THUNDER BAY -- If Thunder Bay city councillors were graded on their attendance record since the 2014 election, they might all receive an "A."
According to data obtained by tbnewswatch.com from the Office of the City Clerk, every ward councillor and councillor-at-large has showed up for at least 80 per cent of the total number of council meetings of various kinds.
Between December 2014 and February 2018 there were 416 meetings including Committee of the Whole (open/closed/special) and City Council (regular/special/public).
Among the five councillors-at-large, Larry Hebert attended the most meetings, giving him an attendance record of 98 per cent. The other four at-large representatives all participated in roughly 85 per cent of meetings.
Among the seven ward councillors, Joe Virdiramo of Westfort topped the attendance record with 94 per cent.
McKellar ward's Paul Pugh had the lowest attendance rate of all councillors, at 80 per cent.
In an interview with tbnewswatch.com, Pugh said many of the meetings he misses occur while he is visiting in South America, the continent he grew up in.
"When I go there, because it's a very great distance, I tend to book a longer period of time to justify the expense of going there...I tend to go for three weeks, which depending on council's schedule may result in my missing four meetings."
Pugh believes that rating councillors' performance should include consideration of everything they're involved in.
"It's also important how many committees you're involved in, what your attendance is on those, and what you contribute to the meetings. It's all important."
Pugh added that in addition to committees, "there's things like the BIAs and poverty reduction, associated things that may not be committees of council but they're organizations that we take part in as part of our duties."
He said there's a lot more to being on council than "just showing up for a meeting."
Attendance Record from 416 meetings of City Council, 2014 to 2018
Councillors-at-large
- Larry Hebert 98%
- Rebecca Johnson 86%
- Frank Pullia 86%
- Aldo Ruberto 85%
- Iain Angus 84%
Ward Councillors
- Joe Virdiramo/Westfort 94%
- Linda Rydholm/Neebing 87%
- Shelby Ch'ng/Northwood 87%
- Brian McKinnon/Red River 83%
- Andrew Foulds/Current River 81%
- Trevor Giertuga/McIntyre 81%
- Paul Pugh/McKellar 80%
