By Alderman William Roche

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

I am not sure what the intent was of printing the breakdown of the Board of Alderman’s (BOA) attendance at Committee meetings without any type of analysis, explanation or clarification. I believe it did a disservice to your  readers  and an injustice to all members of the BOA, especially me with the sub-headline “Alderman Roche attends fewest meetings.” It truly misrepresents our attendance, especially mine since I had a 100% attendance record for assigned Committee Meetings. With this in mind I would like to try to straighten out reader confusion trying to understand this breakdown.

As a stand-alone chart with no explanation it gave the impression that members of the BOA are remiss in attending Committee Meetings. The breakdown showed a total of 145 meetings scheduled and the number of meetings attended by each member of the BOA.  Without details it represents that the member that attended the highest number of meetings only attended 61 percent of the meetings, and that I had only attended 37 percent of the meetings scheduled. Keep in mind, members of the BOA are only expected to attend committee meetings of which they are an assigned member. Your breakdown without analysis  is like a school teacher taking attendance in classes for students that did not sign up for them!

In total there are 18 Committees of the BOA and three Commissions in which a member could be assigned.   In 2010 each member of the BOA was assigned to be a member of anywhere from three to seven Committees and Commissions depending on the preference of the Board President. I was one of four alderman that was assigned to seven Committees/Commissions,  all other Aldermen were assigned to six or less. In addition each member was assigned one to five Committees and Commissions to be Chair or co-Chair, I was the only Alderman assigned as Chair or Co-Chair to five different Committees and Commissions.

Committees have different levels of significance and some such as Legislative Matters, Finance, and License and Permits meet more much often than other committees. Members of Committee’s at times will have conflicts with other constituent commitments and may find it difficult to attend all assigned committee meetings (more detail to follow – second paragraph below). All committee’s in my opinion have the same level of importance in providing service to the residence of the City of Somerville.

Had your breakdown identified the number of assigned committee meetings attended it would have shown that on average members attended 80 percent of the committees assigned to him/her, and that I was the only Alderman to have attended 100 percent of the assigned committee meetings scheduled.  Completely contradictory to your sub-headline “Alderman Roche attends fewest meetings.”

Due to the number of other meetings Aldermen need to attend, such as, but not limited to Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Traffic Commission, Liquor Commission, Meetings with various department heads, and Neighborhood & Community Meetings, conflicts with BOA committee meetings occur, therefore, 80 percent is a remarkable number of assigned committee meetings for an Alderman to attend.

Also had your breakdown had clarification it would have identified that in addition to assigned Committee Meetings, Aldermen often attend other Committee meetings that they are not a member of but may have an interest in attending due to a certain agenda item. Members of the BOA on average attended 63 percent of committee meetings they are not a member of. I attended the highest number of committee meetings that I was not a member of attending at least one meeting at ten out of eleven committee meetings (91 percent)  for a total of an additional 37 committee meetings attended above and beyond my 100 percent participation to my assigned committees. In total I attended sixteen out of seventeen different committee meetings that scheduled a meeting during 2010.

Your misleading sub-headline gave the perception that I was negligent in meeting attendance.  Instead the following is factual:

• ·I attended 100 percent of assigned committee meetings
• ·I was one of four Alderman assigned to the highest amount of BOA Committees/Commissions (7)
• ·I was the only Alderman assigned as Chair or Co-Chair to five different Committees/Commissions
• ·I was the only Alderman to attend sixteen out of seventeen different committee meetings that scheduled a meeting during 2010

So knowing this perhaps your sub-headline “Alderman Roche attends fewest meetings” should have been replaced with “Alderman Roche attends 100 percent of assigned Committee Meetings” or “Alderman Roche attends highest number of non-assigned Committee Meetings” or  “Alderman Roche most diverse Alderman in meeting attendance being present at sixteen different committee meetings” or “Despite hectic schedule Aldermen still manage to attend on average 80% of assigned Committee Meetings.”

Bill Roche

Ward 1 Alderman