Constant Absence

Fly fears that District 1 Councilman Pete Constant's seat in council chambers has been growing cold quite a bit lately. In fact, for the past three years, Constant has had the lowest attendance record on the San Jose City Council. That's despite the fact that one of his colleagues, Nora Campos, went through a pregnancy and had a baby boy, and another, Judy Chirco, has been battling cancer.. By Fly's count, the District 1 councilman has missed 33 council meetings since 2007. Chirco of District 9, who is currently going through rounds of chemotherapy, has missed 31 meetings over the last three years, while District 5's Campos has missed 22 meetings. Councilmember Nancy Pyle, for her part, had perfect attendance for 2007 and 2008, though she has missed two so far this year. Constant missed a big chunk of meetings in late August and early September due to neck surgery, but was feeling dandy enough to fly down to Texas for a conference on Nov. 10. On Sept. 15 he skipped the daytime council sessions because he was attending the Tech Crunch 50 Convention in San Francisco. All of these absences have been officially excused, by the way. Fly understands the torture of a bad back, but it seems that the councilmember's lumbar would suffer more strain from hours sitting in first class, rather than a little more time parked in that big cushy council chair every week.

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