A regional councillor says he purposefully didn’t attend some of York regional meetings in 2019 to help a new alternate regional member in Richmond Hill learn the ropes.

Richmond Hill Regional Coun. Carmine Perrelli missed almost half the regional council meetings last year, according to records compiled from the region’s official website york.ca.

The records show Perrelli attended seven out of 12 meetings at the regional level last year, with an attendance rate of 58 per cent, significantly lower than his two peers in the city.

Mayor Dave Barrow attended all 12 council meetings, while Regional Councillor Joe DiPaola missed one.

Richmond Hill Council Accountability Group (CAG) posted the regional council meeting attendance records at the end of 2019 — it has been verified by The Liberal newspaper — which have since generated great public interest.

A number of residents raised questions over Perrelli’s low attendance rate in response to the post “Who earned their York Regional Council salaries in 2019?”

Perrelli told The Liberal that he was absent for a “simple” reason, which was to give Greg Beros, regional alternate councillor, sufficient opportunities to attend the regional councillor meetings.

“To me, it makes no sense to send someone once a year or every two years and expect them to make a meaningful contribution or to adequately represent the interests of Richmond Hill,” Perrelli wrote in an email.

Beros was appointed as regional alternate councillor earlier in 2019 and is designated to attend regional council meetings in the absence of the regional councillors or the mayor.

In fact, Beros attended three council meetings last year at the regional level, two of them in the absence of Perrelli and one of them acting in place of DiPaola.

On May 16, June 20, and Oct. 17, both Perrelli and Beros were absent at council meetings at the regional level.

Explaining his absence, Beros noted that he could not attend those three meetings in place of Perrelli because the regional councillor “has become sick” and did not have sufficient time to authorize his attendance.

In order for an alternate regional councillor to participate in a regional council meeting, the non-attending member is required to give the clerk’s department 24 hours’ notice, he added.

Richmond Hill, King and Whitchurch-Stouffville are the three municipalities in York Region that have appointed an alternate member for the regional council.

While the alternate members are not paid for this role, regional councillors and mayors earn a big chunk of their annual income by representing their residents at the regional level.

To be specific, Perrelli and other regional council members are currently each paid a total of $57,923 a year for serving on the regional council, according to York Region spokesperson Patrick Casey.

Most of council’s work is done through the committee of the whole meetings, where the 21 members get public input, review policies and consider staff reports before they meet at council meetings.

Records show Perrelli also had the lowest attendance rate at the committee of the whole meetings in 2019 in comparison with Barrow and DiPaola.

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A total of 18 committee of the whole meetings took place at the regional level last year where Barrow missed three and DiPaola missed one.

Perrelli was absent at seven of these meetings where topics such as housing and homelessness plan, operation of Rapidways in Richmond Hill, and 2020-22 budget were on the regional agenda.

A regional alternate member is not authorized to participate in regional committee of the whole meetings, Beros wrote.

SW Sheila Wang is a municipal politics and general assignment reporter for YorkRegion.com and its sister papers. Reach her via email: swang@metroland.com

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