North Tonawanda Council holds appointees accountable

New policy institutes strict attendance policy

Tuesday night, North Tonawanda Common Council members took aim at a controversial agenda item over the last month and passed a resolution creating a strict attendance policy for appointed members who sit on city boards.

"This policy is great. It takes significant steps at curtailing attendance issues from appointed members," said Council President Eric Zadzilka. "We amended this policy because the previous one didn't go far enough in putting value in attendance." 

The resolution, unanimously approved Tuesday, now states any member appointed to a city-wide board, such as planning or zoning, who misses three consecutive meetings or six total in a calendar year, can now have their membership be subject to re-evaluation by the mayor.

A related measure was presented at previous meetings by Alderman-at-Large Austin Tylec, but failed to reach a final vote due to procedural and clarification issues. Zadzilka went on to publicly thank Tylec and other Common Council members for having the resolve to bring this forward and agreeing to stronger language in the policy.

"We need more collaboration in city government and this is a prime example of us working together," said Zadzilka. "It's important that we have accountability to our residents and community businesses, which starts with having the proper attendance on our eight boards that make recommendations to the council."

While the previous version does not have an attendance provision, it did stipulate that a member can only receive compensation if they are present. The version passed by the Common Council continues that principle and now aims to value contributions through attendance, as well.