The Toronto Star’s Royson James wants councillors to just show up and vote already

It’s been a bad week for councillor attendance: meetings for both the parks and environment committee and the economic development committee were disrupted when only three out of six members showed up on time. (The rules state that a quorum is 50 per cent plus one, meaning four members are required for committee meetings to be legal.) Though some councillors had legit reasons to be away—James Pasternak was at a funeral, for instance—Toronto Star columnist Royson James thinks missing meetings is pretty sorry behaviour. Given the current political climate at city hall, where big decisions “live or die by one or two votes,” James sees missing meetings to go on vacation (ahem, Michael Thompson) as indefensible. Needless to say, he also disagrees with councillor Norm Kelly’s call to ease attendance requirements, saying councillors receive generous vacation allotments and $100,000 a year to show up when they’re needed. Criticizing the perks of city hall life? We thought we were reading the Toronto Sun for a minute. [Toronto Star]