Geneva considers idea for aldermen

Geneva Alderman Robert Piper Monday night suggested the city council could set an example for the city's appointed boards and commissions by foregoing pay for missed city council and committee of the whole meetings.

His suggestion came after a discussion of whether city council members should be able to attend city council meetings via telephone. It was brought up at the request of an appointed city committee that has canceled three meetings in recent months because not enough members attended to constitute a quorum.

Service on city boards and commissions is unpaid. Piper said that while the council has the ability to remove people from a committee because of nonattendance, there is no such provision for city council members. He suggested the pay move as an alternative.

Aldermen receive $150 per regular council meeting, or $3,600 per year. They get that whether they attend or not.

The council meets twice a month. It also meets twice a month as a committee of the whole, but aldermen are not paid for those meetings. From January through July 7, there were 12 regular meetings. Five aldermen missed two meetings, two aldermen missed one meeting and two aldermen missed none. The mayor, who is not paid by the meeting, missed two.

For committee of the whole meetings, where items are usually first discussed, there were 16 meetings through July 28, including one special one right before a regular city council meeting.

One alderman missed four, two aldermen missed three, two aldermen missed two, and three missed three. The other two missed none, and the mayor missed one.

The tally is from official minutes displayed on the city's Web site. August and September minutes are not posted yet.