until the 28th, I emailed Pro Tem Mark Clear and President Tim Bruer to assist me, but no response from them regarding my request to make sure someone was working on this. But, an alder or two, a couple helpful staff people and an interested citizen or two, I was able to put together the following which are as reliable of information as I could get without confirmation from the information requested and denied by staff. But, it makes me wonder. Is it right for an alder that hasn’t even been in the city to move reconsideration. Legal? Sure. But is it right?
ALL ALDERS ABSENCES MAY 1 – DECEMBER 20th
Michael Schumacher = 65 days.
Judy Compton = 28
Michael Verveer = 25
Julia Kerr = 24
Mark Clear and Steve King = 22
Lauren Cnare = 19
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz = 16
Thuy Pham-Remmele, Satya Rhodes-Conway and Jed Sanborn = 15
Tim Bruer = 14
Larry Palm and Chris Schmidt= 13
The rest were gone less than 10 days. At least, based on the information I was able to get that should be accurate, and if anything, under counts the days out of the city.
SCHUMACHERS MONTHLY ABSENCES
What was stunning, beyond how much more time Schumacher was out of the city than the top alders, is that Schumacher’s absences were mostly (62 of the 65 days) in the last, less than 5 months of the year:
August = 22 days out of town
September = 8 days out of town
October (warm up to budget) = 19 days out of town
November = 2 days out of town
December 1 thru 20 = 11 days out of town
SCHUMACHERS COMMITTEE ABSENCES
In addition, here’s what I found on his committee work.
PLAN COMMISSION
There are minutes missing for 6 of the 23 meetings since May, so I could only check 17, of which he missed 5 and there was an additional one he didn’t show up to and there was no quorum.
WATER UTILITY
There were 11 meetings, one where there was no quorum and Schumacher was not in attendance, so of the 10 meetings that were held, he was gone for 6 of them.
HOUSING DIVERSITY COMMITTEE
There were 5 meetings, he missed two. There was a 6th meeting where they could not get quorum.
CITY-COUNTY LIAISON COMMITTEE
There was one meeting in October, Schumacher missed it.
HOUSING COMMITTEE
There were 8 meetings, Schumacher missed three.
ALRC
There were 10 meetings and he made all of them but one.
COMPTON’S VACATION
The other thing I don’t understand is that in the information I received Judy Compton was out of the city November 23 – December 7th. And then here the rest of the month, except on the 15th. She appears to have been in town for the 14th and 16th, but not the 15th. I’ve heard she was on vacation that she had planned, but I think that was the previous absence. This is the email the alders got:
Ald. Judy Compton will be absent from the City on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 and unable to attend the Special Common Council meeting at 6:30 p.m.
A one day vacation?
