Posted by news intern Megan Burbank

In 2010, Jean Godden missed more council meetings for committees that she chairs than any other Seattle City Council members up for reelection, according to a records request filed by the Stranger for all city council members' weekly calendars for the year of 2010.

Of the 147 meetings Godden was signed up to attend (full council meetings and committees she's on), Godden's records show she missed 17. Or 12 percent. Godden did not show up to her chaired committees in particular, missing 20 percent of meetings for committees she chairs.

The only other council member with a higher percentage of missed meetings is Tim Burgess, who was also signed up for the most meetings out of anyone—167, of which he missed 24. Or 14 percent. And unlike Godden, Burgess's missed meetings skewed toward committee meetings he doesn't chair. He missed 20 percent of those.

These percentages may not be very high, but the contrast with other council members' attendance records is significant. Burgess and Godden's fellow council members Sally Clark, Bruce Harrell, and Tom Rasmussen, missed between zero and eight percent of their overall meetings, their calendars show. In comparison to Godden, Clark and Harrell never missed a chaired meeting, although Rasmussen missed 14 percent of his chaired meetings. Like Burgess, the meetings they missed tended to be for committees they don't chair. Clark, Rasmussen, and Harrell missed between 3 and 11 percent of those committee meetings.

The council has 14 active committees, ranging from education to social justice to city budget planning to monitoring Seattle's public utilities. Council members are paid over $100,000 a year during their time in office, and are signed up for an average of about 149 meetings a year (the same as Godden's schedule). This includes both full council meetings, which all council members attend, and smaller committee meetings. This doesn’t mean they show up to all of them.

Raw data on meeting attendance—both full council and committee meetings, and my methodology—is at the end of this post. Having gone through the data, here’s what I found.

Godden is the council’s Budget Chair, but in 2010, that committee was better attended by its other members. Godden made it to 81 percent of her budget meetings (tasked with balancing the city's $67 million budget shortfall last year, among other things), city records show, while fellow council and committee members Burgess, Sally Clark, Bruce Harrell, and Tom Rasmussen attended 89, 93, 96, and 100 percent of the Budget Committee meetings, respectively. As for Finance and Budget (another committee Godden chairs) the council member showed up to 78 percent of that committee's meetings.

Godden's camp disputes this. In statement sent via email this week, Godden wrote, "The numbers presented are totally inaccurate. As a Councilmember, I arrive early, work late and attend all committee meetings that I chair. The analysis is skewed as it includes meetings that didn’t occur and is therefore simply bogus. Budget and Finance and Budget meetings are routinely canceled. For example, in 2010, several Finance and Budget meetings were canceled as Council awaited the new administration to get up and running."

She's right to point out that Budget and Finance and Budget meetings are routinely canceled. They are. But committee meeting cancellations are all listed on City Council's public calendar, and I didn't count any canceled meetings.

Additionally, this data is relative. Meaning that if Godden's numbers are slightly off, other council members' numbers may also be skewed, and we can still infer a disparity between the two. And even throwing out Godden's disputed Finance and Budget committee numbers for shits and giggles, she's still missing 10 percent of her total meetings. Only Burgess misses (slightly) more.

Godden and Burgess are outliers in terms of the number of meetings they miss. Godden's performance could be attributed to the fact that she serves as chair of two committees, while her colleagues are tasked with only one each, but a quick breakdown of the council members’ committee membership says otherwise. Generally, each serves on six committees—one they chair and five they attend as members. (Rasmussen attends five.) For example, Sally Clark is the chair of the Committee on the Built Environment, and she attends meetings for committees devoted to the Budget, Housing, Human Services, Health, and Culture, Public Safety and Education, SR 520, and the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall.

As for Godden, who chairs the Budget and Finance and Budget Committees, and attends Regional Development and Sustainability, SR 520, Transportation, and the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall, it turns out that she’s on the same number of committees as everyone else.

Burgess, on the other hand, may indeed be oversubscribed—in 2010, he was at least signed up to attend the most meetings: 167. He made it to 143 of those meetings. Only Sally Clark attended more meetings—144. Harrell attended 136, Godden attended 129, and Rasmussen attended 125.

Burgess's attendance record at chaired meetings was also better than his attendance elsewhere. He made it to 91 percent of his chaired meetings of the Public Safety and Education committee.

How did everybody else do?

In 2010, Sally Clark, who chairs only the Committee on the Built Environment, missed 8 percent (13) of 157 total meetings. She missed none of her 36 chaired meetings and 11 percent (8) of her 74 other committee meetings.

Tom Rasmussen, chair of the Transportation Committee, missed 7 percent (10) of 135 total meetings. He missed 17 percent (3) of his 18 chaired meetings, and 6 percent (4) of his 69 other committee meetings.

And Bruce Harrell, who chairs Energy, Technology, and Civil Rights, missed 1 percent (2) of 138 total meetings. He missed none of his 11 chaired meetings, and 3 percent (2) of his 79 other committee meetings.

In each of these cases, council members tended to show up to their chaired meetings more often than their other committee meetings. Godden is the lone exception—her attendance skewed better for the committees she doesn't chair. She missed 20 percent of her chaired meetings, which stands out in comparison with the other council members, who missed between zero and 16 percent of those meetings.

