Councillor boasts perfect attendance for two years
Coun. Cynthia Block has earned a gold star for attendance.
Block attended every council and committee meeting through the first two years of the current council’s term.
“I think I needed to be there,” Block said in an interview Wednesday. “When I started, I knew it would be a full-time job.”
Each councillor serves on two of four special policy committees, in Block’s case finance and transportation, that meet each month.
The governance and priorities committee, which includes all council members, also meets monthly.
There are also two council meetings each month, held on the last Monday of the month: A regular meeting and a public hearing meeting.
“It’s important to me that I continue to prioritize city council,” Block added.
“I can’t promise that I’ll make every meeting.”
Coun. Sarina Gersher, who was elected for the first time in 2016 like Block, only missed five meetings, while fellow council rookie Hilary Gough missed six. Veteran Coun. Randy Donauer was absent at seven.
Donauer, Gersher, Gough and Coun. Zach Jeffries posted perfect attendance at council meetings.
Mayor Charlie Clark missed 28 meetings, including the first time in recent memory a mayor missed a council meeting. Clark skipped the July council meeting to attend a Bloomberg leadership seminar in New York.
The mayor has a spot on all four special policy committees, so he has about 24 more meetings a year to attend than councillors.
Clark chairs both regular and public hearing council meetings as well as the governance and priorities committee.
Clark said in an emailed statement Wednesday he attends as many special policy committees as he can and has faith in the councillors who serve on them.
“My role is to promote and problem-solve the key issues facing our city,” the statement said.
“Sometimes these issues take me away from standing policy committee work.”
Coun. Troy Davies missed the second-most meetings, 25, over the first two years of the current term from November of 2016 to October of this year. Coun. Darren Hill missed 20.
Davies missed eight council meetings, including regular, special and public hearings.
Davies said he missed six council meetings due to his position as the board chair for the last two Synergy 8 Community Builders campaigns, which raised $1.9 million for charitable causes in Saskatoon.
He said the other absences can be attributed to ward issues, illness, holidays and his job as director of public relations for MD Ambulance. Davies pointed out he attended 107 meetings in 2018 as the council lead for recreation and culture.
Hill, who has attended all regular council meetings over the two years, cited the boards on which he serves on behalf of council, as well as illness and his job as president of Junior Achievement Saskatchewan, to explain his absences.
Hill named a number of Federation of Canadian Municipalities boards and committees, as well as his spot on the board of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association and the Saskatoon board of police commissioners.
Commitments that require travel out of Saskatoon present logistical problems due to limited flight options, Hill added.
Coun. Mairin Loewen missed 14 meetings, including three council meetings that fell on a single day. Loewen only missed a single council meeting following the birth of her son in 2017.
Coun. Ann Iwanchuk missed 13 meetings; Coun. Bev Dubois missed 10; and Jeffries missed nine.
The environment, utilities and corporate services committee featured the most total absences of the regularly scheduled meetings with 25, followed by governance and priorities with 19.
Some issues are only discussed at the committee meetings. If a special policy committee endorses a motion unanimously, it lands on the consent agenda, a block of items that’s usually approved without discussion by council.