Sunday, October 17, 2010

Worst Attendance Record: EASD School Board Member, Pat Vulcano, Jr. 43%

EASD School Board Member, Pat Vulcano, Jr.

Posted by: Noel Jones


Colin McEvoy of The Express Times reports that Easton Area School Board member, and former Board President, Pat Vulcano, Jr., has the worst attendance record of any member of any board in all of
Northampton and Warren Counties, having made only 10 of 23 meetings.


Mayor Panto tops the list with the best attendance at 100% of 32 meetings Easton City Council meetings.


Here is the complete list of all attendance rates.


In McEvoy's article, Vulcano claims that surgery caused him to miss three straight months of meetings, and yet residents on this blog who are members of the Easton Democratic Committee saw him attending Democratic Committee meetings and Democratic fundraising picnics during the same three months that he was absent from his school board post.


Readers might also remember, that when the EASD recently tried to violate PA Sunshine Laws by shutting out public comment during workshop meetings, Pat Vulcano was one of the most outspoken supporters of the violation, claiming that meetings were getting too long, and that board members had lives, and wanted to go home to them (as if concerned residents didn't also have lives that they would like go home to, rather than sitting through a school board meeting for hours and as if he didn't run for office and get elected to do just that). Ironically, the longest meetings of the season were the ones he missed, in which the parameters of a school district budget in crisis, and well as the fate of 72 teachers and 12 other staff were determined earlier this year.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pat's health it is undserstandable to miss a few meetings but 43% and then show up at a political; meeting -- that's downright nonsense.

Pat. when other elected officials are away they call in. With the meetings on the web you could have attended alot of these sessions and you ncould have the IT department have you completely connected through skype. Thius is a disgrace.

As fopr the other local officials -- city council got a good rating but where are they at the Tuesday night workshop sessions. Why not look at these sessions as well.

Thank you mayor. Again I was one of the few that didn't vote for you but damn, you are proving me wrong everyday.

Anonymous said...

I am less concerned about the meetings than I am about the article in todays paper.
THEY ARE AT IT AGAIN !
2 MILLION FOR THE POOL!
ANOTHER NEW SCHOOL!
NO! NO!
11 MILLION in total
They didn't get the message last year.
sure go head and fix the roof no argument there.

noel jones said...

Anon 6:04--I think city council discontinued it's Tuesday workshop meetings earlier this year...I hope that this means that the council is taking full opportunity at every one of their regular city council meetings to listen intently to citizen input and hold discussion amongst council before voting on anything. I have been remiss and have missed many city council meetings this year--that will change soon--I have been more focused on the school board this year, but I think a shift back to city council is due...however the school board meetings are still clearly very important with all the shenanigans that have been going on, so I will make an effort to check in at each from time to time...

noel jones said...

Anon 6:50--I didn't see that article yet, but I hope that you will attend the next school board meeting to make your voice heard with other residents that have been attending--you will be in good company!

Anonymous said...

As I recall the new format Council was supposed to meet as a committe of the whole to discuss issues in all comittees as a group. Now some of themn get two more nights a month to do nothing. Three were at the meeting on Tuesday - Brown, Ruggles and Panto. I find it funny to have the compensdation committee say they work 20 - 25 hours a week. LOL

Anonymous said...

I work in City Hall and find that amazing. There is no waqy that I see any council member working that many hours a week other than Ruggles. I know they say they attend all kinds of meetings but that isn't true either. Our Mayor works about 80 hours or more a week and Ruggles maybe 15 - 20 but I rarely see any in city hall or out in the community. I just find it amazing, that's all. They are all good people but let's get real. They are just trying to justify their dsalary and benefiots

Dennis R. Lieb said...

As a Planning Commission member it is common to have members, who can not attend in person, to phone in and participate electronicly. There have also been multiple occassions this year when we've been asked by the Planning Office to add extra meetings to the agenda to keep bottlenecks from occuring in the project approval process. I've never heard of a member complaining about meeting length or any other duty we have to perform. We are unpaid appointed officials who take the notion of what gets built in Easton seriously.

I offer this information only as a comparison to the referenced story.

DRL