While Godden and Burgess had the lowest attendance records of the bunch, they both missed only 4 percent (2) of the full council’s 48 meetings, according to public records. Only Harrell's record was better. He missed none of them. By contrast, Clark missed 10 percent, and Rasmussen missed 6 percent.

Methodology: This information comes from the Stranger's public records request, which provided personal agendas of city council members through 2010. The calendars, work schedules prepared by council member staffers, come with a few caveats: They don't account for any last-minute changes council members might make after they're printed, and they don't include things like smoke breaks or Jersey Shore marathons or Sudoku hour or any unforeseen three-day benders.

What they do provide is a relatively comprehensive, readily archived record of a council member’s daily committee and meeting attendance. And given that the schedules are available to the public through the city clerk’s office, they also constitute what is likely the most accessible record of how City Council members are actually spending their time in office.

I did not include data from committees that only met once or not at all during the course of the year. Weirdly, there are a few—if anyone wants to look into why the Labor Policy or Law and Risk Management committees meet so sporadically, be my guest—but given that my research was focused on how many meetings council members actually show up for, well, it made sense to look at the committees that require them to actually show up.

For all you wonky nerds, here's the raw data I used, organized by council member. Bold text signifies data I've referred to.

Burgess:

Total full-council meetings in 2010: 48
Full council meetings he missed: 2
Percentage of council meetings he missed: 4
Total committee meetings he chairs: 22
Total committee meetings he chairs that he missed: 2
Percentage of committee meetings he chairs missed: 9
Total committee meetings he is a member of: 97
Total committee meetings he is a member of that he missed: 20
Percentage of committee meetings he is a member of that he missed: 20
Total meetings signed up for in 2010: 167
Total meetings signed up for in 2010 that he missed: 24
Total meetings attended in 2010: 143
Percentage of meetings signed up for in 2010 that he missed: 14

Clark:

Total full-council meetings in 2010: 48
Full council meetings she missed: 5
Percentage of council meetings she missed: 10
Total committee meetings she chairs: 35
Total committee meetings she chairs that she missed: 0
Percentage of committee meetings she chairs missed: 0
Total committee meetings she is a member of: 74
Total committee meetings she is a member of that she missed: 8
Percentage of committee meetings she is a member of that she missed: 11
Total meetings signed up for in 2010: 157
Total meetings signed up for in 2010 that she missed: 13
Total meetings attended in 2010: 144
Percentage of meetings signed up for in 2010 that she missed: 8

Rasmussen:

Total full-council meetings in 2010: 48
Full council meetings he missed: 3
Percentage of council meetings he missed: 6
Total committee meetings he chairs: 18
Total committee meetings he chairs that he missed: 3
Percentage of committee meetings he chairs missed: 16
Total committee meetings he is a member of: 69
Total committee meetings he is a member of that he missed: 4
Percentage of committee meetings he is a member of that he missed: 6
Total meetings signed up for in 2010: 135
Total meetings attended in 2010: 125
Total meetings signed up for in 2010 that he missed: 10
Percentage of meetings signed up for in 2010 that he missed: 7

Harrell:

Total full-council meetings in 2010: 48
Full council meetings he missed: 0
Percentage of council meetings he missed: 0
Total committee meetings he chairs: 11
Total committee meetings he chairs that he missed: 0
Percentage of committee meetings he chairs missed: 0
Total committee meetings he is a member of: 79
Total committee meetings he is a member of that he missed: 2
Percentage of committee meetings he is a member of that he missed: 3
Total meetings signed up for in 2010: 138
Total meetings signed up for in 2010 that he missed: 2
Total meetings attended in 2010: 136
Percentage of meetings signed up for in 2010 that he missed: 1

Godden:

Total full-council meetings in 2010: 48
Full council meetings she missed: 2
Percentage of council meetings she missed: 4
Total committee meetings she chairs: 45
Total committee meetings she chairs that she missed: 9
Percentage of committee meetings she chairs missed: 20
Total committee meetings she is a member of: 53
Total committee meetings she is a member of that she missed: 6
Percentage of committee meetings she is a member of that she missed: 11
Total meetings signed up for in 2010: 146
Total meetings signed up for in 2010 that she missed: 17
Total meetings attended in 2010: 129
Percentage of meetings signed up for in 2010 that she missed: 12

City Council Committees, 2010:

Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Project and Central Waterfront Planning
Budget, Chair: Jean Godden
Built Environment, Chair: Sally Clark
Educational Achievement for Seattle Schoolchildren*
Energy, Technology, and Civil Rights, Chair: Bruce Harrell
Finance and Budget, Chair: Godden
Housing, Human Services, Health, & Culture
Labor Policy*
Law & Risk Management*
Parks and Seattle Center
Public Safety and Education, Chair: Tim Burgess
Regional Development & Sustainability
Seattle Public Utilities and Neighborhoods
SR-520 - Special Committee
Transportation, Chair: Tom Rasmussen

*These committees either held no meetings or met only once in 2010.