nothin Colon Shows Up Most, Staggers & Spears Least | New Haven Independent

Colon Shows Up Most, Staggers & Spears Least

AWOL: Spears, Staggers.

Most present: Colon, Paolillo, Marchand, Perez.

When it came time to vote on city laws Monday night, Hill Alder Dolores Colon was right where she has been for every regular meeting this term: in her seat, ready to respond.

Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Richard Spears and West Rock Alder Carlton Staggers were nowhere to be found — again.

Colon is the Board of Alders’ attendance champ, making it to 100 percent of full board and committee meetings for the past year and a half, according to a review of the record since the current two-year term began.

Colon said it can be hard to make it to every meeting, especially during the winter weather. But she said she makes it a point to be at every regular meeting and every committee meeting because that’s what voters elected her to do.

I take their confidence in me as a serious obligation,” she said Monday night. They’re trusting me to come here and make decisions. People may not always agree with my decision, but I am always here to be present and to be part of the discussion.”

2014 attendance.

As a body, the current crop of alders are a meeting-going lot. In 2014, 12 of the 30 alders attended both committee meetings and regular meetings at a rate of 90 percent or more. Twenty of the 30 alders attended both kinds of meetings at least 80 percent of the time last year.

Through July of this year, three alders have had perfect 2015 attendance for committee meetings: Dolores Colon, Alphonse Paolillo, Jr., and Adam J. Marchand. Former Hill Alder Jorge Perez had 100 percent attendance for committee meetings before he resigned earlier this year to become state banking commissioner. His replacement, Johnny Dye, has not attended a committee meeting yet because the committees that he is assigned to haven’t met.

2015 attendance so far.

Seven alders hold the distinction of attending every regular board meeting held so far this year: Sarah Eidelson; Jorge Perez/Johnny Dye; Dolores Colon; Abigail Roth; Salvatore E. DeCola; Evette Hamilton; and Brian Wingate.

But Staggers and Spears? Not so much. Over the last year and a half, the two alders tied for the percentage of committee and regular meetings they attended, about 19 percent and 61 percent, respectively. Several attempts were made to reach Spears and Staggers for this article. Staggers returned a phone call to say that he would not be attending Monday’s meeting because of an emergency in his ward, but did not return a subsequent phone call to explain his broader absences.

Newhallville Alder Brenda Foskey-Cyrus and Beaver Hills Alder Claudette Robinson-Thorpe had the lowest committee meeting attendance last year with a rate of 6 percent and 5 percent. Robinson-Thorpe was absent from Monday night’s meeting because of a broken foot, she said.

Staggers, Spears, Foskey-Cyrus and Robinson-Thorpe are all running for reelection.

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