Hermon council to address attendance

HERMON – The town attorney will be reviewing a revamped attendance policy which town councilors discussed during last week’s council meeting.

Councilors discussed redrafting the town charter to read that councilors may miss four meetings, but once the fifth is missed, the councilor would be removed.

“I just think there’s a need because the way it’s [the attendance policy] written, there’s the opportunity to abuse the rules and get away with it,” Councilor Larry Davis said Wednesday in a telephone interview.

In the Aug. 3 council meeting, Davis asked Town Manager Clint Deschene to place the attendance policy on the Sept. 8 agenda. The town charter and council rules state a councilor can miss three consecutive regular meetings before being removed from the municipal body.

The three allowable absences now permitted do not include special meetings or emergency meetings, which often occur during budget time, Davis said.

“I think it is wrong, the way the rules read, you can miss two-thirds of the meetings for the year [and not be removed],” Davis said.

“If I commit myself to something, I don’t want to go halfway,” he continued.

The council meets regularly twice a month.

The proposed attendance policy would allow councilors to appeal their removal 10 days after receiving an official letter noting their dismissal, Deschene said Wednesday. The town then would call a special town meeting during which the councilor would be given the opportunity to justify the absences, and then the decision would go to a majority vote.

“In the past, it [attendance] has been an issue,” Davis said during the Aug. 3 meeting, without providing specific examples.